Emily Singer became involved with Reconciliation Canada shortly after moving to Vancouver. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, Singer was looking for an opportunity where she could make a real, substantive difference. She stumbled upon a volunteer posting for a Social Media Coordinator with Reconciliation Canada, and although she admits she did not know a lot about Indigenous issues in Canada, she submitted an application and has been volunteering for Reconciliation for the last three years.
Over the last three years, Singer helped Reconciliation Canada grow from a small organization with less than 100 Twitter followers to a nationally significant charity. During this time, she credits the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver and the TRC Closing Events as defining moments in her reconciliation journey.
“When I saw the crowds of people crossing the viaducts in Vancouver in the rain it was hard to believe that a few months earlier I’d been at a meeting in a crowded coffee shop worrying about how to get people out on the day,” she reflects. “I absolutely could not believe the number of people who came out on that day.”
Singer will be taking a break from volunteering with Reconciliation Canada as she finishes her Masters degree, but this does not mean that she will be taking a break from reconciliation.
“Reconciliation is a lens that you apply to your life, it is a way of looking at things and I think once you start looking at the world through your reconciliation lens you can’t stop. I will still be promoting reconciliation on a smaller scale in my life through understanding, education and the way I interact with the world.”
To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.
For Lance Scout, reconciliation means, “The choice to take back the child we’ve left behind and honouring the human spirit and our gift, the land.”
The Reconciliation Canada team first met Lance at a Reconciliation Dialogue Workshop in May 2015.
As an intergenerational survivor of the Indian Residential School system, Scout has faced a number of challenges within his family and community. However, his involvement in reconciliation has given him the opportunity to reflect on his traditional values, and feel liberated to take the steps needed to achieve his goals.
“Denial and violence has impacted me so much and now understanding my parents’ journey within their childhoods relieves me of so much animosity within my life,” says Scout.
Scout became involved in reconciliation through his work as a Resolution Health Support Worker with the Blood Tribe Department of Health Inc. He provided emotional support during the Alberta Regional Hearing tours and worked as a team lead for the Blood Tribe’s Cultural Support Providers at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) National Event in Edmonton.
Scout’s commitment to reconciliation led him to become a project coordinator for seven major commemoration projects on the Blood Tribe. These projects received an endorsement from TRC Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild, who saw this undertaking as invaluable in reviving language, culture and ceremony within the Blood Tribe.
Ceremony is now thriving within his home community.
“Honestly, it’s made me the man I am today: sober and able to help my people through the traditional channels of language, art and song,” reflects Scout.
Scout plans to continue advocating healing and reconciliation. In 2016 he will continue to promote reconciliation throughout his community by hosting the second annual Reconciliation Week in Medicine Hat, AB.
To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.
Jessica Bolduc has been on a lifelong reconciliation journey. For her, moments and stories, invitations and opportunities have landed her as part of a team of young people looking to move reconciliation forward in Canada. As Executive Director of the 4Rs Youth Movement, a youth-led initiative that focuses on connecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people in Canada, Bolduc wanted 4Rs to be more involved with other reconciliation organizations.
As part of the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Bolduc was invited to participate in Reconciliation Canada’s panel discussion Inspiring Reconciliaction: Creating a New Way Forward, where she spoke on her work of bringing together youth through dialogue and learning. This panel followed the Walk for Reconciliation, which saw 10,000 people walk through downtown Ottawa. Participating in that historic moment were two bus loads of youth who were brought in from Toronto by 4Rs, Inspirit Foundation, Canadian Roots Exchange and KAIROS.
“Together we participated in the Walk for Reconciliation,” said Bolduc. “We were a part of history.”
Looking forward, Bolduc will be taking some time to pause and reflect to better understand what is needed to support young people in coming together through face-to-face dialogue.
Through her work with 4Rs, Bolduc will continue to encourage communities to create spaces for Indigenous youth to learn about who they are as well as for allies to learn about how they can support reconciliation.
“My vision for reconciliation is one where my nieces and nephews have equal opportunity as any other child living here to be who they want to be,” reflects Bolduc. “It’s not so much to ask.”
Photo credit: Fatin Chowdhury
To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.
The North Vancouver District Public Library (NVDPL) has been supporting the reconciliation process through its key role in the community. When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released the executive summary of its final report, librarians at the NVDPL immediately saw it as an opportunity to continue their reconciliation journey. They initiated the Truth and Reconciliation Pledge Project to encourage people in their community to read the TRC executive summary. Barbara Kelly, Manager, Community Engagement says “the response was overwhelming, both in numbers and in its genuine commitment”.
The library also hosted an evening event in honour of the Community Commitment to Truth, Healing and Reconciliation in recognition that community dialogue is key in the reconciliation process. Reconciliation Canada team member Shelley Joseph was invited to deliver the keynote speech and speak about her experiences as an intergenerational Survivor. For librarian Paul Taylor, “The experience of hearing members of the Squamish Nation,Tsleil-Waututh Nation and others speak about the effect upon them and their people of the residential school system was extremely moving.”
What does Reconciliation through Education look like? How can we reevaluate existing educational practices to promote reconciliation? These are also questions that have been discussed at the NVDP library at the end of a massive open online course titled Reconciliation through Indigenous Education that was taught by Jan Hare, Anishnaabe Professor of Indigenous Education at the University of British Columbia.
Librarian Jacqui Jones-Cox says that through these initiatives the library staff try to, “bring the issue out to a larger audience and give personal voice to the stories to help create a bridge to healing and empathy. We cannot re-write the wrongs but we can acknowledge them and ensure they are never repeated and along the way hopefully engender understanding, trust and respect.”
To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.
