Genocide in Canada?

Genocide in Canada? NEVER!!!

Celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada

The news has been inundated with the realities of genocides all over the world, but rarely is Canada included in that list.  A little dose of TRUTH is in order to get a proper perspective.

Prior to the European arrival, millions of various tribes existed across Turtle Island with their system of bartering, governing that worked for them.

Columbus’ “discovery” of the land, was affirmed by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, when he issued the infamous “Doctrine of Discovery” that stated that empty lands “terra nullius” “discovered by European Explorers, became the property of the Crown.  In fact, these lands were inhabited by millions of peoples comprising one fifth of the world’s population at that time. They just happened to be non-Christian and were therefore deemed to be uncivilized and hence the term “terra nullius” or empty lands.

The mentality incurred by the Doctrine of Discovery paved the way for our Indigenous peoples to be horrifically treated due to the policies of the First Prime Minister of Canada by establishing the Residential School system which was specifically launched “to get rid of the Indian problem” and prevailed from the 1870’s to the 1990’s in which more than 130 Residential Schools were established and run by many of our churches.

The “savages”, a term used by Duncan Campbell Scott, were deemed to be subhuman (Indian Act in a plain-language summary). Colonizers attempted to assimilate them into European culture through the residential School System and by the 60’s Scoop when the children were ‘scooped up” and placed into European settler homes. It is estimated that there were even more Indigenous children in the child welfare system than the 150,00 that were in Residential Schools.

The past Chair of the TRC, the Honourable Murray Sinclair’s words ring so true for today:

“it is education that got us into this mess, and it is education that will get us out of it.”

One of the first steps to “getting us out of this mess” was the submission of the TRC 94 Calls to Action 94 Recommendations of the TRC report of 2015. It was carefully drawn up after the Commissioners interviewed thousands of abused survivors and it is estimated that 6000+ died in residential schools.  This is a significant number. This is a genocide. Truly the darkest part of our Canadian history.

Perhaps this is best summed up by Connor Sarazin in the June Kairos times Newsletter:

“Over the course of history there have been acts of genocide from one nation over another on a global scale. Although, you may not see the struggles of Indigenous Peoples regularly on the nightly news. The Indigenous Peoples remain in a fight for their survival. Many communities don’t have running water, never mind being drinkable. Many communities don’t have hydro and rely upon diesel generators for power. Children must travel hundreds of miles away from their home and community to get a high school education, and there are more children in care than at the height of the Indian Residential Schools. It is an alarming rate of epidemic proportions that women, girls and 2Spirit Peoples are murdered and go missing every day. It is easier to erase a people when they have no women.

Words like genocide are used to describe other nations around the globe who are fighting for their survival. We tend to forget that the struggle for the First Peoples on our own land carry these same words and have so for hundreds of years.”

On June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day, may we recognize and celebrate the history, heritage, resilience and diversity of First Nations, Inuit and Métis across Canada.

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

Getting to Know You

June is Indigenous History Month, and Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) is a time all to honour the cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis).

As I was reflecting on what I wanted to put into this blog, the song “Getting to know You came to mind.  It is the one that Julie Andrews sang to the children in “The King and I”

Perhaps some words of the song can apply to our growing relationship with Indigenous peoples.  It has been and is a process of “getting to know” each other and “getting to know what to say” when entering into the Indigenous ways of knowing.

June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day in which we honour the Indigenous peoples, Elders and ancestors to commemorate the Indigenous culture, language, land and ways of being.

It was first self-declared Indian Day in 1945, by Jules Sioui and chiefs from across Turtle Island (North America). In 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) called for the creation of a National Aboriginal Solidarity Day to be celebrated on 21 June.

Sometimes, critics say of the indigenous Peoples that “they need to get over it” when the topic arises about the residential School system, the “60’s scoop”, the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people (MMIWG2S). “Getting over it” is not what it is about. Journeying together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous/settlers through those painful years of history is what it is about.

It is important to remember, not forget what has happened and continues to happen in the unjust treatment of Indigenous peoples.

It is about re-member-ing.  And to better understand at a heart level what was done TO the first peoples when the settlers came. We all are called to re-mem-ber that we are one people with diverse ways of being, knowing and enriching each other.

By journeying together in openness, respect, humility, love, truth courage, honesty and wisdom, we can come to a new united people on this land.

Healing must be part of the process of being reconciled, being one.

The colonizer needs to be healed from the shame that exists about what the early colonial ancestors did. Education about the true history of colonial and Indigenous relationships is absolutely necessary, followed by a commitment not to have this treatment repeated.

