• Knowing, Being, and Doing as a Learning Process
• Traditional or Ceremonial Opening of the Circle
• Honouring the L'nu (Mi'kmaq) / Honour Song
• Sharing Circle
• UPEI's Commitment / Faculty of Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research, and Applied Studies / Minor in Indigenous Studies

I always open my classes with a traditional or ceremonial opening. I first begin by creating a space that is welcoming, and into that space, I bring my sacred bundle, which contains all the necessary elements including the sacred medicines, medicine wheel alter, and eagle feather, to conduct a sacred welcoming and sharing ceremony. I try as best I can to create a circle, as Indigenous peoples see and do everything not in a linear or boxed fashion as contemporary Western classrooms are arranged; but in a circle as you see in Figure 1.

• Knowing, Being, and Doing as a Learning Process
• Indigenous peoples in Canada / Indian (First Nations), Métis, and Inuit
• Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing
• Traditional or Ceremonial Opening
• L'nu (Mi'kmaq)
• Sacred Smudging Ceremony
• Prayer / Sacred Medicines / Eagle Feather
• Sharing Circle
• Relational and relationality
• Elders / Knowledge Keepers
• Reconciliation
• Faculty of Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research and Applied Studies

1. Please read and view all of the material in the chapter if you haven't already. For linked material, be aware of these important sources of information. If something intrigues you or catches your attention, please gather that 'knowledge' by exploring and taking a pathway to additional learning.
2. Please read the following: The Haudenosaunee Creation Story
3. Please read the following: The Creation Story

Course Description This course is an introduction to the various Nations on Turtle Island. It will be a combination of classroom and culturally-based learning. Anchored in L'nu (Mi'kmaq) knowledge, students will learn about ceremony, protocol, Elders and traditional teachers. In turn, these will help foster a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual understanding of Indigenous worldviews and ways of knowing. This course also introduces Canada's history of genocide and cultural assimilation imposed upon Indigenous Peoples. It will discuss why anyone living in Canada needs to know this history.

Learning Objectives The overall goal of this course is to deepen a student’s (future leaders) understanding about Indigenous peoples, their knowledge systems, histories, cultures, traditions, and resiliencies within the context prolonged and devastating colonial policies and practices that has led to Calls to Action so healing, truth and reconciliation can be realized. All UPEI students will require this course to be conferred a degree, and is vital to all relations of Turtle Island.  Specific student learning outcomes include:

1. To understand (through lectures, supplemental material and independent research) key terms and concepts relating to Indigenous knowledges, worldviews, protocols and ways of knowing; 2. To understand significance and meaning of Indigenous practices relating to ceremony and relationships; 3. To understand and explain important Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations historically and in contemporary society; 4. To critically analyze and understand impacts of colonialism and cultural assimilation policies and practices including trauma and inter-generational trauma; 5. To understand major issues emanating from assimilation and genocidal practices; 6. To understand Indigenous peoples’ histories and pathways to healing and reclamation of culture; and 7. To critically analyze and understand one’s own role in reconciliation and TRC’s Calls to Action.

Sessions (Chapters) at a Glance

• Session 1: Welcome and Traditional Opening of Circle
• Session 2: What are Teachings ~ What is Turtle Island ~ Who are the Mi’kmaq Peoples?
• Session 3: Cultural Practices and Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being ~ Terms, Identity and Meaning
• Session 4: History of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean
• Session 5: Mi’kmaq Historians ~ Mi'kmaq Social Values and Economy ~ Treaties ~ Royal Proclamation Act ~ Indian Act
• Session 6: Colonialism ~ Colonization Practices ~ Indian Residential Schools ~ Genocide
• Session 7: Trauma and Intergenerational Trauma ~ Traditional Healing ~ Contemporary Health and Wellness
• Session 8: Land Dispossession ~ Systemic Racism ~ Right to Self-Determination
• Session 9: Indigenous Resilience ~ Reclamation ~ Resistance
• Session 10: Indigenous peoples in the 21st Century
• Session 11: Truth and Reconciliation ~ Calls to Action ~ Responsible Citizenship
• Session 12: Honouring Msit No’kmaq ~ Wahkohtowin ~ All our Relations and Closing of Circle

Let the Learning Begin

• Cultural Practices and Worldviews
• Indigenous Ways of Knowing
• Blending Western and Indigenous Knowledges
• Terms, Identity and Meaning

