It’s a question that most of us are hard pressed to answer…I mean truly answer with a deep understanding of your genealogy and our family histories beyond perhaps one generation. What’s troubling to me about this, and I think a real failure of me and in a grander picture what troubles generations today is only our vague accounts about the history of family lines. My father is aboriginal and my mother white…the later not particularly helpful, and only unconfirmed references to Irish and German descent. It’s even a little more troubling on my father’s side because his history is a little better known and marred by events like the generational impacts of ‘residential schools’…and narrative glimpses from aunties and cousins of my father growing up during an unfathomable time of oppression, racism and assimilation of Indian people…and just uncomfortable enough that such things are never spoken of by my father. As a father now though, I am compelled to know my origins and know them beyond just my parents…I want to know our history because I believe there is much to learn from it, and I also believe that we owe some honor and recognition to their journeys too…their memories should not fade so deliberately. I think it brings context to ‘here and now’, and the opportunity for better understanding of the forces and impacts directing my own life’s journey…to reveal my origins in the light of my ancestors origins and the incredible journeys they lived…to be able to tell our epic stories to my own children and grandchildren.
My father as a child.
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Lawrence Lewis
“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” – Alex Haley
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