Looking Back to Palestine From a Metis Family Perspective

"There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." ~ Moshe Dayan

"The issue [Israeli-Palestinian conflict], already lasting more than half a century, has brought deep suffering to the Palestinian people and remains an important reason of extended turbulence in the Middle East region." ~ Xi Jinping

"Doesn't the world see the suffering of millions of Palestinians who have been living in exile around the world or in refugee camps for the past 60 years? No state, no home, no identity, no right to work. Doesn't the world see this injustice?" ~ Ismail Haniyeh

"We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house." ~ Moshe Dayan

With no internet and of course no social media, our kitchen table was always cluttered with a newspaper and at least five books—three nonfiction, two fiction—because my parents were voracious readers.

I vividly remember, though it was so many years ago, being a curious 7-year-old in Edmonton, Canada, asking my mother, father, and Kôhkom, "Why are so many Palestinian women and children dying? Why do they throw rocks at Israeli soldiers only to be shot and killed?"

My father, a blunt and pragmatic labourer, would get frustrated. With clenched fists on the table, he’d swear and say, "They're doing to the natives in Palestine what they did to us here in North America for hundreds of years. They're trying to push them off their land through genocide!"

My mother, always calmer, would say, "DD, my little man, natives fight oppression by getting as much education as possible. That’s how we resist this kind of brutality, racism, and discrimination. That’s how we succeed. That is how we get equal rights and freedoms like everyone else, an equal chance to have a successful life with hard work."

Kôhkom, with her unshakable optimism, would make me laugh. She’d say, "DD, our ancestors fought the Canadian government in the 1800s, even when they borrowed the Gatling gun from the Americans to use against us Métis and Cree in Saskatchewan. They hoped to wipe us out, but we’re like weeds—we grow back stronger and blossom into beautiful flowers that create this world."