The morning of his 63rd birthday (March 26) Robin Edgar Haworth and best friend Koda will embark on a 4,100-kilometre trek along what he hopes will be pathway of healing and awareness.
Initially, the idea of the Right the Wrong walk from Penticton to Ottawa was more civic in nature -— Haworth hoping to draw attention to the missing and murdered indigenous women.
But since then the roots of those footprints he and Koda plan to leave along the way have gone much deeper.
“This trip has been evolving as we go along. It started out as a political thing and that’s the external part, but there is an internal part too which is my own issues I’m dealing with that go right back to the beginning of my own life,” said Haworth, who grew up in the Lower Mainland. “I was a product of the foster care system. I was in foster care from the age of six months until I left when I was 18.
“I stayed in that one foster care family from the age of six months until I graduated and never went back.”
Being only one of two First Nations students in a school of 1,600 took it’s toll on a youngster who had no knowledge of his background or his culture.
“I didn’t understand that (why he was different) intellectually from the beginning, but it didn’t take long to learn,” he said. “I knew I was a dirty red Indian right from age five. That’s what the little white people used to call me.
“So when I graduated I wanted to get as far away from where I was, to go to where I wanted to be so, at that time Yellowknife was the end of the road, so I took a one-way trip there where I learned about being with Indians and my culture.”
Since his return he has put emphasis on his art, especially after the birth of his daughter.
“I specifically started my career with my native art because I didn’t want her to grow up in a place where she didn’t have a connection to, or concept of what her own heritage was,” said Haworth.
On a broader scale, the Penticton man hopes more people will open their eyes to the atrocities he feels are committed everyday.
“I just want people to start looking into the dark corners where they don’t want to look on the political level, just because they’re easy to ignore,” said Haworth. “There’s many things wrong with this country and we have an election coming up and all kinds of promises, promises of new hope and promises of sharing the wealth and I’m saying to the politicians and all the people let’s start fixing the mess we’re already in instead of creating new ones.”
As word of the trek becomes more widespread including on his personal site, www.facebook.com/rightthewrong2015 where people can follow his tracks, so too has the public support.
Director/Curator of the Penticton Art Gallery Paul Crawford is doing whatever he can, including getting Haworth a cell phone and selling his posters to raise money for the trip.
Branch manager Corinne Ross of the South Okanagan-Similkameen SPCA has also pledged to provide any assistance for his dog Koda that may needed along the way.
Posters are also on sale at the Dragon’s Den for those who want to contribute to the cause.
And while Haworth is hoping the message he plans to deliver to officials in Ottawa will have an impact, more important for him than the destination will be the journey.
“I’ve been across this country many times, by train and by plane but when you look down everything is a blur, this way I will be able to see every flower and every pebble,” he said.