• Comprised of a complex set of technologies sustained by Indigenous people
• Embedded in the accumulative experiences and teachings of the people
• Based on people’s skills and adaptable to problem solving and change over time
• Features unique internal consistency and postulates
• Knowledge pertains to particular people and a territory
• Indigenous ontology is distinct with equally distinct epistemological validation of the knowledge found in the culture
• Indigenous knowledge is subjective experience and forms the basis of an objective explanation of the world
• All animate and inanimate beings have a life force and a spirit, which are an essential part of balance
• Indigenous ways of knowing are based on the local environment
• Language, space, and the relationship evolve over time to reflect interactions with the environment
• Land is recognized as the source of life
• Severing cultural connections also destroys the meaning of the behaviour and the understanding of the context
• The ceremonial context is essential to accessing or knowing Indigenous ways of being
• Everything is animate and has a spirit in the Indigenous worldviews
• All things are in relationship
• An ontological belief is that people travel through life in a relational existence focusing on knowledge, animate and inanimate objects, participating fully and responsibly in relationships which are more important than reality
• When a person comes into a relationship with certain knowledge, he or she must assume responsibility for it
• Ceremony is the one way in which the relationship is carried out with respect
• To live properly one must stay in harmony and balance with nature for the sake of the community’s survival
• Inner space is the reality of being in harmony with the self and the environment; knowing one’s place in the universe
• All the elements of the universe in balance; gives meaning to existence
• Indigenous ways of knowing are grounded in the idea that a continuum of change and events take place in cyclical fashion
• This idea has become the foundation of the philosophy, strategy for surviving and Indigenous ways of knowing
• We are connected to the world around us with the animals, plants, mother earth, and the cosmos
• The key to Indigenous knowledge is to understand change as a whole
• Indigenous culture is rooted in the place and the nature of place embedded in their language
• Language allows the physical, cognitive, and emotional orientation of a people
• Language provides an intergenerational map of the world

• An Elder is someone who has a deep understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing and who understand the spirituality that embodies all their actions
• Elders understand the importance of respecting the natural world
• Elders share the teachings through ceremonies, e.g.: sweat lodges, healing circles
• Teach others about the culture and traditional ways, vision of life, and validated knowledge within their local environment

• Indigenous people must create a different equilibrium that balances their beliefs in creation and ceremony
• Their axioms and postulates are different from the Western worldviews
• Indigenous knowledge is based on relational reality
• The Indigenous way of knowing is thousands of years old
• Indigenous ways of knowing increases awareness and a better understanding of the culture
• It is being accountable to your relations

• Assembly of First Nations (630 First Nations)
• Reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenizing the Academy (University)
• Cultural Practices
• Worldviews
• Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Indigenous Scholars
• Ways of Knowing
• Western Science: Scientific Method-Objective-Reductionism-Empirical-Causal-Linear
• Indigenous Knowing: Complex-Relational-Cumulative Experience-Adaptable-Sustainable-Territory-based
• Holism~ Space/Land~ Relations/Reciprocity~ Fluidity/Natural ~ Environment Rhythms ~ Language
• Integration of contemporary best practices with culturally appropriate approaches (i.e., a blended approach)
• Evidence-based research
• Using Medicines on Both Sides of the River
• "Etuaptmumk - Two-Eyed Seeing"
• Terms respecting Indigenous peoples vs. inappropriate (Vowel)
• Identity
• Individual journeys and teachings

1. Chapter 1: Knowing Your History (pp. 1-24) in Frideres, J. S. (2020). Indigenous peoples in the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press.
2. Chapter 2: Mi'kmaq Social Values and Economy (pp. 23-43) in Paul, D. N. (2000). We were not the savages: A Mi'kmaq perspective on the collision between European and Native American civilizations. Halifax, NS: Fernwood.

• What did you think?
• What knowledge did you obtain?
• Do you have a similar story of creation in your culture?
• Lastly, how did it make you feel?

• A very important question
• What is Canada?
• What is Turtle Island?
• Who are the Mi’kmaq Peoples?
• What are Indigenous Teachings?

• What is Wagamese speaking about?
• What is he getting us to do?
• Why?

• What is Canada?
• What is Canada famous for?
• The Canadian people

• values
• humility
• about trees
• sacred ceremonies
• water
• for a sustainable future
• protocols
• medicine wheel
• health

• Canada: Different perspectives
• honouring our ancestors / seven generations
• Turtle Island
• Indigenous teachings / Indigenous worldview
• Elders, Knowledge keepers, and Indigenous scholars
• helpers / Elders-in-the-making
• relational accountability
• Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit)
• L'nu (Mi'kmaq) peoples
• On-reserve / off-reserve
• District of Epekwitk / Mi'kmak'i
• cultural performers / regalia
• truth and reconciliation

1. Chapter 3: Indigenous Ways of Knowing (pp. 44-59) in Frideres, J. S. (2020). Indigenous peoples in the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press.
2. Chapter 1: Just Don’t Call Us Late for Supper: Names for Indigenous Peoples (pp. 7-13) in Vowel, C. (2016). Indigenous writes: a guide to First Nations, Metis, & Inuit issues in Canada. Portage & Main Press.

Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

This report is in the public domain. Anyone may, without charge or request for permission, reproduce all or part of this report. 2015

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Website: www.trc.ca

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future : summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Issued also in French under title: Honorer la vérité, réconcilier pour l’avenir, sommaire du rapport final de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada.

Electronic monograph in PDF format. Issued also in printed form.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-660-02078-5

Cat. no.: IR4-7/2015E-PDF

1. Native peoples--Canada--Residential schools. 2. Native peoples—Canada--History. 3. Native peoples--Canada--Social conditions. 4. Native peoples—Canada--Government relations. 5. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 6. Truth commissions--Canada.

• Preface
• Introduction
• Commission activities
• The history
• The legacy
• The challenge of reconciliation
• Calls to Action
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Endnotes

Preface

Introduction

Canada denied the right to participate fully in Canadian political, economic, and social life to those Aboriginal people who refused to abandon their Aboriginal identity.6

Canada outlawed Aboriginal spiritual practices, jailed Aboriginal spiritual leaders, and confiscated sacred objects.7

And, Canada separated children from their parents, sending them to residential schools. This was done not to educate them, but primarily to break their link to their culture and identity. In justifying the government’s residential school policy, Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, told the House of Commons in 1883:

When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are sav- ages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.8

These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will. Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott outlined the goals of that policy in 1920, when he told a parliamentary committee that “our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic.”9 These goals were reiterated in 1969 in the federal government’s Statement on Indian Policy (more often referred to as the “White Paper”), which sought to end Indian status and terminate the Treaties that the federal government had negotiated with First Nations.10

The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources. If every Aboriginal person had been “absorbed into the body politic,” there would be no reserves, no Treaties, and no Aboriginal rights.

Residential schooling quickly became a central element in the federal government’s Aboriginal policy. When Canada was created as a country in 1867, Canadian churches were already operating a small number of boarding schools for Aboriginal people. As settlement moved westward in the 1870s, Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries established missions and small boarding schools across the Prairies, in the North, and in British Columbia. Most of these schools received small, per-student grants from the federal government. In 1883, the federal government moved to establish three, large, residential schools for First Nation children in western Canada. In the following years, the system grew dramatically. According to the Indian Affairs annual report for 1930, there were eighty residential schools in operation across the country.11 The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement provided compensation to students who attended 139 residential schools and residences.12 The federal government has estimated that at least 150,000 First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students passed through the system.13

Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches were the major denominations involved in the administration of the residential school system. The government’s partnership with the churches remained in place until 1969, and, although most of the schools had closed by the 1980s, the last federally supported residential schools remained in operation until the late 1990s.

For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Buildings were poorly located, poorly built, and poorly maintained. The staff was limited in numbers, often poorly trained, and not adequately supervised. Many schools were poorly heated and poorly ventilated, and the diet was meagre and of poor quality. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were deni- grated and suppressed. The educational goals of the schools were limited and con- fused, and usually reflected a low regard for the intellectual capabilities of Aboriginal

people. For the students, education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers.

In establishing residential schools, the Canadian government essentially declared Aboriginal people to be unfit parents. Aboriginal parents were labelled as being indifferent to the future of their children—a judgment contradicted by the fact that parents often kept their children out of schools because they saw those schools, quite accurately, as dangerous and harsh institutions that sought to raise their children in alien ways. Once in the schools, brothers and sisters were kept apart, and the government and churches even arranged marriages for students after they finished their education. The residential school system was based on an assumption that European civilization and Christian religions were superior to Aboriginal culture, which was seen as being savage and brutal. Government officials also were insistent that children be discouraged—and often prohibited—from speaking their own languages. The mis- sionaries who ran the schools played prominent roles in the church-led campaigns to ban Aboriginal spiritual practices such as the Potlatch and the Sun Dance (more properly called the “Thirst Dance”), and to end traditional Aboriginal marriage prac- tices. Although, in most of their official pronouncements, government and church officials took the position that Aboriginal people could be civilized, it is clear that many believed that Aboriginal culture was inherently inferior.

