Misery Is Not Normal

Misery Is Not Normal

  What? Misery is not normal? Are you fucking kidding me? "Misery" is the metaphor for "bad rez road" as in "Forty miles of bad rez roads!" Oh yah, them bad rez roads are pree bad. And a cursory look at our state of the nation, Kali Aks Gitxsan, as per indices for the Upper Skeena Local Health Area as published by BC Stats, your eyes will not believe we are like that. For 2012 we ranked the first worse off in BC. I estimate about 70% of the local health area are Gitxsan.

  But, the readings from T. E. Mails' books chronicling the teachings of Lakota Holy Man Frank Fools Crow antamahlaasxw (the telling) that "Misery is not normal!" How? What? Here's the jist: the instant that you were born, you were imbued with unconditional love by Creator. Additionally, you were gifted lasting inner peace and happiness and free will. And further, it seems that in our earth-walk, we are struck with amnesia about our birth-right of lasting inner peace and happiness. But, Fools Crow tells us that we can drive misery away through traditional teachings, ceremony and ritual.  Also, he teaches that Creator made "duality". How can we know light if there is no darkness, woman if there is no man, up if there is no down, right if there is no left, unconditional love and happiness if there is no misery ...

  So-o, what happened? Study of historic trauma and its transmission from gen to gen tells us that it has taken its toll and we haven't recovered. In Europe, the nations recovered from the Black Plague in 40 years. After 500 years, the aluugigyat still haven't recovered from the newcomers and small pox and the extinction of whole families and communities, the disruption of gwalx ye'inst, inherency, the disruption of processes and protocols, the incursion into homelands by foreigners, the dislocation, the marginalization. Yep, there is 40 miles of bad rez roads.

  But, according to Fools Crow, it's not normal. Lasting inner peace and happiness is.

  Gitxsan identity and essence is relevant and has application today in modern mainstream global Canada. Our traditional teachings, many ways of praying in our ceremonies, our traditional therapies, medicines, our signature color and rhythm, our identifier histories, our wilnataahl (maternal relatives), our wilsiiwitxw (Our paternal relatives), our world view, our sui generis ayok (laws) are relevant and have application in our lives and personal well-being. We must Sii lax nok, realign, our thinking, our base world views that simultaneously exist with high appeal mod mainstream Canada.

  Misery is NOT normal. Realign now.

Luu Nay

Sax Luu Nay

"Sax luu nay" is a Gitxsan concept I translate to mean "a sacred nothingness, a sacred silence". I am able to suspend my earth-walk for periods of time and surrender to total surround-nothingness-silence through TM, Transcendental Meditation. Around 1983, after being elected to my inaugural two year term as Chief Councillor of the Gitanmaax Indian Band, I sought to counter the anticipated heavy stress of public office. I learned the TM technique. It became my refuge along the harrowing forty mikes of bad rez-roads over thirteen years. Today, in my winter years, I find myself alone in an empty nest forcing an urgent response to an abruptly changing landscape, only for alone-self-care. My refuge: Luu nay, invoked by TMing. Thank you Creator.  nay" is a Gitxsan concept I translate to mean "a nothingness, a silence". I am able to suspend my earth-walk for periods of time and surrender to total surround-nothingness-silence through TM, Transcendental Meditation. Around 1983, after being elected to my inaugural two year term as Chief Councillor of the Gitanmaax Indian Band, I sought to counter the anticipated heavy stress of public office. I learned the TM technique. It became my refuge along the harrowing forty miles of bad rez-roads over thirteen years. Today, in my winter years, I find myself alone in an empty nest forcing an urgent response to an abruptly changing landscape, only for alone-self-care. My refuge: Luu nay, invoked by TMing. Thank you Creator. 

Trickster's Heartbreak Hotel

By Kali Skalan, Apr 28 2013

Mom and dad gave me breath.
My heart beat, life blood courses through my system
I was helpless; mom, dad and siblings nurtured me.
The trickster eyed me, mocking.
My wings sprouted early...too early? Was that the trick?
Cruel trickster.
A fledgling. Pushed into thin air before its time.
Free-fall. Down. Down. Down...from the nest.

Collision. Cold dead red brick wall.
The stink adult stranger-white-man holler-glares
"You are a burden and a liability, little Indian boy. But, we will fix that!"
The trickster fly-passes, chortles. The shiney halls amplify the mocking echo.

Bell. Line-up. Stink white men sargent-regiment us. Bell.
Do this. Do that. Do it properly. Do it again. And again.
"Yuk wildit?" Speak English, not your gibberish. Smack smack smack.
Adult bare-fist on just-kids' now-scabby heads.

Kneel down. You will learn the lord's prayer, you heathens.
Trickster wings past, mock-laughing.
Who said that? Glaring eyes on-target. Adult fists on soft head again.
You WILL learn or else.
What's that? Stop you snivelling, you lucky people!
Speak god's language. English. Don't mumble.
When will you people learn?
Trickster laughs.
Soft narrow shoulders and already injured head takes the blunt of a hockey-stick-club.
Child-flesh easily bruises;
Reluctant Submission becomes the tactic
The spirit deformed, bent but not broken.

And so it goes. 13 years behind brick walls.
Child soldiers learn to camouflage, to be silent, to be invisible, to just survive. It abruptly ends.
The trickster's mockery tail off. The long shiney halls dim.
The smells and textures linger.

They gave up. This life, bent out of shape but made it.
Heart-break hotel closes.
Trickster flies off west.
I checked out.