Ep. 28 My take on Canada's dark history and national day of truth and reconciliation [society]

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Hello, hello and welcome to the Borealis

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experience. I'm your host Aurora, life coach and companion

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on this beautiful journey called life. I hope you're doing good.

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of this, you feel stuck, you feel lost, you feel confused,

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Don't despair, you are not alone. And with my podcast, I'm

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world because we can also meet over zoom or Skype or whatever

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is out there to connect on long distance, right. Okay, let's

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dive into today's episode. Today is September 30 2023. National

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Day of truth and reconciliation. And what I want to do today is

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just share my two cents on what I feel and think about this very

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important day. It's it's about time. It's about time that

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Canada looks at their history, and uncovers horrific truth. You

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know, I, I was born and raised in Germany, and we all know

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about Canadian history is on a superficial level. And when I

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first got to Canada, I was very, very surprised if not even

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shocked to witness that people would point at the indigenous

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community and tell me that they are a lost cause that they are

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quitters addicts, homeless people who don't, you know, can

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keep their shit together. And I just thought to myself, What?

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What is going on? Like, don't you make the connection that

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this is a reaction, a response to the trauma that has happened?

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Not too long ago. So it was really interesting for me to see

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that basically most Canadians and of course not all, but most

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Canadians were not really exposed to the history and the

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horrific events that that took place with residential schools.

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And that was very odd to me because you have to know that in

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Germany, young children, I want to say I was between 10 or 14

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years old. We were sent on field trips to concentration camps

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where they would show us videos and full on me Movies about what

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was happening throughout the Holocaust and World War Two. And

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as a young child's, I can only see how, yeah, that affected me

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on a very, very deeply level and even, you know, traumatized me.

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But it traumatized me in a way that I was now aware of my

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country's history, aware of what human beings are capable of

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doing. And as a whole, when when young kids, or people in general

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are being exposed to truth, like that, it does something to you,

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there's no way that you are unaffected by it. And what comes

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out of it for me is that you want to understand you want a

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question you want to ask so many questions, you want to have so

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much compassion and empathy, and understanding. And less othering

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is happening, I want to say, once we know and understand that

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the people who struggle with addiction, depression,

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homelessness that there is a story to it, they were not born

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that way. And I can only wish for Canada, that they will

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become so radically truthful and recognize what happened. And

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realize that this is the only way to have change happening.

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And healing happening. Right, we can keep running around and

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telling the indigenous people that they need to heal faster,

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and they need to, you know, get their shit together. We need to

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first go back to the darkness, we need to first fully

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acknowledge and grasp Canada's dark history. Before we can move

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on together as a society and heal together. There is no way

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around. There is absolutely no way around. And I'm so very

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grateful. You know, as a youngster, I complain that this

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is so much with World War Two and everything is about World

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War Two. But now I'm so endlessly grateful that my

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school system put me through that. Because I can see now when

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I travel to other countries, I want to know the full story. And

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I want to only see, you know the pretty and witty stuff that is

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shiny and glittery, and interesting and beautiful beach

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here and nice hotel there. No, I'm not interested in that. I

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want to know about the history. I want to know what those people

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went through in order to be where they are today. And when

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it comes to Canada I want to say as a whole there is I don't know

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how to say this without offending anybody. But there is

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this superficiality when it comes to connections. When it

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comes to conversations when it comes to talking about history

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and darkness when it comes to embracing shame and guilt as a

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whole. There's this toxic positivity and toxic beauty I

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want to say right that beauty of fake lashes and lip face lifting

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and Botox and vitamin cures. But underneath the struggle

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underneath and the darkness that every single person is carrying

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in their soul and their heart is not being allowed to be

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addressed openly. So a lot of people struggle with feeling

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depressed and lonely and isolated and repressed and

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misunderstood, because as a society, it is not being

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normalized, to not be okay. Right? When you look at

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countries like Italy, Portugal and Spain, where it's very

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passionate countries with a lot of screaming and we're

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flowerpots are being thrown off the balconies, and anger is

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being expressed in our, you know, healthy way I want to say.

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And sadness is being expressed grief is being processed. And

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here in North America, I feel Yeah, we acknowledge the anger,

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but we suppress it right away, we acknowledged sadness and

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grief, but we distract ourselves right away. And we don't give

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room for these intense feelings that are a natural part of human

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being a human being. So I don't want to say that I I've found

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the solution to alleviating suffering and human beings and

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how to make North America a better place. But I'm just so so

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hopeful that now that all this dark history about Canada comes

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up, that we can actually start the healing process. Everything

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that happened before was just living in denial of it and

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wondering why some people struggle more than others, and

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pointing the finger at symptoms instead of addressing the root

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cause. And I feel the root cause is not acknowledging what has

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happened in the past. So hashtag orange shirt day, hashtag,

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National Day of truth and reconciliation, hashtag

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indigenous lives matter. Hashtag community love and support. And,

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yeah, hopefully, hopefully, I can be just, you know, have

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little support or big support to this movement to this change

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that's coming up. Because yeah, I still feel like an immigrant

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and I, I wouldn't want to put myself in a position where

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people think, Oh, she knows how to heal us and how to go about

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it. I want. I want to be told what I can do to help. And I

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want to ask questions, and I want to be proactive about it

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and not just passive. But, yeah, I want to be humble and curious.

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And I want to find out more and if you happen to be doing stuff

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already. That is helping this movement. If you are engaged in

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any community events or support. I'd love to hear from you. I'd

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love to hear your thoughts. And yeah, I'm excited for what's to

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come, even though it might get messy, but it's for the better.

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Alright, take really good care of yourself. And I'll be out

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there very soon.