On February 23 2016, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph arrived at Cape Breton University campus for the Nation2Nation Speakers Series. After a warm greeting by Stephen Augustine, Dean of Unama’ki College & Aboriginal Learning and Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor at Cape Breton University, Chief Joseph spoke to a room filled with faculty, students and staff about his journey of reconciliation. Chief Joseph also shared his vision for building a new way forward based on a foundation of dignity, hope, openness, understanding and courage.
The Nation2Nation Indigenous Speaker Series is a monthly event designed to bring all peoples together to foster a space for co-learning where respectful relations can flourish. The event was hosted by Unama’ki College and the Institute for Intercultural Health Research.
We are excited to have been a part of the Nation2Nation Speaker Series and look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with Unama’ki College and Cape Breton University.
Reconciliation began a very long time ago for Brandy Lekakis. Her parents helped her learn about Coast Salish culture and brought her up with conversations about Indigenous people across the country. She was appalled that all Canadians did not know about the Indian Residential School system. She “dreamed of a day when this crime would be revealed to Canadians, and we could work together to right the wrongs.”
For Lekakis, reconciliation means working together and having meaningful communication with Indigenous leaders and communities about issues that affect all Canadians. It also “means a place at the political table for Indigenous people, an effective Inquiry for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, economic success and infrastructures in Indigenous communities, an education system that contains Indigenous language, culture, context and perspectives for all Canadian learners.”
As an educator, Lekakis feels it’s been an enormous gift to be able to teach her students about the Indigenous people of Canada. She has found great interest from students to learn more not only about the Indian Residential School system, but also about Indigenous languages, cultures, histories,and worldviews.
Lekakis has been instrumental in putting together Delview Secondary School’s Annual Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Delta, BC. This is a full day focused on reconciliation and the history and legacy of Residential Schools where students, elders and intergenerational Survivors participate in a number of powerful interactive activities. In May 2015, Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, Ambassador of Reconciliation Canada, was invited to deliver a keynote speech to Delview students on this significant day.
Planning has already begun for the Third Annual Day of Truth and Reconciliation, and Lekakis looks forward to continue working with First Nations communities to create curriculum specific to Indigenous perspectives.
To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.
By Sebastian Ennis, J.D. Candidate 2017, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
When we walk the streets, visit our neighbours, or travel to different cities or provinces in Canada, we share the land with those around us. We rarely ask, “Who owns the land we walk on?”
In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Tsilhqot’in Nation have Aboriginal title to land in an area between the Fraser River and the Coast Mountains in west-central British Columbia.
The Tsilhqot’in Nation – a grouping of six First Nation bands – are an Aboriginal people with a population of over 3,000. They lived in their ancestral territory for centuries. They continue to live there.
If you travelled to their territory, you would be walking on the land of the Tsilhqot’in. But what exactly does that mean?
“Aboriginal title” recognizes the history of the land and the people who held it. It’s not about individual rights. Aboriginal title is a group interest among the Tsilhqot’in, both present and future generations. It’s not stuck in history. Aboriginal title is about the land today and the future of its people.
Aboriginal title says the Tsilhqot’in have a right to their land, to use it and benefit from it as they see fit. That’s often what it means to “own” land. The Tsilhqot’in are also the caretakers of their land, they have a responsibility to the place where they belong.
Did the Tsilhqot’in not own the land before they received Aboriginal title?
Simply put, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized a right that the Tsilhqot’in always had. Their land has always been theirs. There is an old idea called terra nullius, that means that “no one owned the land before Europeans asserted their sovereignty”. That idea has never applied in Canada. When Europeans arrived, the land was not a blank slate. People were already here: Europeans walked on their land.
And yet, in Canada Aboriginal peoples must prove that their land is their own. This is a costly and time consuming process. For the Tsilhqot’in, this process ended in the recognition of a version of their rights, a “middle ground” between the common law and Aboriginal laws.
Recognition is a way of answering simple questions like, “Whose land am I walking on?” The answer to that question includes the Aboriginal perspective. By including that perspective, recognition of Aboriginal title is a type of reconciliation; it is a way of bringing together different ways of viewing the world.
As Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin put it: “What is at stake is nothing less than justice for the Aboriginal group and its descendants, and the reconciliation between the group and broader society.”
The land we share in Canada is vast. It comes with many different perspectives and histories. Reconciliation means bringing those histories to life, for the land and its people.
Sebastian Ennis
Sebastian studies law and volunteers with Reconciliation Canada. In the past, he worked in the social innovation and non-profit sectors. He currently works at a boutique law firm. He lives in Vancouver, surrounded by family.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and may not reflect the views and opinions of Reconciliation Canada.
For the last six weeks, Reconciliation Canada has hosted a series of six short films on the theme of reconciliation, produced by young Indigenous filmmakers with the help of Wapikoni Mobile.
You can find all six videos that have been featured as part of the Reconciliation on Film series here.
Hosting this series has been a tremendous honour, and we are enormously grateful to Wapikoni Mobile for the opportunity to share these stories. You can find out more about Wapikoni Mobile here.
TIO’TIA:KE – MONTREAL is a short documentary about the personal journey of Mohawk Elder Sedalia Kawenno:ta’s Fazio in establishing a sweat lodge within the Botanical Gardens of Montreal and her work with the diverse native populations living in the city. Tio’tia:ke is the Mohawk word for Montreal which means “where the currents meet”.
This is the sixth film in a six part series of short films on the theme of reconciliation. These films are produced by young Indigenous filmmakers with the help of Wapikoni Mobile. For over ten years, Wapikoni Mobile has been working with Aboriginal youth in Canada to encourage expression through music and film. Their mobile studios, sometimes referred to as “youth centres on wheels”, have travelled to some of the most remote First Nations communities in the country, providing workshops and mentoring to young participants.
