Generous Listening

Finally, attention to the almost-lost art of listening! September 26th being the National day of Listening, I thought it might be appropriate to focus on how we are called to listening to what Indigenous voices are saying to us these days as Canadians.  To what are we listening and what are we really hearing about Residential Schools, about murdered and missing women, men, girls and boys?

What are we really hearing and believing from Indigenous Elders who are survivors of Residential Schools? What is heard? What is heart-felt? What is the message in the revealing of hundreds of graves found on the grounds of former residential Schools? Are we brave and sufficiently honest to acknowledge this dark history of Canada that was one form of cultural genocide?

Krista Tippett says of listening: “Generous Listening is an everyday art and virtue, but it’s an art we have lost and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while others have their say. It is about presence as much as receiving; it is about connection more than observing. Real listening is powered by curiosity. It involves vulnerability — a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. It is never in “gotcha” mode. The generous listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own most generous words and questions.”

In being present to  Indigenous Knowledge Keepers who have committed themselves to truth telling, I have found from my own experience that it requires of me, the listener, to be open minded, eager to learn the truth, respectful, and have the ability to create an atmosphere of hospitality and to provide a safe environment.  When that happens, relationships begin to develop, because of the mutual respect that grows.

If one has already made up one’s mind about Aboriginal people, true respectful listening cannot happen. One is simply unable to move the shared intellectual truths from the head to the heart. For any steps toward reconciliation to happen, the heart must be affected. 

The Doctrine of Discovery, promulgated in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, has done incredible harm to the valuing and appreciation of the First Peoples of any land, and especially, in this case, of Canada.

Thankfully, THAT doctrine has been definitively denounced.

The scar tissue left from this doctrine has left a deep wound that is in need of healing. We, non-Indigenous people, need to be healed from our ignorance and arrogance, our shame and shock.  Indigenous peoples need to healed from the belief that they are inferior, less than, and hence are not worthy to be in relationship with all creation and to share the resources of the earth equitably.

If one opens one’s heart in this listening process, one discovers that the First Peoples of Canada have a deep respect for the land, for all creation.  “All my relations” is not just an idle phrase.

For us non-Indigenous people especially, but not totally, there is a useful resource available for further assistance in developing relationships between First Nations peoples and us non-Indigenous people.  It is the guidebook put out by the Jesuit social forum: A Guide to Listening to Indigenous Voices .

Ideally, it is very workable with an Indigenous person or more, to be in these Sharing Circles.

The time is now. The place is here.  Let’s move forward together in creating a more just and sustainable world.

 - Sister Kathleen Lichti, csj

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Images provided from Unsplash: Jonathan J. Castellon | Lee Campbell

What a Great Opportunity to Connect with Indigenous Peoples

Recently a few of us Sisters were blessed to get together over dinner. In conversation we spoke of ways we could be more involved with Indigenous people. Sister Jude & Sister Susan recalled when they were first at our mission in Pic Mobert First Nation (Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg) just north of Lake Superior. We went to Thunder Bay & looked for Wolf Tracks Gallery, a store recommended by a band-member for its creative & colourful jackets with native designs, wall hanging murals, & original art prints.

We easily became engaged in conversation with owner Maxine Wesley whose band was in the Longlac area. She had been a Chief for one term & spoke of that experience, both positive & negative. We learned a lot of the life of Anishinaabe on a reserve.

We asked how her business in Thunder Bay was going. We learned of her struggles as a small business owner. We stepped aside & the two of us discussed how we might help. Putting together our personal budgets, gas & grocery money we were each able to walk out with one of her fleece jackets as pictured. She was touched that we would support her in this way, and commented that we should be prepared to be stopped on the street by people admiring the jackets and asking where we got them. We asked for some of her business cards so we could hand them out on such occasions. We have worn them regularly since 2003 & still receive comments! Sister Susan's, pictured below, displays the 4 colours (red, yellow, black, white) of the world's people, as well as the turtle which symbolizes Turtle Island. Sister Jude's displays a female dancer at a sundance. What beauty each jacket displays! (Visit the online store here)

Beautiful things happen when we take an opportunity to step outside our own culture and spontaneously dialogue with an Indigenous person. Respect & sharing help us tangibly in our desire for Truth & Reconciliation.

