Family Life Resources•Newsletter
| NYM
Ministries
Family Life Resources•Newsletter |
| Subscribe to receive Today's Native Father with all its features FREE, | Articles Index | Read current issue of TNF | |
|
PRODUCT/RESOURCES INDEX |
This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #100, November/December, 1998. Related articles
from this issue: |
A MOTHER REMEMBERS CHRISTMAS IN THE
NORTH A letter to mothers by Rhoda Kakegamic |
|
H Christmas was not a happy time for me as a child. As many other Native children, I spent my childhood years in a residential school. For ten months of the year we lived and went to school there. In my family of nine children, five of us went to school and four stayed home with Mom and Dad. My wish was to finally be at my own home for Christmas. Each year the child in me longed to be with my own family. One year it came true! The word was out—we would be allowed to go home for Christmas. The excitement we felt was hard to put into words. For the first time in many years we landed in an airplane at home when the trees were covered in white. We had always seen them in summer. The land was covered with a soft blanket of white snow. Smoke was curling out of the houses. The snow made a nice crunching sound when we stepped out of the plane. We rode home on my dad's old Polaris, one of the first snow machines on the reserve. Our house was not fancy. We used to call it an airplane. It had started out as one room. Whenever Dad was able to, he added another room to it. Finally it looked like an airplane with a nose, a tail and two wings sticking out the sides. But it was our home. Mom went to get a tree from the woods. It was not the biggest, best-proportioned tree. But it was ours, and we decorated it with what we had. There were no fancy Christmas lights or glittery balls. It was decorated with love. We could not afford many presents, but we each got something. The holiday in our community is not complete without feasts. Most families have their own day when they set out a banquet. All are invited. When you finish at one home, you go on to the next. As the years went by and we were able to come home every Christmas, Dad gave his feast on December 26, my sister's birthday. To this day my family has a big feast where everyone helps to cook and celebrate. Now I celebrate Christmas with my husband and three children. As a child I missed my family. I also missed the real meaning of Christmas. For many years I didn't know that the Christ Child was the reason for the holiday. When we have Christ in our lives, He completes the family. This Christmas may Jesus, God's Own Son, be in your life. May you know the love that comes from Him. May you show that love to your family, your loved ones and to people who do not know love. A blessed Christmas to you and yours, Rhoda Rhoda Kakegamic lives in Sioux Lookout, Ontario |
|
