The Hidden Treasure of New Providence

Content Warnings: Settler-Colonialism

Mum held my hand tight as we wandered into the Expansionist Era exhibit. After weeks of begging she’d finally agreed to take me to the Rhodian History Museum (on the condition that I clean my room first, which I did, for two whole hours), and it was just as amazing as I’d imagined it to be. It was really crowded though, and really loud. I stuck close to mum’s leg and allowed her to lead the way through the throng.

The walls were lined with ancient artworks and antiqued photos, their colours faded but the wonder still clearly writ on the faces of the pioneers as they beheld New Providence for the first time. A huge corner of the hall was taken up by a scale re-model of an old-style house, complete with a little living room and a tiny kitchen and an indoor garden. Locked behind plexiglass were the guns once used by my ancestors, side by side with the primitive weapons of the native Providencians. And there at the far end of the hall was the cream of the crop – the belle of the ball – the star of the show.

The Hidden Treasure of New Providence.

I could barely see it thanks to the hordes of people gawking, gathered round like ants to sugar, but already I could feel its near-mystical presence sending a shiver down my spine. I’m too big to be carried on anyone’s shoulders now, but mum lifted me up high as she could to give me a better look.

And there it was – the Hidden Treasure. A crystal, huge and glorious, shining in the spotlight and sending multicolour fractals spiralling across the faces of the chosen few lucky enough to near it. I swore I could see my own distant face reflected in its surface – no, not just my face, the faces of all Rhodians – the faces of all humanity –

Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of blue. I looked to my left and saw a Providencian – either a mother or a father, I couldn’t tell – trying to wrangle his or her little Providencian children who scuttled about underfoot, their six legs allowing them to cross the length of the room in the blink of an eye.

“Mum?” I asked.

“Yes, sweetie?” Mum replied.

“How come we have the Hidden Treasure in our museum?”

Mum set me down and turned me round to face her. She was smiling but she looked a little confused.

“What do you mean, sweetheart?”

I tugged at the hem of my shirt as I tried to figure out how to word my question.

“I mean,” I said eventually, “the Hidden Treasure isn’t really ours, cus we didn’t take it with us, we found it on New Providence when we first came here, so doesn’t that mean it belongs to the Providencians?”

Mum took a while to respond, humming and putting a finger to her lips.

“Well,” she said, “yes, we did find it on this planet. But wouldn’t saying it doesn’t belong to us be the same as saying our house doesn’t belong to us? Or our car? Or your teddy bear? Those were all made on this planet.”

“But we made them, its different,” I insisted. “We found the Hidden Treasure when we came here. We found it in that big underground room. That’s what we were taught in history last week.”

The more and more I thought about it, the more and more wrong it felt.

“We took it from that room. Isn’t that stealing? Isn’t stealing wrong?”

Mum sighed, pulling me away from the crowd to a more open area. Then she crouched down to my level and put a hand on my shoulder.

“In a way, you’re right,” she said. “It was stealing, and there are a lot of people today who agree that it was wrong. But it was a different time back then. We didn’t know the things we know now.”

What she said made sense when I thought about it. Because yeah, 2239 was a super long time ago. Some of the cold knots that had been tying themselves in my stomach loosened and I felt a lot better. But I still didn’t feel all the way better.

“So, shouldn’t we give it back now?” I asked.

“It’s an important part of our history on this planet,” Mum replied. “If we gave it back to the Providencians, no one would ever be able to see it. But here, anyone can see it any time they want, Providencian or human. Doesn’t that seem a lot more fair?”

I thought about it for a moment. Then I nodded.

“Good girl,” mum said, smiling, patting my cheek. “Now, is there anything else you want to see here?”

“No thank you,” I said. I’d seen all of the things I’d wanted to, and all of the people and all of the thinking had really tired me out.

We passed by the gift shop on our way out and I asked mum if I could get something from there.

“Not today, honey,” she said. “I’ve already spent twenty dollars getting us tickets here. When you’re older and earning your own money, you can come back and get yourself whatever you want.”

It was disappointing, but I didn’t let it ruin a good day. And mum let me ride in the front seat of the car on the ride home, so I got a perfect view of the three suns setting over the horizon as dusk crept in.