Many of the First nations Peoples do not even know the truth of their past, because Residential School survivors never spoke of their experience.  When the truth is told, there is more of a chance of reconciliation.

The peoples of the 14th and 15th Century, Indigenous and colonizers, were taught by the Doctrine of Discovery, that the first peoples were savages, inferior.  They believed it of themselves, and the colonizers were thereby justified in taking the land and resources.

Healing for the Indigenous involves dealing with the anger, sense of loss, frustration, through the various Indigenous ways of healing. 

The colonizers also need healing, through education and by ensuring that what was done so cruelly in the 14th century to the present, is never repeated.

Forgiveness is an act of the Creator, where restoration to a new order happens after the victim is able to remember the atrocities, and to choose to move beyond the anger even to a point of forgiveness of the wrongdoer. (see pp. 17-19, 11 in The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies by Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S

Once the wronged Indigenous person can forgive, the wrongdoer can be moved to express true sorrow and reshape his/her actions.

So, on this day of honouring the Indigenous peoples of this part of Turtle Island, called Canada, let us embark on a journey together.

For example, some of the opportunities available to us as non-Indigenous, are attending a POW WOW...these are open to the public; visit a friendship Centre; attend webinar or a Teaching and Sharing circle online, visit a reserve in your area.

“Getting to Know You” begins with Education.  In the words of former Senator, Murray Sinclair,

“It is education that got us here, and it is education that will get us out.”

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

National Indigenous Peoples Day - June 21, 2021

What Celebrating/Recognizing National Indigenous

Day in Canada means to me

Boozhoo, Koolamalsi, Greetings,

My name is Wabusk skweow kahetopit (Polar Bear Woman Who is Looking Ahead). I am Anishinabe Lenaapeew (Ojibway/Lenape woman) from the Moravian of the Thames, known today as Eelunaapeewi Lahkeewiit (Delaware Nation).

What it means to me to Recognize and Celebrate National Indigenous Day and National Indigenous History month comes from the experience as a second-generation survivor of the Canadian Indian Residential School system. For me, to be Indigenous are these three action words; resiliency, reclamation, and intergenerational wisdom, my mother. The original waters I come from: My mother was dismembered from her nation, her culture, her identity, and her language due to the impact of patriarchal colonial structures like the Indian Act, the residential school system. My mother had a really difficult time fitting in when she left the residential school. She felt disconnected from her community, her family, and her culture. This had a ripple effect on the next generation. As a little girl growing up I was dismembered, as well. I was raised in a eurocentric colonial system of racism, bullying that led me to believe that “I am not good enough”, which stripped away my sense of self-worth and my identity. It was in the late 90's I began my process of recovery and reclaiming my Indigenous heritage.

“ resiliency, reclamation, and intergenerational wisdom”

Miigweech (Thank you) to the Sisters of St Joseph Hospitality Detoxification Centre. In the 1990s, it was there at that particular detox centre in London, Ontario that I started my journey to re-member, re-claim, and re-search who I truly am. I may have stumbled here and there on this Red Path. I did start to believe there was a path that has always been charted for me. It is through ceremony, teachings, and sitting with elders. There was one particular life lesson, I value: and that is to forgive and let go.

“It is time to acknowledge that it is Indigenous Peoples Day every day”

I learned it is the act of resiliency within my own intergenerational wisdom that I was able to reclaim who I am. I am an Anishinabe/Lenaapeew kwe(Lenaapeew/Objiway woman) and Ndaa’miigeyaabi maapii (we are still here).

It is time to acknowledge that it is Indigenous Peoples Day every day and it's about all Indigenous People of Turtle Island (North America) to be able to acknowledge ourselves as resilient Indigenous People. It is a celebration of life as we continue to reclaim who we are.

Therefore, every day when we wake up let us give thanks to the Creator for this breath of life, and give thanks to all of creation, the universe, and our ancestors for blessing us this day to live, love, and re-learn.

“Let us give thanks to the Creator for this breath of life”

This wise elder whose name translated in english: Pathfinder baa, he who has passed on, taught me this and it is what I live by: “Life is a Ceremony, Ceremony is all about Life”. This is what it is to me to be Indigenous and to recognize National Indigenous Day and National Indigenous history month.

Miigweech, Anushiik

All My Relations

Wabusk skweow kahetopit (Polar Bear Woman Who is Looking Ahead)

M.Tracey Whiteye

Learn More about National Indigenous Peoples Day here