How to: Reconciliation

SOME OF THE ANSWERS TO 150 ACTS OF RECONCILIATION FOR CANADA'S 150 (Originally written by Crystal Fraser and Sara Komarnisky and published on ActiveHistory.ca) #1. Learn the land acknowledgement in your region. It’s Treaty 6. #8. Find out if there was a residential school where you live. There were two in this city: the Edmonton Indian Residential School (also known as the Edmonton Poundmaker Residential School, closed in 1968) and the St. Albert's Indian Residential School (also known as the Youville St. Albert Residential School, closed in 1948). #24. Visit a local Indigenous writer or artist-in-residence. Richard van Camp is the regional writer in residence and is in the last week of his residency at the St. Albert Public Library. His remaining office hours are Sunday from 1-5 p.m. and Tuesday from 1-4 p.m. #26. Invite your local reconciliation organization to hold a KAIROS Blanket Exercise at your place of employment. Next community blanket exercises at St. Albert United Church: Wed., Jan. 10/18 (from 1:30-4:30 p.m.), Wed. Jan. 17/18 (from 6:30-9:30 p.m.), Mon., March 5/18 (from 1:30-4:30 p.m.), and Mon., March 12/18 (from 6:30-9:30 p.m.) #53. Find an organization locally that has upcoming programming where you can learn more. The Canadian Native Friendship Centre is located at 11728 95 St. in Edmonton. #63. Write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask that the government implement the promises he made to Indigenous people in the 2015 election. Justin Trudeau House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 (No postage required) You can also reach the Prime Minister’s Office via email at [email protected]. #65. Actively seek out Indigenous heroes and role models. A great local example is the late Hon. Senator Thelma Chalifoux, the first Indigenous woman and first Métis person to serve in the Canadian Senate. She co-founded the Slave Lake Friendship Centre, was the first woman to host a weekly show on Peace River's CKYL Radio and was the co-producer of the Allarcom series Our Native Heritage. She founded the Michif Cultural and Resource Institute (now called Michif Cultural Connections), which is dedicated to preserving and sharing Métis history in northern Alberta. She was the first woman to receive the National Aboriginal Achievement Award – now known as the Indspire Award – in 1994. Later, she was the recipient of the Métis National Council Lifetime Achievement Award. #102. Visit the website of the nearest First Nation(s) or Indigenous communities. Go to www.michelfirstnation.com for a good start.

Reconciliation: it’s that important movement to help build stronger relationships with all of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis (FNIM) communities. It means acknowledging past wrongs, learning more about our shared history, and working towards something better for everyone through mutual understanding and respect. It’s also something that requires all of us to become involved in. Reconciliation isn’t simply a national commission, something to hear about on the nightly news. It’s an action. “Reconciliation is a joint project. If we – Indigenous peoples and Canadians – don't work together, we have little hope in mending relationships,” said Crystal Fraser, co-author (along with Sara Komarnisky) of an article called 150 Acts of Reconciliation for the Last 150 Days of Canada’s 150, published on ActiveHistory.ca. She’s also a member of the Gwich’in nation. “Since Canada was built on the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land and the attempt to eliminate their cultures, reconciliation affects all Canadians whether they choose to believe it or not.” The idea came to Fraser as she was thinking about her relationship to Treaty 6 area and how the Gwich'in have had long-lasting relationships with the Dene, Cree, Métis, and other Indigenous nations in that area. “But I was also growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Canada 150 celebrations and concerned that efforts to reconcile were beginning to wane.” The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation published its 94 calls to action two years ago. It’s more of a reconciliation framework for politicians and institutional leaders to address and focus on. For instance, the first one is a call to the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of children in care. Fraser and Komarnisky wanted something a bit more user-friendly for people like you and me. They compiled a list of 150 acts that anyone could undertake during the last 150 days of 2017, a year commemorating Canada’s 150^th birthday. Their list was originally published in August, but there are now only 15 days left. Still, there’s no time like the present to do something. Act #1 is to learn the land acknowledgement in your region. That’s easy: it’s Treaty 6. You knew that already. Now, you’re well on your way. Here in St. Albert, there’s lots more to do and much of it is just as simple.

