Reconciliation in Canada

This is a story of Reconciliation through my lens as a Coast Salish matriarch. Where in my lifetime, I am the daughter of a hereditary Chief, who became the first female hereditary Chief in my family and comes from a line of hereditary Chiefs on my mother’s side of the family. I am the first generation in my immediate family to not attend residential or day school and to go to Post-Secondary School without enfranchisement. Where the choice was mine to where I went to school and learn what I wanted, without interference from outside forces, i.e. state or church. I wasn’t forced to move to my husband’s Nation when I married him or lost my status under the Indian Act if I moved off reserve, voted, served my country, received a formal education, etc. And I still maintain my status as a legal ‘Indian’ under the Indian Act and seen as a citizen of this country known as Canada at the same time and considered a human that is civilized with rights like every other Canadian. I share this because this was not always the case for my ancestors. But I am forced to choose only one of my Nation’s to be a member of under the Indian Act and carry a status number to hold legal rights as an Indian under said act. We still face racism, oppression, discrimination, bias, and are othered because our history laid the foundation for this to be our truth.

The TRUTH in Canada’s History with First Nations Peoples

Systematic enfranchisement of the First Peoples of this country is our lived experience and it is still on-going through the oppressive nature of colonization, capitalism and the Indian Act. Tools used throughout our history to assimilate my Peoples include:

• Doctrine of Discovery and Terra Nelius

• Ruperts Land purchase

• The Royal Proclamation of 1763

• The Gradual Civilization Act of 1857

• The Act for the Protection of Indians – Lower and Upper Canada (1850)

• The Indian Act of 1876

• Residential Schools become official Policy in 1879

• Potlach (Ceremonial) Ban becomes law from 1887-1951 (67 years it is illegal for us to have ceremony of any kind) as well as a ban on any regalia to be worn

• Land grabs become official policy from 1911-1951

• The ongoing oppression of the Indian Act:

1927–1951 - Status Indians barred from seeking legal advice, fundraising, or meeting in groups

1951 - Political organizing and cultural activities legalized

- women were still not allowed to vote in Band elections

1960 - First Nations People allowed to vote

1961 – Compulsory enfranchisement was removed

1969 - The first Trudeau government announces its intentions to entirely eliminate the Indian Act with the White Paper. This draws great ire from Indigenous communities and the government abandons the idea.

1985 - First Nations women no longer forced to give up their “status”

INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA & LEGACY ISSUES

• Disease killed a majority of population over the centuries

• The myth that our land was “nobody’s land”, ignoring our inherent right to live of it

• Competing priorities and worldview, which created divide over many things

• Not seeing Indigenous People as ‘human’

• Destruction of family, relationship to the land, language, culture, identity, purpose

• Degradation of women, their roles, responsibilities and authority

• Stolen Land

• Self-Determination, Self-Government, and Self-Reliance replaced by dependant and oppressive government tactics for assimilation

• Diet changes dramatically bringing about extensive health issues for Indigenous Peoples

• Intergenerational trauma from being displaced, abused, viewed less than, or genocidal actions

• Being forced to choose to be in either world or have extensive pressure from trying to be in both

Children in care

In 2021, 53.8% of children in foster care in Canada were Indigenous, while Indigenous children made up only 7.7% of the child population under 15

Missing and Murdered Women

Estimates suggest that around 4,000 Indigenous women and girls and 600 Indigenous men and boys have gone missing or been murdered between 1956 and 2016.

Prison and Justice system

Overrepresentation in all systems (32% federally, 42+% provincially and 50% youth in the system)

Alcohol and Drug abuse

Due to the lack of funding, support, education and early interventions for trauma, grief, loss, and on-going issues, Indigenous peoples use many things as coping mechanisms

Suicide crisis

Indigenous peoples are three times more likely to commit suicide for so many reasons

RECONAILATION is a restructuring and transformation of relationships between Indigenous and settler Canadians, communities, organizations, and institutions.

SETTING THE INTENTION OF RECONCILIATION

ACKNOWLEDGING the past

UNDERSTANDING the present realities

TRANFORMING the future

Reconciliation has to be done TOGETHER

Reconciliation is:

• Critical and Complex

• Multifaceted and Continuous

• A process about working towards solidarity as a society and country

• The responsibility of every settler Canadian  as healing is the key to Reconciliation

• Includes honouring treaties

• Acknowledging and respecting Indigenous rights and title

• Acknowledging and letting go of negative perceptions, stereotypes, racism and biases

• Acknowledging the past and ensuring that history never repeats

• Learning about Indigenous history

  • Recognizing the inter-generational impacts of colonization, attempts at assimilation, and cultural genocide

  • Recognizing the critical roles, Indigenous Peoples have held in the creation of Canada, their contributions to world wars to protect Canada

• Taking responsibility as a person, a parent, an employee, an employer to:

  • Never utter, accept, or ignore a racist comment

  • Never utter, accept, or ignore a statement that includes a stereotype about Indigenous Peoples

• Respect for:

  • Indigenous individuals

  • Indigenous beliefs, cultures, traditions, worldviews, challenges, and goals

• Recognition & support of the deep connections Indigenous Peoples have to the land

• Supporting the reclamation of identity, language, culture, and nationhood

• Good people doing good things through building relationships with Indigenous Peoples

• Never giving up despite setbacks

• Humility, Integrity, Honesty, Uncomfortable and creating opportunity to tranform

• A commitment to taking a role and assuming responsibility in working towards a better future for every Canadian

Reconciliation is not:

• A trend nor a single gesture, action, or statement

• A box to be ticked

• About blame or guilt

• About the loss of rights for non-Indigenous Canadians

• Someone else’s responsibility

• Reconciliation Matters – The Path has been laid

• Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples – Five Volumes (1986)

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (2015) and the 94 Calls to Action

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

• MMIWG Reclaiming Power and Place Report and 231 Calls to Justice

• UNDRIPA (Canadian Act) and DRIPA (BC Act)

• National Indigenous Economic Development Strategy & 107 Calls to Economic Prosperity

• National Indigenous History Month (the month of June every year), National Indigenous Day (June 21st of every year) and the Day for Truth & Reconciliation in Canada (September 30th of every year)

“We have described for you a mountain. We have shown you the path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing."

The late honuorable Murray Sinclair

Lawyer, Judge, Former Senator

Manitoban