Article 10 – Sorrow for Our Future Generations

Nateshia Constant-Personius

My dear future generations
I look out my window and I see long deliberations
Extra buildings that took concentration

I am sorry you have to deal with our stupidity and ambitions.
We called it progression, but it was demons on the rise.
Now, you have to live with the pollution.
And our lies.

We didn’t know what we had until the fertile land was gone.
Why did it take us so long?
I feel this obligation to tell you.
Sorry.
You will ask where are the trees?
They were used to fuel our greed.
Where is the nature that we all need?
It has disappeared indeed.
What was once an experience for the rest,
are now only questions for the next.

Progression is fierce; now it has been pierced.
Stuck in the new regression, which led to a depression.
Where is our beautiful terrain?
I’m sorry that you will not be able to build and gain,
If we continue progression to feed our greed.

Author’s Bio: Nateshia Constant is a full-time third-year student of the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education Integrated Stream (BEDIS) program at University College of the North, The Pas Campus. She is majoring in Aboriginal studies and minoring in Sociology for her Bachelor of Arts degree. At the end of the academic year 2021, she will complete the Bachelor of Arts program. She plans to continue her studies for her Bachelor of Education program. Nateshia is a 28-year-old mother of two beautiful boys, ages five and eight. She was born in The Pas but raised in Opaskwayak Cree Nation. However, she prefers to say that she was brought up in The Pride Lands (Big Eddy). Nateshia is currently working towards becoming a teacher with a goal to one day become an economics or Native crafts instructor in her community.

Instructor’s Remarks: Nateshia is a perceptive writer with a gift to create an intense atmosphere in her work. She has shown knowledge and understanding of Indigenous ways of life and a special relationship with the land. Her poem connects the past, the present, and the future, and laments the destruction of nature in the wake of progress and development. (Dr. Zulfquar Hyder)