TWJMJ
Aug.20, 2019
We knew Darlene Clarke as a young camper who came with her sister April. The priest realised that she had not been baptised when she lined up for confession. He did not want to baptise her without her mother’s permission. Darlene often was frightened probably with good reason. Yet when she had an unattended infected foot she submitted with courage as I cleaned out the pus and bandaged it. She said to one of the senior campers. “ I only cried when Mrs. Caswell squeezed the pus from my foot.”
Miss Bella Clarke , her mother was involved in a terrible vehicle accident at the corner of Deschambeault Lake , Sask.. Bella was badly burned particularly on her face. She did survive for a few weeks. Her grandfather Thomas had passed away. Sometime later her grandmother Annie had died . Both are buried in the La Ronge Cemetery Darlene didn’t quite have a permanent home. She became pregnant. That baby in her womb was the only family she had. She desperately wanted that baby.
Darlene was yanked and shoved into a medical taxi , a taxi that takes people where it is ordered to go. There is no expertise or therapy involved. The taxi was ordered to
go to deliver Darlene to Vic Hospital for an abortion. She cried all the way. On going home after the abortion she cried all the way. Soon she killed herself.
Nobody bothered to intervene, to tell the driver to stop and let her go to a safe place. Perhaps the other passengers have been told that you can’t interject. You can’t protest or perhaps you will be denied medical care and medical taxis. I do not know what was said or not said. I do know that northerners are taught to submit or you will be punished one way or another.
While travelling in the Prince Albert, La Ronge area I encountered several occasions when elders would come up to us and say “ Darlene was my grandaughter. Now we all know that natives have only four grandparents like everybody , not fifteen but people months later wanted to tell us” We took this personally, this hurt and is still hurting . We don’t want it to happen again.
I was telling this to a couple home in Prince Albert, a Catholic home. The woman, a long time nurse said “ That is exactly the opposite of what we are told. We are told that abortion doesn’t bother natives. It is only pro- lifers who interfere and bother them. These two did not believe this but nobody in a lifetime career of nursing bothered to explain that natives hurt and hurt intensely. The more they hurt the more silent they are until it is safe to speak.
We are honoured to have a reputation of knowing that natives see us as people who see them with feelings and moral convictions. Of course their priests and nuns who cared and taught them knew they were people with hearts, loyalties and deep hurts but now that crowd is tripping all over themselves apologising for the Gospel.
If we had known of the situation we would have done what was necessary to find Darlene and take her home so she and the baby could be safe as long as they needed us. But there is no network to help and rescue these girls. Once Darlene and baby were safe there would be lots of relatives and friends of the family who would want to get involved...maybe more than we would prefer but that is a happy problem.
In the meantime we say," THERE IS NO CHOICE "TO THE ALLEGED PRO - CHOICERS IN THE NORTH. Gay