This hostility to Aboriginal cultural and spiritual practice continued well into the twentieth century. In 1942, John House, the principal of the Anglican school in Gleichen, Alberta, became involved in a campaign to have two Blackfoot chiefs deposed, in part because of their support for traditional dance ceremonies.14 In 1947, Roman Catholic official J. O. Plourde told a federal parliamentary committee that since Canada was a Christian nation that was committed to having “all its citizens belonging to one or other of the Christian churches,” he could see no reason why the residential schools “should foster aboriginal beliefs.”15 United Church official George Dorey told the same committee that he questioned whether there was such a thing as “native religion.”16

Into the 1950s and 1960s, the prime mission of residential schools was the cul- tural transformation of Aboriginal children. In 1953, J. E. Andrews, the principal of the Presbyterian school in Kenora, Ontario, wrote that “we must face realistically the fact that the only hope for the Canadian Indian is eventual assimilation into the white race.”17 In 1957, the principal of the Gordon’s Reserve school in Saskatchewan, Albert Southard, wrote that he believed that the goal of residential schooling was to “change the philosophy of the Indian child. In other words since they must work and live with ‘whites’ then they must begin to think as ‘whites.’” Southard said that the Gordon’s school could never have a student council, since “in so far as the Indian understands the department’s policy, he is against it.”18 In a 1958 article on residential schools, senior Oblate Andre Renaud echoed the words of John A. Macdonald, arguing that when students at day schools went back to their “homes at the end of the school day and for the weekend, the pupils are re-exposed to their native culture, however diluted, from which the school is trying to separate them.” A residential school, on the other hand, could “surround its pupils almost twenty-four hours a day with non-Indian Canadian culture through radio, television, public address system, movies, books, newspapers, group activities, etc.”19

Despite the coercive measures that the government adopted, it failed to achieve its policy goals. Although Aboriginal peoples and cultures have been badly damaged, they continue to exist. Aboriginal people have refused to surrender their identity. It was the former students, the Survivors of Canada’s residential schools, who placed the residential school issue on the public agenda. Their efforts led to the negotiation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement that mandated the establishment of a residential school Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).

The Survivors acted with courage and determination. We should do no less. It is time to commit to a process of reconciliation. By establishing a new and respectful relationship, we restore what must be restored, repair what must be repaired, and return what must be returned.

Reconciliation at the crossroads

To some people, reconciliation is the re-establishment of a conciliatory state. However, this is a state that many Aboriginal people assert never has existed between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. To others, reconciliation, in the context of Indian residential schools, is similar to dealing with a situation of family violence. It’s about coming to terms with events of the past in a manner that overcomes conflict and establishes a respectful and healthy relationship among people, going forward. It is in the latter context that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has approached the question of reconciliation.

To the Commission, reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in this country. In order for that to happen, there has to be awareness of the past, acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour.

Survivors’ Sharing Circle at Truth and Reconciliation Commission Manitoba National Event, June 2010.

We are not there yet. The relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples is not a mutually respectful one. But, we believe we can get there, and we believe we can maintain it. Our ambition is to show how we can do that. In 1996, the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples urged Canadians to begin a national process of reconciliation that would have set the country on a bold new path, fundamentally changing the very foundations of Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples. Much of what the Royal Commission had to say has been ignored by government; a majority of its recommendations were never implemented. But the report and its findings opened people’s eyes and changed the conversation about the reality for Aboriginal people in this country.

In 2015, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada wraps up its work, the country has a rare second chance to seize a lost opportunity for reconciliation. We live in a twenty-first-century global world. At stake is Canada’s place as a prosperous, just, and inclusive democracy within that global world. At the trc’s first National Event in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2010, residential school Survivor Alma Mann Scott said,

The healing is happening—the reconciliation.… I feel that there’s some hope for us not just as Canadians, but for the world, because I know I’m not the only one. I know that Anishinaabe people across Canada, First Nations, are not the only ones. My brothers and sisters in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland—there’s different areas of the world where this type of stuff happened.… I don’t see it happen- ing in a year, but we can start making changes to laws and to education systems… so that we can move forward.20

Reconciliation must support Aboriginal peoples as they heal from the destructive legacies of colonization that have wreaked such havoc in their lives. But it must do even more. Reconciliation must inspire Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples to transform Canadian society so that our children and grandchildren can live together in dignity, peace, and prosperity on these lands we now share.

The urgent need for reconciliation runs deep in Canada. Expanding public dia- logue and action on reconciliation beyond residential schools will be critical in the coming years. Although some progress has been made, significant barriers to recon- ciliation remain. The relationship between the federal government and Aboriginal peoples is deteriorating. Instead of moving towards reconciliation, there have been divisive conflicts over Aboriginal education, child welfare, and justice.21 The daily news has been filled with reports of controversial issues ranging from the call for a national inquiry on violence towards Aboriginal women and girls to the impact of the economic development of lands and resources on Treaties and Aboriginal title and rights.22 The courts continue to hear Aboriginal rights cases, and new litigation has been filed by Survivors of day schools not covered under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, as well as by victims of the “Sixties Scoop,” which was a child-welfare policy that removed Aboriginal children from their homes and placed them with non-Aboriginal families.23 The promise of reconciliation, which seemed so imminent back in 2008 when the prime minister, on behalf of all Canadians, apologized to Survivors, has faded.

