Category Archives: First Nations

June 21, 2025 · 12:42 pm

Winipek

This is a book about Canada as seen from its centre Winnipeg from an indigenous perspective. It is remarkable read by a great journalist/professor Niigaan Sinclair. Yes he is the son of the famous Senator Murray. I think that this book will change your mind a bit in favour of the need for reconciliation. It did mine.

Ages ago when I was in Grade 13 in Ottawa, a group of young First Nations high school students met with our study group to explain their life issues. I recall that we heard about a litany of problems and complaints and then their confusion about their identity and what to do. I remember going away thinking they don’t know what they want. At least they couldn’t articulate it yet.

Well Nigaan’s book which is an extensive collection of articles he wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press, has finally answered this question. And it won the Governor General’s award for non-fiction in 2024.

Before we go there I would like to recount the particular story he tells that got me. You are sitting in your living room with your family having tea. There is a knock on the door and a few strange looking people are at the door. They ask if they can they come in and join you for some tea? Why sure you say a little awkwardly perhaps, “Come on in and make yourself comfortable.”

After tea they stand up imposingly and order you all to go into the bathroom. Then they lock the door. Very strange you think. Let us out you cry out. There is no response. Next day a note is passed under the door saying that you are not allowed out anymore and food will be occasionally passed in to you.

This goes on for some time, a long time. Finally one day they open the door and say that you and your family can come out now. You walk around your house and see that everything has changed: new furniture, decor, modern appliances, strangers living there. They tell you to leave and get a new place to live…and leave your children behind.

That my friends is how we got to where we are in Canada some years ago with the need for reconciliation with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. It wasn’t you or me that personally did these wrongs we each say. Yes but it was our government and in many cases our churches that did.

So what do Indigenous people really want according to Nigaan? Of course they want an end to the pain, racism, stereotyping, profiling, crime, violence, addictions, incarceration and human disrespect for sure. But more importantly, they want to govern themselves, alongside other jurisdictions, so that they can get on with their lives, free of government control.

Is it that simple? Of course not. But it would be a good start.

Some recent stats:

  • 5% of Canadians identify as First Nations peoples
  • In Manitoba this rises to 18% and in Winnipeg it’s 12%
  • 41% live on reservations, 59% off
  • 32% of the prison population in Canada are indigenous
  • 74% of the male prison population in Manitoba are indigenous while about 43% of the females are indigenous!
  • There are over 630 Indigenous communities, 50 Nations and 50 indigenous languages in Canada

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August 17, 2017 · 1:53 pm

Canoe Pilgrimage for Indigenous Reconciliation

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We were very honoured to attend a living history event at the Galilee Renewal Centre in Arnprior on August 8.  About 30 canoeists, including Indigenous, Jesuits, English, French, men and women, dropped in on their way from Midland to Montreal on a pilgrimage to mark Canada’s 150th Anniversary celebrations.

The 2017 Canadian Canoe Pilgrimage is a project inspired by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) with the hope of encouraging intercultural and interreligious dialogue and learning. Participants, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are immersed in each other’s customs and traditions. Through this immersion, the goal is to foster deep respect, trust, dialogue and hopefully friendship, the building blocks for reconciliation.

The canoe route taken is a traditional First Nations trading route that was travelled by early European settlers such as Samuel de Champlain and Jean de Brébeuf, who were welcomed and guided by the Indigenous Peoples of this land. The route follows a similar one paddled by 24 young Jesuits in 1967.  Members of the Jesuit and Oblate religious orders, their lay volunteers and many others across Canada are actively helping to implement the Calls to Action described by the TRC.

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About 40 guests were treated to the participative Kairos Blanket Exercise as a means to learn about the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada.  Bob, an Indigenous elder from Toronto with a Phd., first led us in a smudging ceremony to purify our bodies, auras and energy.  Then we were invited to walk slowly around on adjoining blankets as actors described specific historical events like:

  • what Turtle Island was like (Indigenous name for North America before colonization)
  • the era of European discovery and colonization of Canada
  • proclamation of the first Canadian Indian Act in 1873
  • establishment of Residential Schools for Indigenous children after 1880
  • U. N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007
  • PM Harper’s apology to First Nations peoples of 2008

Towards the end of the exercise, those still walking found themselves greatly reduced in number and, the blankets had shrunk and were separated from each other.  This was a grim reminder of the impact colonization and Canadian history has had on Indigenous peoples, from their cultural perspective.  We then participated in a talking circle where everyone was invited to reflect on what they had just learned and how they felt.  Much compassion, need for forgiveness and commitment to improving relations was expressed, even tears  It was a well-balanced and poignant educational experience.

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Fr. Ken Forster, Provincial Superior of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Lacombe Canada Province celebrated an outdoor Mass for everyone under the stately white pines.  He emphasized forgiveness, committment and forging ahead in mutual reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous peoples.  Our day finished off with a scrumptious spaghetti and meat ball dinner provided by Galilee. We marveled at the healthy appetite of the young paddlers and for their answering the call to reconciliation, forgiveness and committment.

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We all went home more aware of our own history and of the need to support ongoing dialogue of mutual reconciliation based on hope and forgiveness.  We felt energized by the vitality of today’s youth in taking up this social challenge.   Improving relationships and building trust among all Canadians and in particular with Indigenous peoples is every Canadian’s business.  Our sincere thanks to the Galilee organizers, the paddlers and the contributors to this living history event of great educational value.

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June 27, 2017 · 4:17 pm

Should we apologize for the sins of the past?

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No according to those who advocate the “hermeneutic” of discontinuity with the past. Hermeneutic refers to the lens by which we see, interpret and understand the world.  Those who adhere to this discontinuity interpret the wisdom and actions of previous generations as flawed, erroneous and naive and so forth.  By this logic, the sins of previous generations are theirs and theirs alone.

But, according to the 2013 apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to former students of Indian Residential Schools, it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and seek to “take the Indian out of the child.”

Our colonizing ancestors thought they were doing what God wanted them to do.  Namely, bring Christianity and civilization to the indigenous peoples of Canada.  They  were naive but had the best of intentions.  They were not equipped to deal fairly with the indigenous peoples that Columbus had discovered for Spain and Pedro Cabral had discovered for Portugal.  Their society lacked the sensitivities and tools needed.  The Residential Schools should never have existed, period.  So if there is discontinuity with the past, why should we apologize today?

Because we all have sinned too.  Romans 5:12-14:

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— 13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

We see and interpret the facts of the past – history – through our own personal, cultural and racial lens.  Consequently there are an infinite number of views.  For example the native child who was removed from an alcoholic and abusive family situation who now feels that the Residential school saved her life.  The strong Catholic faith of the Algonquin Nation which they know and cherish.

Today in Canada since we see the past through much more inclusive lens, we may be reluctant to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Canada as reported by the NYT.  However there is indeed something to celebrate here – our willingness to say we are sorry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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