Learn the history

You’ve been to the Musée Héritage Museum before, or at least you should have. Right now, it is in the last weeks of showing an important exhibit called The Michel Band: a story of family, injustice and perseverance. It offers a look into the Michel First Nation, an Aboriginal band located northwest of St. Albert. It was pushed out of Treaty 6 by the federal government when all of its members were involuntarily enfranchised in 1958 and they are still fighting to get this historic wrong fixed. While that exhibit is only available until Jan. 7, more history can be learned either at the St. Albert Public Library or at Michif Cultural Connections, which is located just a block away on Mission Avenue. Michif, as a point of note, refers to the language of the Métis people. Act #13 asks you to learn a greeting in a local Indigenous language. If you stop by the landmark institution located in the historic Juneau House, feel free to say ‘Tawnshi’. Yes, that’s ‘hello’. The organization was founded more than a decade ago by the late Senator Thelma Chalifoux, the first Métis woman in the Senate of Canada. This organization works to help preserve and celebrate Alberta Métis culture. It’s a pretty interesting place to step into. It’s very important for all people to be involved with reconciliation, said Joshua Morin, facilitator and manager at the organization. He is Chalifoux’s grandson so his work is helping to carry on an amazing legacy. “I’ve learned a lot personally. It makes you a part of the community. It makes you active. If you stay an active member of the community, it means you’re doing a good thing.” Reconciliation, he added, is a way of supporting that all too Canadian ideology of going around and helping your neighbour. He calls the Michif Cultural Connections part museum, part resource centre, part library, and part archives “but it’s also a place where we like to connect people to the Métis culture. To those wanting to reconnect, it’s a great place to come and have just a good time with the Métis people.” He suggested that there are lots of other ways to make reconciliation a part of your life. The Poundmaker Lodge has public sweats in its sweat lodge and its annual powwow is held in August. “That’s another good way of experiencing your First Nations culture.” This city also celebrates National Aboriginal Day with some great festivities on June 21. Those are both great ways to practice Act #4: attend a local cultural event. “Those would be two great ways to simply start doing it. Enjoy a piece of bannock and go sit down with an elder and talk,” he said.

How do you say 'hello'?

Talking with an elder would be an amazing experience, said Maureen Callihoo Ligtvoet, a local social worker and a descendant of Chief Michel Callihoo of the Michel Band. Just be patient and open and friendly. “They’re a very quiet bunch. That’s a result of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, all that grief and loss. For the Indigenous people, it’s uncomfortable to trust because of all the loss. I think that that’s why it’s so important now for all people of all cultures in this community to act as a collective in the efforts of revitalizing the relationship between Indigenous people and Canada in general,” she said. She noted that St. Albert is full of Indigenous people. Reconciliation here is so important because it’s relevant to so many of our neighbours and co-workers already. She suggests taking in an afternoon of tea and beading put on by the Michel people on the last Sunday of every month. It’s open to all and the only cost is whatever you can donate. It’s an opportunity to come and connect and learn a craft at the same time. It used to take place at the Michif Cultural Connections but will be moving to the Musée Héritage Museum. Since there are so many holidays at the end of this month, the next one will take place on Sun., Jan. 7, which coincides with the last day of the exhibit. She suggested that reconciliation is also about the future, which means that it’s an important movement for children like her daughter, Kiona, a printmaking student at the University of Alberta. “I think it’s important for us to practice our empathy,” Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet said. “With reconciliation, it’s all about being able to go to a museum or go to a blanket exercise or talk to people in your community who are part of the FNMI community and just hear how colonization affects them. You actually want to ask those questions and listen to their responses.” That’s Act #32: listen more and talk less. Blanket exercises are a great way for anyone to practice that empathy. “It’s such a good tool in learning how colonization has affected an entire group of people for so long. It’s still affecting people.” That’s Act #26. She too suggested going to a powwow “and being respectful while you go.” She added that reconciliation can simply be attending any workshops with Indigenous artists and authors, learning traditions and crafts, like that beading workshop coming up. It’s all about finding the places that offer them, she said, suggesting the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton or RISE (Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton). Act #2.

Social change in motion

Whichever act or acts you participate in, it’s good to know that at least you’re doing some action. “It is important to note, however, that Indigenous peoples have been talking about reconciliation for decades, but it has only become palatable for settler Canadians in recent years,” Fraser said, adding that she and Komarnisky’s list has become a popular touchstone and reference guide. It has led to at least one church hiring an Indigenous consultant while Indigenous flags have started to be flown at municipal government buildings, and more. It even gave the authors themselves the impetus to do more. Komarnisky has made it a personal goal to become more engaged including registering for the University of Alberta's online Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Indigenous Canada, Fraser said. There’s Act #14 right there. “For me, I have certainly reflected much more rigorously on my own family's history (which includes my own relatives from Scotland and England), but also the ways in which my family has been treated in residential schools, how we've signed a ‘land claim’ – how strange it is to ‘claim’ land that belongs to you – and what kinds of relationships I have with other Indigenous peoples.”