Too many Canadians know little or nothing about the deep historical roots of these conflicts. This lack of historical knowledge has serious consequences for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, and for Canada as a whole. In government circles, it makes for poor public policy decisions. In the public realm, it reinforces racist attitudes and fuels civic distrust between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians.24 Too many Canadians still do not know the history of Aboriginal peoples’ contributions to Canada, or understand that by virtue of the historical and modern Treaties negotiated by our government, we are all Treaty people. History plays an important role in reconciliation; to build for the future, Canadians must look to, and learn from, the past.

As Commissioners, we understood from the start that although reconciliation could not be achieved during the trc’s lifetime, the country could and must take ongoing positive and concrete steps forward. While the Commission has been a catalyst for deepening our national awareness of the meaning and potential of reconciliation, it will take many heads, hands, and hearts, working together, at all levels of society to maintain momentum in the years ahead. It will also take sustained political will at all levels of government and concerted material resources.

The thousands of Survivors who publicly shared their residential school experiences at TRC events in every region of this country have launched a much-needed dialogue about what is necessary to heal themselves, their families, communities, and the nation. Canadians have much to benefit from listening to the voices, experiences, and wisdom of Survivors, Elders, and Traditional Knowledge Keepers—and much more to learn about reconciliation. Aboriginal peoples have an important contribution to make to reconciliation. Their knowledge systems, oral histories, laws, and con- nections to the land have vitally informed the reconciliation process to date, and are essential to its ongoing progress.

At a Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum sponsored by the trc, Anishinaabe Elder Mary Deleary spoke about the responsibility for reconciliation that both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people carry. She emphasized that the work of rec- onciliation must continue in ways that honour the ancestors, respect the land, and rebalance relationships. She said,

I’m so filled with belief and hope because when I hear your voices at the table, I hear and know that the responsibilities that our ancestors carried ... are still being carried ... even through all of the struggles, even through all of what has been disrupted ... we can still hear the voice of the land. We can hear the care and love for the children. We can hear about our law. We can hear about our stories, our governance, our feasts, [and] our medicinesWe have work to do.

That work we are [already] doing as [Aboriginal] peoples. Our relatives who have come from across the water [non-Aboriginal people], you still have work to do on your road.The land is made up of the dust of our ancestors’ bones. And so to

reconcile with this land and everything that has happened, there is much work to be done ... in order to create balance.25

At the Victoria Regional Event in 2012, Survivor Archie Little said,

[For] me reconciliation is righting a wrong. And how do we do that? All these people in this room, a lot of non-Aboriginals, a lot of Aboriginals that probably didn’t go to residential school; we need to work togetherMy mother had a

high standing in our cultural ways. We lost that. It was taken away.And I think

it’s time for you non-Aboriginals … to go to your politicians and tell them that we have to take responsibility for what happened. We have to work together.26

The Reverend Stan McKay of the United Church, who is also a Survivor, believes that reconciliation can happen only when everyone accepts responsibility for healing in ways that foster respect. He said,

[There must be] a change in perspective about the way in which Aboriginal peo- ples would be engaged with Canadian society in the quest for reconciliation.... [We cannot] perpetuate the paternalistic concept that only Aboriginal peoples are in need of healingThe perpetrators are wounded and marked by history in ways that are different from the victims, but both groups require healingHow can a conversation about reconciliation take place if all involved do not adopt an attitude of humility and respect?We all have stories to tell and in order to grow in tolerance and understanding we must listen to the stories of others.27

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal representatives from 4Rs Youth Movement present the 4Rs drum made by Nisga’a artist Mike Dangeli, as an expression of reconciliation at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Alberta National Event, March 2014.

Over the past five years, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada urged Canadians not to wait until our final report was issued before contributing to the reconciliation process. We have been encouraged to see that across the country, many people have been answering that call.

The youth of this country are taking up the challenge of reconciliation. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth who attended trc National Events made powerful state- ments about why reconciliation matters to them. At the Alberta National Event in Edmonton in March 2014, an Indigenous youth spoke on behalf of a national Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaboration known as the “4Rs Youth Movement.” Jessica Bolduc said,

We have re-examined our thoughts and beliefs around colonialism, and have made a commitment to unpack our own baggage, and to enter into a new rela- tionship with each other, using this momentum, to move our country forward, in light of the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in 2017.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, June 2014. University of Manitoba, Adam Dolman.

