After six years

So goes the title in this Guardian article: Spain expresses regret over ‘injustice’ suffered by Mexico’s Indigenous people during conquest with the opening paragraph being:

Spain has acknowledged and expressed regret over the “pain and injustice” suffered by the Indigenous people of Mexico during its conquest of the Americas, heralding a shift in tone after six years of diplomatic spats over the abuses of the colonial period.

After SIX years…

We don’t have the exact date but in 2017 I wrote A few years ago we went up to Colon (Columbus) square, Madrid, to pray the day before the so-called Columbus Day… maybe it was in 2015 and Gayle had painted a protest piece of art proclaiming (with a question mark) whether this was really ‘indigenous peoples’ day’ rather than ‘Columbus day’. We hid the painting amidst fairly strict security in a tree beneath where a huge Spanish flag was raised. I am sure later that day the painting would have been removed as the site was secured for the national display the next day. A few years later our friends from Calpe were in Mexico and carried a repentant spirit for the historic abuse on the land.

Two ways of looking at the outcome of ‘after six years of diplomatic spats’. A one to one connection – ‘we’ did this and look what happened; or coincidence as it would have happened anyway. And probably the reality is somewhere in between. Certainly the ‘we’ did this has to be significantly softened. When we think we are the only ‘we’ we will miss it totally, but I do carry a conviction that the body of Christ carries a responsibility to help clear ground so that genuinely ‘good works’ can be done by whoever stands in that place of implementing a shift. Here is a sweet statement from one of Sanchez’ cabinet:

It’s a very human history and, like every human history, it’s had its light and its shadows,” he said. “And there has also been pain – pain and injustice towards the Indigenous people to whom this exhibition is dedicated. There was injustice and it’s right to recognise that today and to be sorry for that, because it is also part of our shared history, and we can neither deny nor forget it.

I set up a WhatsApp group a while back entitled ‘not many smart’ as I m convinced that none of us are that smart. And certainly that is something that will accompany us as we travel (hopefully this week) to Sicily. We, excellent representatives of being qualified to belong to all ‘not many smart’ groups, will probably do something from time to time that will appear so limited, small and meaningless… and I hope over the next six months a stack of other people do the same. There will be no straight lines for any of us such as ‘we did / prayed this and look what took place’; some of it might be absolutely meaningless, but maybe between us all we might just be able to read in a few years’ time that something has changed. I am encouraged to continue to give it a clueless go. Hope you are too.