{"id":75508,"date":"2018-03-10T12:07:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T19:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=75508"},"modified":"2018-03-10T12:07:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T19:07:38","slug":"i-am-not-a-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/03\/10\/i-am-not-a-number\/","title":{"rendered":"I am not a number"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge\u00a0<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
The following is a poem inspired by the text \u00a0I Am Not A Number by First Nations member Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer as well as research on the horrors of life in residential schools in the rarely discussed bleak years of Canadian history.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
This is my story<\/div>\n
But I am not a number<\/div>\n
I am a human<\/div>\n
Although \u00a0they thought I was a commodity<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
They removed me from my family<\/div>\n
Took me to a residential school<\/div>\n
They called it assimilation<\/div>\n
Civilizing the savage<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I faced dreaded events<\/div>\n
Also witnessed the horror<\/div>\n
I saw clergy \u00a0who worshiped \u00a0Christ<\/div>\n
Sexually molesting my brothers and sisters<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It was cultural genocide<\/div>\n
They took away our identity<\/div>\n
If we spoke our native language<\/div>\n
We faced severe punishment<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We underwent humiliation<\/div>\n
Beatings and \u00a0piercing of tongues<\/div>\n
Isolation and \u00a0shaving of heads<\/div>\n
That took our dignity away<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So this is my story<\/div>\n
This is what they \u00a0did to us<\/div>\n
It may not be in the history books<\/div>\n
But this is what truly happened<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I am old now<\/div>\n
I am destitute and wasted<\/div>\n
I am a survivor<\/div>\n
But I am not a number<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge\u00a0 The following is a poem inspired by the text \u00a0I Am Not A Number by First Nations member Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer as well as research on the horrors of life in residential schools in the rarely discussed bleak years of Canadian history. This is my story But I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-ruwan-m-jayatunge-m-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}