Sister Jude Stradiotto & Sister Susan Kerrigan, csj

National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas is celebrated on the National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, December 12th. A feast commemorating a religious event in the 16th century is now intertwined with our growing awareness of Indigenous peoples throughout the world – their strength, resilience, and rightful place in society. In the film The Condor and the Eagle we see such strength and resilience as four Indigenous leaders make a trans-continental journey from the Canadian plains to the heart of the Amazonian jungle. Their purpose - to unite the peoples of North and South America and deepen the meaning of "Climate Justice."  

At the heart of the journey is the indigenous prophecy “When the eagle of the North and the condor of the South fly together, Indigenous peoples will unite the human family.”  This underlies the amazing story, as we watch a shift of identity. Once forgotten voices rise to become strong communities with power to bring change to their world.

The experience of Juan Diego filled him with hope and belief in the spiritual protection offered through his extraordinary experience.

With the struggle and dialogue of Indigenous people in Canada, new hope is rising. This month the Liberal government of Canada introduced legislation to begin the process of bringing Canadian law into alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Lots of hard work and dialogue lie ahead, but the shift has begun.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-introduce-undrip-legislation-1.5826523

As we remember the Indigenous saint of the South, we celebrate yet one more step in the North to live into reconciliation.

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

Spirit brother, Spirit sister

I am… a Mom, a Grandma, a musician, a retired teacher, a Companion — a clay vessel being shaped and reshaped everyday.  It is not the shell I move around everyday with, but the heart that is being molded, all in the Creator’s time.

All my life experience has shaped my heart, raising 4 children, teaching JK/SK students, volunteering as a church musician and in particular, being a member of a “Companions” group.  “Companions” is a group of lay people and one religious sister from the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph.  The purpose of this group really is to understand and share and live the charism of the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph in our daily lives.  This outreach group has had a flow of working/retired, men/women in the group who listen to the movements of the Spirit when praying, sharing, singing, reflecting on personal/world events which impact their lives.

Our most recent “Companions” virtual meeting involved a guest who provided us with his life experience as it related to our topic of reflection: racism.  Our head knowledge of this topic was based on the book, “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.  Our heart knowledge learning was based on listening to this young Indigenous family man and his lived experience of racism. With gentleness, openness, humility and humour he shared his life and work experience.

What immediately struck me and others in our group was his wisdom of heart, being who he was called to be at such a young age (early thirties).  Many of us could relate to him on the level of “being” as we are past the stage of life of “doing”. Living his life, he has realized about right relationship and he expressed a desire to reconnect with his Indigenous heritage after the death of his Indigenous Grandfather.  He spoke the language of right relationship, …love, addressing the needs of others by listening and communicating in a reciprocal manner, especially the elders in his work life. We only have to look at retirement homes during COVID to see where we fail at loving our elders.  He offered practical suggestions of books to read and courses to take which address more truthfully our knowledge of present-day indigenous issues of marginalization.

History books tell the story from the perspective of the dominant person and therefore is a one-sided story coming from a vantage point of power. It was backed up with heart knowledge where inadequate solutions to serious problems caused subsequent physical, social, emotional and spiritual consequences in these communities.  These issues are real, and they are happening to real people. The enduring shame of Indigenous people must be challenged.  We can’t dismantle what we can’t see. We are all racists and our help to address the shame and marginalization, in particular, Indigenous youth must mean we need to relate to them without stereotyping, defining, limiting, and judging.

