Tarki L. Heath
While life there was filled with the benefits that come with living in the country, we were now apart from extended family.
Whether we were living in Syracuse or the farm, my childhood was filled with a culturally diverse series of caretakers and caregivers. Most prominent was a kind and gentle woman from Akwesasne. Her influence on my life was great, and she taught me and my closest older sister a different way of cooking, sewing, knowing plants, and seeing the world holistically.
I was raised Catholic and went to “The Convent School” in Syracuse for first, second and third grades. Moving to the country meant changing schools, and while the public schools were a great challenge socially, academically all went well. This is when I learned about Columbus. Like all children schooled in America, I learned of his travels. The year we studied the “explorers” (sixth grade), I had a remarkable teacher. She infused these lessons with geography and helped us understand that the conquering of lands and people by Europeans was possible because of the Doctrine of Discovery. Knowing and caring deeply for an indigenous woman in my own life made these notions of conquest confusing and the dehumanizing of the original inhabitants - inconceivable.
While this knowledge did inform and change my views on European conquers, it was not until I became a teacher that I realized how unique those lessons were.
Life has taken me to various parts of the country - from Navajo and Phoenix, Arizona to Charlottesville and Williamsburg, Virginia - as I obtained degrees and worked in fields involving animal husbandry, vet technology, elementary and special education, marketing, and educational leadership. It has been a rather circuitous route back to Central New York. Although estrangement with my parents and my father’s family remained throughout my life, I have always acknowledged my Italian heritage, recalling to my two lovely children the fondness and respect that I retain for my grandparents.