It was a life of fairness

It was a life of prejudice

I have a life ahead of me

I had a life in the past

A chipped glass was mended and refitted back to the glass with glue

Even if it may have been externally fixed

It will never be internally the same again

From guns to spears

The Canadian government has reconciled our past exiles

But that has only brought us now to unify and testify against assimilation

They have restricted the reserves, like how they have restricted our rights

We need to fight for our rights

And go against the idea of us being a savage who ravages

A 14-year-old boy

Zoomed away from the residential school

Crackling from 7 roaring fire matches

Click-clack and clang with his footsteps on the railway track

Growls from his stomach as he continued

But 36 hours later and only the sound of a howl from the wind and a deafening silence

Nevertheless we all should grasp Chanie Wenjack’s story as ours

Who fought for what he wanted

Even if he may not have had a happy ending to his story

Most were angry at us

And those who weren’t were afraid of us

Thought of us as monsters that hid in their closets

But to kill the Indian in the child is the same as abolishing the whole child