indigenous
are we not all?
indigenous, that is?
at some point or another
our host country has feasted itself
with our native tongue, customs
traditions – our native everything
but then, our origins’ uniqueness began to melt
into our new home’s sphere
we were in no despair
we were devoted
and quested
to make it
here
our religion began to change
as did our original language
our ways of life altered themselves
we also had much baggage
from our long-gone past
we needed to adapt fast
did i say “indigenous”?
are we not all?
© hülya n. yılmaz, December 31, 2018
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This poem will be published by Inner Child Press International in the February 2019 issue of The Year of the Poet VI.
hülyaswritings 
sadly, in most cases the indigenous peoples were willing to have dialogue with the immigrants/settlers and colonialists. Many treaties / agreements were made and all broken. Consequently the native peoples lost because of their trust. There is an African saying which i will paraphrase . . . . you came to our land with bibles and said “let us pray” . . . when we finished praying, we had the bibles and you had our land. The colonialist’s methodology was rooted in a definitive arrogance and a need for they themselves to escape the oppression of their home lands while searching for the promise perceived. They generally used their perceived superiority as spoken through religion to effectuate their agendas. Then greed took over and they wanted it all. Sad
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Agreed, and thus so sadly, they, our North American forefathers of whom I refer to as invaders, did as you suggest, basically left their lands to escape the oppression of their own, though in the process forgot to leave said oppression behind.
One can but be mindful of the invading generations of the times, whose governing religious and nationalistic influences dominated their way of life. Religion and nationalism, once implanted, in the long term more powerful and lasting than the puny lives of those who were sent to war on the welcoming indigenous peoples. They whose lands were meant to be stolen in exchange of trinkets or by deadly force. Organized on the guise, of for king and country, by the then power and wealth, as is so to this day with different names and titles, ergo in spite of recorded history nothing changes. Thus some hundreds of years later, and to this day we fiddle with our poor excuses of righting our wrongs while the rightful owners of these lands remain and are treated like second class citizens.
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These words you so justly speak will ne’er cease to be timely, until we are as one with the First Nation citizens and their total cultures. The fact that this was ever and continues to be an issue, has we the descendants of the original invaders, our forefathers, now living in shame. Yet the plight of the indigenous people goes on in a state of debate and shamefully constant delays!
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