At the CRC Canadian Indigenous Ministry Committee we mark all kinds of remembrances. August 17th is the anniversary of the discovery of Tina Fontaine’s body. October 23rd is the date Chanie Wenjack died running away from a residential school. May 5th is the National Day of Awareness for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. …
Our collective shock at the recent grim discovery of 215 children’s bodies at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., means one thing: that we didn’t listen. Indigenous people have been trying to tell Canadians for years about residential school system tragedies; to our shame, we have not really heard or understood….
Hearts Exchanged is being piloted as a process of equipping Reformed Christians to engage with Indigenous peoples as neighbours in a way that grows trust and transformation. Hearts Exchanged came to germination after being planted at a Cross-Cultural Ministry Forum of the Christian Reformed Church in North America way back in 2000. The report from…
“Canadians love causes,” Stó:lō First Nations poet and author Lee Maracle says, “but they love the causes that are far away – out of their backyard, so to speak.” That indictment comes from her book My Conversations with Canadians, which details observations born from discussions with people across the country. Though her book was published…
I’m thinking of home during this holiday season. Usually preparations are being made for the annual pow wow back in my home community, Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation near Kenora, Ont. This year I won’t be able to go back … travel restrictions and all. I will miss the sound of the drum and watching the…
Whether the name is homard, lobster or, as Mi’kmaq call them, jakej, mention them in Atlantic Canada these days and you’re probably in for a tension-filled conversation on treaty rights and commercial fishery. The current focus on lobster fishing has its roots in the 1752 Treaty with Mi’kmaw people – a treaty right upheld in…
For the past few years, inclusion has been a popular buzzword. Businesses, organizations, and individuals profess to be inclusive, to accept others for who they are, and to be a safe place for everyone to be authentic. However, for individuals on the margin, or anyone who doesn’t fit into traditional definitions of “normal,” inclusion sometimes…
When a bronze statue of Sir John A. MacDonald was pulled down by anti-racism protestors on August 29, it wasn’t the first time Canada’s first Prime Minister lost his head. Erected in downtown Montreal in 1895, the statue has long been a target of vandalism. In 1992 it was decapitated on the anniversary of the hanging of Louis Riel. Since then it has been defaced with paint and graffiti many times.
In this sweet, gentle children’s picture book, Inuit writer and educator Nadia Sammurtok has realized her passion to preserve “the traditional Inuit lifestyle and Inuktitut language so that they may be enjoyed by future generations.”
As I write this article, all the headlines on Canada’s news websites are dominated by COVID-19, rapidly dropping oil prices and the possibility of the economy opening up again. You could be forgiven for assuming that everything to do with the dispute a few kilometres down the Morice West Forest Service Road in northern B.C. must be done and settled. After all, if media coverage has moved on, everything must be okay now, right?
My name is Sarah Beaubien, I am Wet’suwet’en from the Likhts’amisyu Clan. The last few weeks have had their ups and downs; in 2020 you wouldn’t think that we would still be living in the past of ripping Aboriginal people from their lands, but that is exactly what we are seeing. I also have to stay positive because I know God is a God of Justice and that is exactly what we are fighting for.
There were no winners in the 2019 federal election. Members of parliament are reconvening on Parliament Hill like a classroom of chastened schoolboys after an embarrassing noon-hour brawl, not as respected political leaders. The country, however, might benefit from a more somber, careful approach to public policy and decision-making. All parties have a social license to discard petty promises they made to court certain groups of voters and to focus instead on the big challenges facing Canada. Many commentators predict small steps, but there is reason to suggest that bold actions in a number of areas is what it will take for a clear political win in the next election.
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