Two Sights: The worlds history seen from another lens

History is different to everyone. History is stories of real people. Their struggles and triumphs, their joys and sorrows. Experiences that shaped what the world is today. Everyone has a different meaning of history. A deeper meaning behind each story, each perspective, each event. History can be good or bad, but will always leave a profound effect on an individual and for the generations to come after them.

Flowers dancing through the breeze, buffalo prancing through the sunlit spring fields, families gathered together under the radiant blue sky sharing traditions and stories to those who mean the most to them. A land so beautiful not because of the land itself but the people who made that land come to life. The people who vowed to protect that land with their own life. A land where people grew up, a land that is more than just land but a home. Never would we want our home to be taken, the place where our life began and hope where it will end.

The history of the peoples whose land is so sacred to them are like flowers, flowers that bloom during the spring but die off during the winter. The fights they fought to protect their land, their people, their traditions and culture is real history. History that comes with pain for the people who endured it, and joy for those who benefited from their pain. Joy for those who believed they discovered new treasure. Certainly they did find a treasure, but not a treasure to be taken. How do we justify the wrongdoings made to people who simply fought for their land? How do we justify the hurt caused to innocent lives? How do we justify the stripping of culture and language? We can not. History is filled with pain and hurt when it could be joy and kindness. Kindness to those who are different from us. Although this history is written in books, shown in movies, and talked about by politicians, where was the change made? The first nation, Inuit and Metis peoples of Canada, the people of Palestine, the people of apartheid South Africa, the Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, on and on and on.

History repeating the pain, the hurt,the wars, the deaths. History can be anything. It can be one man's joy and the others hurt, one mothers laughter another's cry. History is the things we do not want to repeat, the things that we want to change. To bring back the times where families can lie under the stars with those they love not worrying about being stripped of their livelihood. History can be anything, but not all history is right.

w.a