At this point in time, we ask ourselves, “What does that anniversary mean for us, as Indigenous youth and non-Indigenous youth, and how do we arrive at that day with something we can celebrate together?”… Our hope is that, one day, we will live together, as recognized nations, within a country we can all be proud of.28

In 2013, at the British Columbia National Event in Vancouver, where over 5,000 elementary and secondary school students attended Education Day, several non-Ab- original youth talked about what they had learned. Matthew Meneses said, “I’ll never forget this day. This is the first day they ever told us about residential schools. If I were to see someone who’s Aboriginal, I’d ask them if they can speak their language because I think speaking their language is a pretty cool thing.” Antonio Jordao said, “It makes me sad for those kids. They took them away from their homes—it was torture, it’s not fair. They took them away from their homes. I don’t agree with that. It’s really wrong. That’s one of the worst things that Canada did.” Cassidy Morris said, “It’s good that we’re finally learning about what happened.” Jacqulyn Byers told us, “I hope that events like this are able to bring closure to the horrible things that happened, and that a whole lot of people now recognize that the crime happened and that we need to make amends for it.”29

At the same National Event, TRC Honorary Witness Patsy George paid tribute to the strength of Aboriginal women and their contributions to the reconciliation process despite the oppression and violence they have experienced. She said,

Women have always been a beacon of hope for me. Mothers and grandmothers in the lives of our children, and in the survival of our communities, must be recognized and supported. The justified rage we all feel and share today must be turned into instruments of transformation of our hearts and our souls, clearing the ground for respect, love, honesty, humility, wisdom and truth. We owe it to all those who suffered, and we owe it to the children of today and tomorrow. May this day and the days ahead bring us peace and justice.30

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians from all walks of life spoke to us about the importance of reaching out to one another in ways that create hope for a better future. Whether one is First Nations, Inuit, Métis, a descendant of European settlers, a member of a minority group that suffered historical discrimination in Canada, or a new Canadian, we all inherit both the benefits and obligations of Canada. We are all Treaty people who share responsibility for taking action on reconciliation.

Without truth, justice, and healing, there can be no genuine reconciliation. Reconciliation is not about “closing a sad chapter of Canada’s past,” but about open- ing new healing pathways of reconciliation that are forged in truth and justice. We are mindful that knowing the truth about what happened in residential schools in and of itself does not necessarily lead to reconciliation. Yet, the importance of truth telling in its own right should not be underestimated; it restores the human dignity of victims of violence and calls governments and citizens to account. Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Speaking to us at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum in June of 2014, Elder Dave Courchene posed a critical question: “When you talk about truth, whose truth are you talking about?”31

The Commission’s answer to Elder Courchene’s question is that by truth, we mean not only the truth revealed in government and church residential school documents, but also the truth of lived experiences as told to us by Survivors and others in their statements to this Commission. Together, these public testimonies constitute a new oral history record, one based on Indigenous legal traditions and the practice of witnessing.32 As people gathered at various trc National Events and Community Hearings, they shared the experiences of truth telling and of offering expressions of reconciliation.

Over the course of its work, the Commission inducted a growing circle of trc Honorary Witnesses. Their role has been to bear official witness to the testimonies of Survivors and their families, former school staff and their descendants, government and church officials, and any others whose lives have been affected by the residential schools. Beyond the work of the TRC, the Honorary Witnesses have pledged their

commitment to the ongoing work of reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Ab- original peoples. We also encouraged everyone who attended trc National Events or Community Hearings to see themselves as witnesses also, with an obligation to find ways of making reconciliation a concrete reality in their own lives, communities, schools, and workplaces.

As Elder Jim Dumont explained at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum in June 2014, “in Ojibwe thinking, to speak the truth is to actually speak from the heart.”33 At the Community Hearing in Key First Nation, Saskatchewan, in 2012, Survivor Wilfred Whitehawk told us he was glad that he disclosed his abuse.

I don’t regret it because it taught me something. It taught me to talk about truth, about me, to be honest about who I amI am very proud of who I am today.

It took me a long time, but I’m there. And what I have, my values and belief systems are mine and no one is going to impose theirs on me. And no one today is going to take advantage of me, man or woman, the government or the rcmp, because I have a voice today. I can speak for me and no one can take that away.34

Survivor and the child of Survivors Vitaline Elsie Jenner said, “I’m quite happy to be able to share my story. I want the people of Canada to hear, to listen, for it is the truthI also want my grandchildren to learn, to learn from me that, yes, it did

happen.”35

Another descendant of Survivors, Daniel Elliot, told the Commission,

I think all Canadians need to stop and take a look and not look away. Yeah, it’s embarrassing, yeah, it’s an ugly part of our history. We don’t want to know about it. What I want to see from the Commission is to rewrite the history books so that other generations will understand and not go through the same thing that we’re going through now, like it never happened.36

President of the Métis National Council Clement Chartier spoke to the Commission about the importance of truth to justice and reconciliation. At the Saskatchewan National Event, he said,

The truth is important. So I’ll try to address the truth and a bit of reconciliation as well. The truth is that the Métis Nation, represented by the Métis National Council, is not a party to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement AgreementAnd

the truth is that the exclusion of the Métis Nation or the Métis as a people is reflected throughout this whole period not only in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement but in the apology made by Canada as well....

