Learning About Indigenous Fatherhood
When I realized that Father’s Day this year coincides with National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, my eyes drifted to a book on my shelf: When My Son Died by Kenn Pitawanakwat. I originally picked it up at Sudbury’s Northern Lights Festival in 2017, and I’ve read through it a couple times since. Even flipping through the pages stirs my heart.
I think something we can learn from ongoing movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is that fatherhood isn’t as simple as a Hallmark card or a sale at the hardware store. It is common to guys of all identities, but it is experienced in countless different ways.
The expression of fatherhood in When My Son Died has been a keystone piece of writing for me in trying to better understand the experiences of intergenerational trauma inflicted upon Indigenous lives in Canada.
“When you died, I died. Father and first borne. I wish our story to be public. I yearn to express the state of our lives after you died. This is my way of apologizing and confessing things I should have said and done over thirty-eight years. I want to tell about the love that kept us together. It’s too late. Is it? Or, not?
You are home with our families in a remarkable community. In our home, our ancestors as medicine people keep you happy and busy. As busy as the day you travelled.
‘Back to the motherland,’ you laugh.”
Often I find it helpful to ground my learning about masculinity and social justice in the context of real stories. I can’t imagine how difficult it was for Kenn Pitawanakwat to write this book. I can tell you how grateful I am that he did.
ICYMI This Week
A video about Indigenous Peoples Day by Ingleborough Public School’s Reconciliation Club (YouTube)
What's Intersectionality? Let These Scholars Explain the Theory and Its History (Time)
Men, This Simple Phrase Helped Me Go From ‘I Got This’ To ‘I Got You’ (Huffington Post)
Written by Next Gen Men Program Manager Jonathon Reed as part of Learnings & Unlearnings, a weekly newsletter reflecting on our experiences working with boys and young men. Subscribe to get Learnings & Unlearnings delivered to your email inbox.
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