He shared a story from his work life about his plan to help indigenous youth connect with their heritage in their community.  It was a tree planting project. When he approached the elder (who had no prior dialogue about the plan) as to where the trees should be planted, the elder directed the tree planting group to the outer edge of the boreal forest where this Indigenous community had carved out its community life. The Spirit gave him a moment of humourous reflection with the love lesson of always having meaningful discussions about their needs rather than having a pre built-up plan to solve the issues.

How can an Indigenous community have a boil water advisory for 25 years?! The answer to that question is a personal conversion of heart. Whether it is in omission or commission this suffering in this community is my suffering too.  In order to have common union we must face this community’s suffering and convert our heart.

Our speaker’s passion for learning about his heritage and his desire to claim it was remarkable.  He recognized his homecoming, who he was created to be is the path he must take. What insight, courage, humility, gentleness knowing that his journey is my journey too…who we are called to become, who we are called to be…Love.

Submission from the Pentecost Companions Group:  Jane, Leanne, Jaime, Dena, Sue, Ann.

A Welcome Anomaly in Aboriginal Justice

On March 24, 2016, the Globe and Mail reported that “outspoken” Justice Melvyn Green broke from “sentencing traditions that have contributed to widespread incarceration of aboriginal Canadians” by sentencing a 40 year old aboriginal man to 30 months of probation  in place of an expected two to five year prison sentence. The Federal prosecution service is appealing this sentence. Justice Green noted the dismal life experience of the man whose father had been raised in an orphanage, whose mother had spent ten years in a residential school, and whose parents were both abusive alcoholics. The accused man had grown up in a housing project in Toronto, “suffered from racism, was bullied, drank and used and sold drugs”. Yet this man had been on bail for 27 months since his arrest in 2013, had remained crime and drug free, obtained a high school diploma, attended college, and held down a job. He is in a stable, long term marriage and an excellent father to his young son.   Justice Green’s decision reflects Trudeau’s directive to increase the use of restorative justice and reduce imprisonment among aboriginals.  The article in the Globe and Mail noted Justice Green’s advocacy for the “moral imperative of restraint, i.e., justice dispensed without revenge. In 2013 Justice Green’s article in a criminal lawyers’ newsletter stated that crime laws passed by Steven Harper’s government had “cast a dark shadow on the sentencing principles of proportionality and restraint”. 

An article in the February 29, 2016 issue of Maclean’s magazine by Nancy Macdonald paints an ugly picture of how Canada’s justice system mistreats Indigenous people.  In the last decade, admissions of white adults to Canadian prisons declined while incarceration rates for indigenous people surged, e.g., a 112 percent increase for aboriginal women. Although Indigenous people constitute four per cent of our population, provincial and territorial correctional facilities have occupancy rates of 36 per cent aboriginal women and 25 per cent aboriginal men. The Maclean’s article is well worth consideration.  It describes the ongoing effects of residential schools on aboriginal populations, the short shift accorded aboriginal clients by “duty counsel”, and the failure of courts to follow principals outlined by the Supreme Court in R. v. Gladue which were to be used in sentencing aboriginals.  The increasing use of dangerous offender designation, particularly among aboriginal persons, has increased trapping those affected in lengthy imprisonment; in Saskatchewan, 80 per cent of inmates are aboriginal.  Aboriginal offenders are far less likely to be housed in minimum-security facilities and to be place in segregation.  The Maclean’s article states that “Ottawa, which, for a decade, has been ignoring calls to reform biased correctional admission test, bail, and other laws disproportionately impacting Indigenous offenders.  Instead, it appears to be incarcerating as many Indigenous people as possible, for as long as legally possible, with far-reaching consequences for Indigenous families.”  This effect is not due to a crime spree but “because of the impact of social factors, government policy, and mandatory minimum sentences”.

There is no simple solution to the aberration of lopsided justice for aboriginal people in Canada. Rather the historical and current factors in aboriginal populations and changes in how aboriginal people are treated in our justice system must all be addressed. Radical change begins with examination of our own attitudes, biases, and actions. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a great beginning; implementing its recommendations needed to bring about justice for Indigenous Canadians.

Pat McKeon, CSJ