We are, however, the products of the same assimilationist policy that the fed-

eral government foisted upon the Treaty Indian kids. So there ought to be some solution. The Métis boarding schools, residential schools, are excluded. And we

need to ensure that everyone was aware of that and hopefully some point down the road, you will help advocate and get, you know, the governments or whoever

is responsible to accept responsibility and to move forward on a path to reconciliation, because reconciliation should be for all Aboriginal peoples and not only some Aboriginal peoples.37

At the British Columbia National Event, the former lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, the Honourable Steven Point, said,

And so many of you have said today, so many of the witnesses that came forward said, “I cannot forgive. I’m not ready to forgive.” And I wondered why. Recon- ciliation is about hearing the truth, that’s for sure. It’s also about acknowledging that truth. Acknowledging that what you’ve said is true. Accepting responsibility for your pain and putting those children back in the place they would have been, had they not been taken from their homes.…

What are the blockages to reconciliation? The continuing poverty in our communities and the failure of our government to recognize that “Yes, we own the land.” Stop the destruction of our territories and for God’s sake, stop the deaths of so many of our women on highways across this country.… I’m going to continue to talk about reconciliation, but just as important, I’m going to foster healing in our own people, so that our children can avoid this pain, can avoid this destruction and finally, take our rightful place in this “Our Canada.”38

When former residential school staff attended public TRC events, some thought it was most important to hear directly from Survivors, even if their own perspectives and memories of the schools might differ from those of the Survivors. At a Community Hearing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Merle Nisley, who worked at the Poplar Hill residential school in the early 1970s, said,

I think it would be valuable for people who have been involved in the schools to hear stories personally. And I also think it would be valuable, when it’s appropriate ... [for] former students who are on the healing path to ... hear some of our stories, or to hear some of our perspectives. But I know that’s a very difficult thing to doCertainly this is not the time to try to ask all those former students

to sit and listen to the rationale of the former staff because there’s just too much emotion there ... and there’s too little trustyou can’t do things like that when

there’s low levels of trust. So I think really a very important thing is for former staff to hear the stories and to be courageous enough just to hear themWhere

wrongs were done, where abuses happened, where punishment was over the top, and wherever sexual abuse happened, somehow we need to courageously sit and talk about that, and apologize. I don’t know how that will happen.39

Nisley’s reflections highlight one of the difficulties the Commission faced in trying to create a space for respectful dialogue between former residential school students and staff. While, in most cases, this was possible, in other instances, Survivors and their family members found it very difficult to listen to former staff, particularly if they perceived the speaker to be an apologist for the schools.

At the trc Victoria Regional Event, Brother Tom Cavanaugh, the district superior of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate for British Columbia and the Yukon, spoke about his time as a supervisor at the Christie residential school.

What I experienced over the six years I was at Christie residential school was a staff, Native and non-Native alike, working together to provide as much as possible, a safe loving environment for the children attending Christie school. Was it a perfect situation? No, it wasn’t a perfect situation ... but again, there didn’t seem to be, at that time, any other viable alternative in providing a good education for so many children who lived in relatively small and isolated communities.

Survivors and family members who were present in the audience spoke out, saying, “Truth, tell the truth.” Brother Cavanaugh replied, “If you give me a chance, I will tell you the truth.” When trc Chair Justice Murray Sinclair intervened to ask the audi- ence to allow Brother Cavanaugh to finish his statement, he was able to do so with- out further interruption. Visibly shaken, Cavanaugh then went on to acknowledge that children had also been abused in the schools, and he condemned such actions, expressing his sorrow and regret for this breach of trust.

I can honestly say that our men are hurting too because of the abuse scandal and the rift that this has created between First Nations and church representatives.

Many of our men who are still working with First Nations have attended various truth and reconciliation sessions as well as Returning to Spirit sessions, hop- ing to bring about healing for all concerned. The Oblates desire healing for the

abused and for all touched by the past breach of trust. It is our hope that together we can continue to build a better society.40

Later that same day, Ina Seitcher, who attended the Christie residential school, painted a very different picture of the school from what Brother Cavanaugh had described.

