poem by Dr. Anita Heiss
'What Psyches You?'......from her book entitled "I'm not racist, but..." [Salt Publications] this poem is used at the permission of the author....." You're facinated by us,
preoccupied with us,
making money off of us...
but you're not one of us.....You're sympathetic, empathetic towards us,
you say you understand and support us...
but you're still not one of us....You may even be Indigenous to a land elsewhere,
but you are still not one of 'us'....So what psyches you to write about us?
Do you think we can't do it ourselves?
Do you think you know and write better?
Tell me what it is then that psyches you?
Because, to us you will never be authentic....You and your academic, historian, anthropological friends
who sit in ivory towers,
you will never know what it's like
to walk in our shoes.
no matter how long you research,
no matter how many interviews you do,
notes you take,
videos you make,
opinions you form.....You are the contemporary oppressor,
the inverted racist,
the ongoing, modern-day thief...
of our knowledge,
of our rights,
to tell
our own stories
our own way....How do you sleep at night?
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