Buried Bones
Stories of discoveries of children's bones are deeply unsettling, and there are too many stories. I keep what little I know tucked away in my memory. Hidden in memory, I don't have sense of their chronologies, and they all sort of tumble out when a new story is added.
At work we sell a fertilizer called "Milorganite" and we are often out of it, so I get asked about it a lot. Recently someone asked if we had any "Morganza." Morganza was the name of a notorious reform school locally, although it was never officially known as Morganza. It's been gone so long, I couldn't help but think the customer was going on tales of abuse he had heard when a youngster, of course I didn't mention that. The history of traumas pop out at odd times and ways.
The colonial legacy of Residential Schools is a very important topic. The histories of residential schools for First Nation children are clearly connected. My sense is that those histories also connect with the M.O.V.E. remains, the Dozier School, Tulam care home, St. Joseph's Orphanage and other sites of trauma. Something that connects is a language of dominance.
The Attorney Generals of twenty states tell the Education Department are opposed to critical Race Theory in schools. And lawmakers in some states are pushing to ban "1619 Project" from schools. It's a disturbing trend because it opens school districts, colleges and universities, to law suits and the threat of those is very chilling.
What is striking about these efforts is how ethically and morally certain the proponents are. Perhaps the way to counter is to speak and for that I am inadequate, better to listen. This afternoon I read Toni Morrison’s Nobel Lecture again. How she speaks about language and the generative possibilities of language is breathtaking. We must not acquiesce to the dominators’ narratives , we know it’s more complicated and nuanced than they claim. And as Morrison shows us generative language transforms and can heal deep cuts.
