A Treaty Person's Praxis

 I don't want to fucking do this work. Like, who, in their right fucking mind, would want to fucking work for free? And it's not like work that lets you sit around soft fucking cushions all day.

Fuck no!

I get yelled at. Something goes wrong and I'm belittled for making the mistake. I get calls and messages late into the evening. I have to use my own money to buy outreach materials.

Yet, why do I stay? Why do I continue the work? Why am I working for 3 community orgs that asks so much out of me?

The same question was posed to Ocean Vuong in an interview that I recently listened to.

His answer was, "I'm all in because my life has already been bought wholesale by my Mother."

He wagers everything because, the least he can do at a dinner table where every delicacy, every piece of succulent fruit, every slice of sumptuous bread that has been paid for him, was to enjoy it all. Partake. Participate.

It's the moral thing to do.

I wished that the Philippines had a functional free democracy. I wished that Filipino mothers had plenty of work opportunities at home so that they wouldn't be separated from their children.

Mothers separated from their children.

Children separated from their mothers.

Not for mere hours. Not for days. But for years.

This is what's happening to Filipinos. I wished it wasn't like this, but it's our reality.

And, so, the work is cut out for us. I do community work so that, eventually, the Philippines can thrive, not just for those close to Empire, but for everyone.

How can I make sure I'm not profiting from the misfortune of other people. How can I not turn it into kink? Am I happy that there's a Healing Lodge that hires me? Why does a Healing Lodge even have to exist? Why the fuck is this colonizer apparatus imprisoning Indigenous women at an alarming rate? Like, where does it come off? Who the fuck does it think it is, with its impositions of alien power, control, and forms of punishment? How do I make sure I'm not replicating the same structures in my life?

As a Treaty Person, my job is to be steward. To act in such a way that, as a future ancestor, I build a world where young ones can thrive into future generations.

It's hard, but in a world where life for everyone is difficult enough, annoyance and irritation is a luxury that we can't afford. Aggression, belittling, mistrust, and all the other creative ways we mistreat each other are just too goddam expensive.

Just take it easy on each other, folks.

Be kind.