Ever wonder what possesses someone to hurt another? Is it fueled by anger? Jealousy? Fear? Maybe it is all of these possibilities and more, or maybe none at all. There is always more beneath the surface. Take a moment to reflect on a time when you may have caused someone pain physically, or emotionally (or both) and ask yourself why. You may already know the reason, and if not, I realize that asking you to examine your motives may pose a risk, because it could be painful if you still need healing in those areas of your life.
At this point, you are probably wondering where I am going with this, so I should probably cut to the chase. I want to talk about oppression. I want to dig down deep and uproot the behaviour of an oppressor, bringing to light more understanding. I know this goes beyond the scope of a blog post but I am going to try anyway. There are different forms and definitions for oppression. However, no matter what lens you choose to view oppression from, it is always when, “people reduce the potential for other people to be fully human.”
When settlers claimed to discover Indigenous land, they colonized it, while oppressing the original inhabitants of the land. Oppression is a very common term nowadays with the uprise in efforts towards reconciliation (a word that has also been used more loosely), which is necessary, but I want to emphasize the true weight of this word.
There is something I want to share, something that has been lingering in my consciousness, regarding oppression. Although oppression can be fueled by all the above possibilities, as previously mentioned, as well as power and control over another, there is more to the story. Many of the Europeans that colonized Indigenous land, were running away from something. Believe it or not, many, if not all of them, were also being oppressed. In other words, the oppressed becomes the oppressor. Wow.
It was not until my friend and coworker, Meagan and I, were facilitating our Journey into Truth workshop, when I realized this simple but weighty fact from an Elder who was present at the workshop. I do not share this in order to justify and defend the wicked actions of the Europeans, but rather to bring truth to the surface. The truth simply being that hurt people, hurt people. When someone feels powerless, who is hurting, they are more likely to oppress themselves, as well as project their suppressed feelings of oppression onto another.
As someone who is non-Indigenous, I often think about how it was my own ancestors who were the colonizers and oppressors. These thoughts make it is easy to be riddled by feelings of guilt and shame, which in turn can fuel internalized oppression on the side of non-Indigenous persons as well. This is exactly why forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others is so important in the reconciliation journey between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. We all need compassion and empathy to truly understand one another and live in balance and harmony.
“No one is free when others are oppressed.”