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Tales of reconciliation

Four Canadians share their stories

A fiery Indigenous author from British Columbia, a street-wise Indigenous former truck driver in Winnipeg, a non-Indigenous northern Ontario town mayor and a 60s Scoop survivor in Toronto all bring insight to reconciliation.

Four people talk of their approaches to reconciliation in the wake of the 2015 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The report’s 94 recommendations go beyond residential schools, talking remedies to abuses and injustices against Indigenous peoples.

Reconciliation: taking to the streets

The Bear Clan Patrol is run by former truck driver James Favel. It’s made up of volunteer foot patrols, They’re looking to ensure safety and a stronger sense of community in Winnipeg’s north end. About 70 per cent of its 500 active volunteers are Indigenous. Anyone can join.

Together, about 20 volunteers take evening shifts to patrol the streets, up to eight times a week.

“We’re trying to build that village vibe back, people connected with one another. We don’t want people to turn a blind eye to someone in crisis,” Favel says. “We want to see people come to the aid of someone in crisis.”

They organized a vigil for the family of teenager Cooper Nemeth who was murdered in February 2016.

“We jumped to help support search for the boy and support the family after the fact…that was really where reconciliation took off for us,” Favel says. “We went to do a vigil for the boy and I was expecting 15-20 people to show up. Nearly a thousand (showed up).”

“It was ground breaking…we had Indigenous, non-Indigenous shoulder to shoulder,” he says. “Nothing has been done like that before or since.”

“We did a smudge ceremony for them, it was very healing. That’s what I’ve been noticing. We’ve dealt with a lot of tragedies in our community but we find healing at the end of it.”

For Favel, these are active examples of reconciliation.

“We are trying to bring the healing that will have people look each other in the eye and say hello, rather than ignore one another and look at your feet as you pass one another,” Favel says.

Reconciliation: Give me my country back

Vancouver-born Lee Maracle is both a mentor for Indigenous students and instructor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto. She is also an author and a citizen of the Stó:lō Nation.

“Well, I don’t think there’s any truth that came out during the reconciliation, and I think that the truth is this is a colonial state that is a mother country, that we don’t have nationhood within it, that everything is decided about us and not by us and that’s unacceptable to us,” Maracle says. “So that’s the truth and that isn’t part of the so called truth and reconciliation.”

Land looms large as an issue for her.

“Give me my country back and I’ll be happy to reconcile with you,” Maracle says.

Reconciliation: Maybe

“A lot of people in society don't know how Native people were torn from families,” says Gabe Duck, a 50 year-old Toronto artist and 60s Scoop survivor. “If you were ever torn from your family, would that hurt you?”

Gabe Duck. originally from Red Lake, Ontario survived the 60s Scoop. He's discovered his roots as an Ojibwe man. (Neil Powers)

From the 1950s until as late as 1991, thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families by Ontario child welfare officials and put into foster care. Duck, his brother and sister lived with several white foster families.

He’s healing from his past.

“I often think, now that dad’s gone, how he must have felt to come back home and find that his three kids are gone,” says Duck, who was taken from his home at about age one. “Nobody told him, we were just gone.” His father was away working, while apparently a friend took care of the children in Red Lake, Ont. in the late1960s.

“Brainwashing, supposedly God fearing…you were always afraid,” Duck says of attempts to take away his culture.

“They put that inside me…I’m getting chills, because it hurts,” Duck says in a lower voice, eyes tearing up. “It takes a lot to say.

“You can’t change us, you can’t turn a brown person into a white person,” he says. “No matter why so many of us turn to either drugs or alcohol, because we don’t want to experience these feelings. We want them as far away from us as possible.”

Duck goes to Toronto’s Anishnawbe Health Centre for counselling. He’s discovered his roots as an Ojibway man.

On reconciliation, Duck stops to think. He hesitates. “Maybe I might, maybe I might not,” Duck says. He talks of “giving back” to others as he grows stronger.

Reconciliation: northern mayor works with community

“The national commission (TRC) report came out, it really created a pivot point…at which if any community in Canada was going to have a response to the calls to action, it should be Sioux Lookout,” says Doug Lawrance, the Scottish-born mayor of the northwest Ontario town. Several First Nations communities are nearby.

He struck the Mayor’s Committee on Truth and Reconciliation in 2016, with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people represented.

“We talked about it in a respectful manner, in recognizing the issues and challenges that have been created and devastation to some people’s lives. So that’s very significant,” Lawrance said.

“We named Darlene Angeconeb a local Indigenous person (Lac Seul First Nation) and leader to be chair of the (newly created) Police Services Board,” Lawrance says.

Lawrance expects to see an Indigenous liaison committee to promote an open door for Indigenous engagement at the municipal level. He sees the need for alternatives to the justice system, more affordable housing and housing for Indigenous students who come from remote areas to high school in Sioux Lookout.

He knows that it will take an ongoing reconciliation effort and many actions are needed.

“True truth and reconciliation has to come from a willingness to understand and willingness to accept the breadth and depth of the impact of the policies and practices of past governments on Indigenous people,” Lawrance says. “If you truly accept and understand it, then you are ready to go on the path to truth and reconciliation. Until you do…it’s cosmetic.”

No Shortcuts

Senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has talked of a generations long effort. TRC’s website carries his words.

”Reconciliation is about forging and maintaining respectful relationships,” Sinclair says. “There are no shortcuts.”

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