I wrote a song as a representation for my Journey Towards Reconciliation, and played it on a piano and recorded it for my ECS 100 class. Throughout my time of learning and understanding more about Residential School’s and the impact they had on Indigenous people, I tried to place myself as much as I could in their shoes and think about what they had gone through. My song explains generally what happened to young children who were sent to Residential School’s, the abuse they faced from leaders who did things in the “name of God”, and my desire to be open minded and do my part to make things better.
Verse 1:
You were taken from your family, when you were oh so very young
You didn’t know the next time you might ever see your home
In the arms of strangers, you were taken to a school
Where you had no name, but just a number, and had to follow all the rules
Chorus:
I’m so sorry, that these things happened to you
I can’t imagine, all the pain you were put through
If we could turn back time, with what we know now
I’d hope that we would love
I’d hope that we would always choose to love
Verse 2:
You were taught about God, and his supposed great love
But your teachers didn’t show that through the way they lived their lives
You were beat on, you were bruised, and in many different ways abused
Please know that God never wanted that to happen to you
Chorus
Verse 3:
I know that we can’t change what happened,
But we can try to move on forward
Your culture and way of life brings so much good into this world
We welcome your ideas and opinions
To try and help us reach reconciliation
I want to do my part to make things right
Chorus