Colonialism has motherhood/parenting all wrong.
No, our babies will not sleep alone as they have been sleeping beside us, on us, and between us, for generations before the colonizer told us what was “right.”
No, our babies will not “cry it out,” as they are designed to cry in order to get their needs met through us. It is scientifically proven that “crying it out” causes all kinds of trauma on the brain, and thus snowballs into long term emotional impacts. They will nurse, be held, hear our traditional songs and lullabies, and be placed in our swings for comfort, even if it is 10 times a night, so they know we are here and we love them fully.
No, our children will not stop nursing just because colonialism deems it as “inappropriate” anytime it is over the age of one. Because aunties and mothers (and even kokums) have been co-nursing our babies longer than colonialism has even existed. And it’s more than just food. It’s comfort, it’s connection, it’s safety. It’s love.
No, our babies will not be forced to grow up in order to cater to, and serve, capitalistic and colonial standards and environments in ways such as “sleeping through the night.” I’ll be up 10 times a night and show up the next day to get the work done. Until we are both ready to wean.
No, our babies will not have to endure tough outcomes in their lives based on our behaviours as adults- for how we treat others as adults, plants, animals and human, will fall back on our children, and our children’s children, and our children’s children’s children. We will treat one another with that deep love.
No, our babies will not be forced to suffer being away from kinships for long periods of time for the purpose of capitalism and colonial ideas of “success” for an adult. If babies are present in classrooms, boardrooms, and work spaces, nursing and playing just to get that connecting time, that is indigenous kinship.
No, our babies will not be shamed, judged, or criticized for feeling emotions, because we are undoing what those priests and those nuns have taught us about our relationship to our emotions. All emotions are allowed in our homes, and in public spaces.
And no, our babies will never cater to the colonizer, their systems, or their standards of what a “good child” is.
Colonialism has motherhood/parenting all wrong.
Because our babies will grow up firm in their kinships and strong in who they are and where they come from.
Based on raising them as best as we can with the teachings, morals, and principles, of our nations and teachings.
And based on raising them in a way that works for us.
Because this is indigenous parenthood.
And it is a force to be reckoned with.
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
stormborns
snowghoul
pixelskylines
dailybridgerton
