National Truth and Reconciliation Day

National Truth and Reconciliation Day– September 30

Image: Unsplash/Aedrian

This is the second year in which we are called to remember the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or more simply known as “Orange Shirt Day”.  The focus of the day is to remember the children who died at Residential Schools and those who survived those schools but continue to live with the trauma of their experiences long after the last of those schools closed.

I want to acknowledge this day and I want to say thank you to the Indigenous people who invite us in healing and friendship to learn, to seek to understand and in some cases even to dance. It is day to express that it is time to heal the hurts of the past and be allies as we walk together into the future.  This will take time but this is a new moment to seek healing and reconciliation for the wrongs of the past.  Also, when we gather we also learn more of the truth about our Aboriginal peoples and their rich and meaningful culture and ceremonies.  We learn because these people are good storytellers and stories tell us who they are and who we are.

Such change and new understanding does not come all at once, or to each person in the same way.  It a journey that involves coming to know each other, listening to each other, and walking together into a new day. 

I will wear my orange shirt to express that going forward I will not forget the past, and also to express my desire and commitment to create the healing needed and do this together because together we are stronger!

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice | Sister of St. Joseph

Indspire Awards 2022

June was named Indigenous History Month in 2009 while June 21st day has been celebrated as National Indigenous Day since 1996. Indigenous Peoples and Canadians across Turtle Island ( North America) use these designated times to claim the history and heritage of Indigenous Peoples. As descendants of settlers, these annual occasions provide us with an opportunity to acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples’ numerous contributions to shaping the fabric of our country.

On Sunday, June 19th, the Indspire Awards are aired on CBC and ATPN. These prestigious awards confer the highest honour the indigenous community bestows on their own people. After 29 years, 396 First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement across a broad spectrum of society have been so honoured. The broadcast on this Sunday at 8 p.m. once again will showcase a variety of their personal and professional stories.

 Having watched the award ceremony in previous years, I highly recommend tuning in on Sunday.

-Sister Nancy Wales

Celebrating the Fall Equinox - the Indigenous way.

Tracey Whiteye

On September 21, we and about 50 others had the distinct pleasure and privilege to celebrate the Fall Equinox by walking a spiritual journey around Victoria Park in London, ON, led by Tracey Whiteye, a local Indigenous Woman helper and a second-generation survivor of a mother who had been in a residential school.

Tracey's infectious way of engaging us with Creator in expressing gratitude for all of creation was both respectful and so down to earth.

We gathered in a circle around Tracey's Indigenous bundle representing the ancestors.   A Metis helper woman placed four strawberries, the "heart" berry, in the four directions on the bundle.  A woman residential school survivor was there and was so gratefully and gracefully acknowledged by Tracey.

Tracey went on to thank Creator for the Water which was carried by another Metis helper woman.

Water is life for us, she went on to say and stressed its importance when we are firstborn.  It was especially meaningful when she and others of us who knew it, sang the water song together.

What struck me was how she prayed the ceremony, honoring the four directions, the stages of growth through which we all travel, all the while, walking us through those four directions.

May WE, settler folk continue to be gifted by women like Tracey who invite us into their sacred spaces.  This truly was a sacred encounter of Creator through the experience of being together in a circle in the beginning and ending with the circle formation.  We are all equal by being invited into the Circle.

Let's live that belief in our lives, as Tracey shows us.

 - Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

https://getinvolved.london.ca/climate

https://www.climateactionlondon.ca/

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The Who/What/Why of our Walk:

A spiritual journey around Victoria Park led by Tracey Whiteye

WHY

• to connect us all and future generations to the land that belongs to the Creator;

• to launch Greening Sacred Spaces (London); and

• to support and advance the City of London’s Climate Emergency Action Plan.

WHO

• led M. Tracey Whiteye, Oshkaabewis Kwe, which means a woman helper or

  messenger in Objibwe language. Tracey is a wholistic practitioner, researcher

  and educator.

WHAT

• honour mother earth and future generations with story telling, songs and

  prayers

• share the water ceremony

• to honour the four directions around the sacred fire;

• engage the sacred bundles and other indigenous women who are Berry Fasters;

• announce the new Greening Sacred Spaces initiative

and to announce the call for submissions for two x $500 Climate Action London grants, which address London’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and aligns with the Global Sustainable Development Goals.

““It’s education that got

us into this mess.

It’s education that

will get us out of it.””

— (Ret.) Senator Murray Sinclair, Chair of the TRC, 2015

10,000 Ways to Love

On July 1st, some of us had the opportunity to see 10,000 manifestations of Love in the Healing walk that took place in Victoria Park to honour the thousands of children who had died as a result of the Residential School system.

There was a general sense of respect, gratitude, and kindness among the throngs of people as the Indigenous-led event took place with the drumming, the Gingo dancers, and the little children dressed in their regalia, danced, stepped to the beat of the drum.

Chief Jason Henry, with the ceremonial flags of some of the Anishinabe clans surrounding him, gave a very compelling speech in which he respectfully stated the truth of the Residential School System and the importance of ALL of us working together toward Reconciliation.

The gigantic drum beat in the crowd reminded me of the pulse of Life that flows through all of us, and somehow that was well captured and expressed by the young, old, and all those in between, Indigenous and Settlers alike.

As I was observing the Circle Dance, I felt a breeze coming over me and looked up to see an Indigenous man of about 50, gently fanning me to keep me cool.  It was so simple and yet, so profound.

Another Settler woman commented that for her… “Seeing the children and young people gathered gives me the hope that we can build a better Canada. I am compelled to educate myself and just purchased the audiobook “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act.”

The experience has remained with me and many others since the event took place. Afterward, in a mixed group, one Indigenous woman suggested that we are entering the period of the 8th fire prophecy where Indigenous and Settler will once again live in harmony, caring for the earth together. https://roncesvallesvillage.ca/seventh-fire-prophecy/

“…there has been a talk of an Eighth Fire in which the ancestor prophets say that to light the Eighth Fire Indigenous People will come forward with their knowledge connecting with the western knowledge and from this union a new people will emerge lighting the Eighth and final Fire. This will begin the golden age of peace, explains lead artist and Indigenous art & history educator Phil Cote.

Reflecting further on this image is a source of much hope as the Orange flame that is planted in each of us by Creator is meant to spread throughout the earth as long as we are alive.”

A visual reflection, courtesy of Lindsey Mills. The sculpture is the Spirit Catcher Sculpture on Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie, Ontario

It is as if we are entering into a new period of history as noted by Lindsey Mills in this visual reflection. https://thetransfiguration.ca/2021/06/27/general-announcement-12/

In conclusion, I am grateful and VERY HOPEFUL after having had this experience.  I am hopeful because of the young Indigenous leadership that is emerging.  I am hopeful that more of us settlers are becoming more educated about the history of this land that is meant to be shared between the Indigenous peoples and us. It is from the grassroots that I believe real change is happening and this is a transfiguration for all of us.

Let us embrace this opportunity to be the change that we really want.

Submitted by Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