It’s a lot more nuanced than this meme, but… it certainly isn’t comfortable. Our school history curriculum steered away from the true meaning of colonialism and empire. We learned about the exploration of the Pacific and the ancient cultures found in those lands, not the atrocities committed by the explorers. The Missions. The Crusades. We learned about the American Civil War and the slave trade, almost as a concept, really, not truly understanding how our hand played a part in the devastation of native people in America and how we trafficked people from Africa. And how we built our world on their whipped and broken backs, quite literally. It is hard to teach kids about that level of almost indescribable cruelty.

A generation before me would have been taught that our colonialism was something to celebrate. Everything I sit or stand on in my house is, at some point, a result of colonialism. You’d think that having been invaded, occupied, colonised and so forth ourselves by the Romans, Vikings, Normans and more besides, that we might have thought better of carrying out ugly colonising, however the human race isn’t generally like that… and we are still trying our hand. Nature is by it’s nature (!), exploitation. But what could we be? Could we do things differently? Yes. Keep moving in the right direction, this stuff is deep, exceptionally deep, it is effectively who we are. Who we have been. And it’s very hard to hear such deep criticism of who you are. And it takes a lot, a LOT of humility to listen.

This current force for change will thankfully not diminish in my lifetime, nor will all the work be done; it’s not a task list to be ticked, it is a whole new approach to every person living, dead and yet to come. We are going to feel mixed-up, defensive, sad, insulted, guilty, pain, more pain. Let yourself feel it. It is the pain we have dealt, through the cognitive dissonance of generations. Every little, tiny, tiniest change, will become something big in this huge swell. This liberation of thought is so hugely destabilising. Give yourself a chance 🧡