Intermission 2 – Identify

My sister had a question posed to her once, she was asked how she managed to keep her culture in her life and work now as an adult. The answer for her is much like it is for me. We don’t. Getting educated, takes time, working, takes time. The family we had growing up has moved. People pass away or grow apart. There has been many factors to us not living with our culture anymore. Going to powwows isn’t as easy when you are studying and or working on weekends. It’s not something I realized was happening. Between working and education I didn’t make time for my own culture- or didn’t have time for it. Now its a struggle, cousins seem so far away. I cant even remember the last time I found out about a powwow that was even close to where I live. There doesn’t seem to be any. But maybe I’m just out of the loop.

I understand why people fight so hard to keep their culture alive. It is hard to integrate yourself into society, let alone have this part of you that doesn’t integrate, a part that essentially isn’t supported in this integrated part of you. I never meant for this to happen and now I’m struggling to get it back. I’m struggling to have my place in this world, where culture, life and work all come together.