I went to Christie residential school. This morning I heard a priest talking about his Christie residential school. I want to tell him [about] my Christie residential school. I went there for ten months. Ten months that impacted my life for fifty years. I am just now on my healing journey.I need to do this, I need to speak

out. I need to speak for my mom and dad who went to residential school, for my aunts, my uncles, all that are beyond now.All the pain of our people, the hurt,

the anger.… That priest that talked about how loving that Christie residential school was—it was not. That priest was most likely in his office not knowing what was going on down in the dorms or in the lunchroomThere were things that

happened at Christie residential school, and like I said, I’m just starting my heal- ing journey. There are doors that I don’t even want to open. I don’t even want to open those doors because I don’t know what it would do to me.41

These two, seemingly irreconcilable, truths are a stark reminder that there are no easy shortcuts to reconciliation. The fact that there were few direct exchanges at TRC events between Survivors and former school staff indicates that for many, the time for reconciliation had not yet arrived. Indeed, for some, it may never arrive. At the Manitoba National Event in 2010, Survivor Evelyn Brockwood talked about why it is important to ensure that there is adequate time for healing to occur in the truth and reconciliation process. She said,

When this came out at the beginning, I believe it was 1990, about residential schools, people coming out with their stories, and ... I thought the term, the words they were using, were truth, healing and reconciliation. But somehow it seems like we are going from truth telling to reconciliation, to reconcile with our white brothers and sisters. My brothers and sisters, we have a lot of work to do in the middle. We should really lift up the word healingGo slow, we are going

too fast, too fast...We have many tears to shed before we even get to the word reconciliation.42

To determine the truth and to tell the full and complete story of residential schools in this country, the TRC needed to hear from Survivors and their families, former staff, government and church officials, and all those affected by residential schools. Canada’s national history in the future must be based on the truth about what happened in the residential schools. One hundred years from now, our children’s children and their children must know and still remember this history, because they will inherit from us the responsibility of ensuring that it never happens again.

What is reconciliation?

During the course of the Commission’s work, it has become clear that the concept of reconciliation means different things to different people, communities, institutions, and organizations. The TRC mandate describes reconciliation as “an ongoing individual and collective process, and will require commitment from all those affected including First Nations, Inuit and Métis former Indian Residential School (irs) students, their families, communities, religious entities, former school employees, government and the people of Canada. Reconciliation may occur between any of the above groups.”43

The Commission defines reconciliation as an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships. A critical part of this process involves repairing damaged trust by making apologies, providing individual and collective reparations, and following through with concrete actions that demonstrate real societal change. Establishing respectful relationships also requires the revitalization of Indigenous law and legal traditions. It is important that all Canadians understand how traditional

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis approaches to resolving conflict, repairing harm, and restoring relationships can inform the reconciliation process.

Traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders have long dealt with conflicts and harms using spiritual ceremonies and peacemaking practices, and by retelling oral history stories that reveal how their ancestors restored harmony to families and communities. These traditions and practices are the foundation of Indigenous law; they contain wisdom and practical guidance for moving towards reconciliation across this land.44

As First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities access and revitalize their spirituality, cultures, languages, laws, and governance systems, and as non-Aboriginal Canadians increasingly come to understand Indigenous history within Canada, and to recognize and respect Indigenous approaches to establishing and maintain- ing respectful relationships, Canadians can work together to forge a new covenant of reconciliation.

Despite the ravages of colonialism, every Indigenous nation across the country, each with its own distinctive culture and language, has kept its legal traditions and peacemaking practices alive in its communities. While Elders and Knowledge Keepers across the land have told us that there is no specific word for “reconciliation” in their own languages, there are many words, stories, and songs, as well as sacred objects such as wampum belts, peace pipes, eagle down, cedar boughs, drums, and regalia, that are used to establish relationships, repair conflicts, restore harmony, and make peace. The ceremonies and protocols of Indigenous law are still remembered and practised in many Aboriginal communities.

At the trc Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum in June 2014, TRC Survivor Committee member and Elder Barney Williams told us that

from sea to sea, we hear words that allude to … what is reconciliation? What does healing or forgiveness mean? And how there’s parallels to all those words that the Creator gave to all the nations.… When I listen and reflect on the voices of the ancestors, your ancestors, I hear my ancestor alluding to the same thing with a different dialect.… My understanding [of reconciliation] comes from a place and time when there was no English spoken … from my grandmother who was born in the 1800s.… I really feel privileged to have been chosen by my grandmother to be the keeper of our knowledge.… What do we need to do? ... We need to go back to ceremony and embrace ceremony as part of moving forward. We need to understand the laws of our people.45

At the same Forum, Elder Stephen Augustine explained the roles of silence and negotiation in Mi’kmaq law. He said silence is a concept, and can be used as a con- sequence for a wrong action or to teach a lesson. Silence is employed according to proper procedures, and ends at a particular time too. Elder Augustine suggested that there is both a place for talking about reconciliation and a need for quiet reflection.

Reconciliation cannot occur without listening, contemplation, meditation, and deeper internal deliberation. Silence in the face of residential school harms is an appropriate response for many Indigenous peoples. We must enlarge the space for respectful silence in journeying towards reconciliation, particularly for Survivors who regard this as key to healing. There is a place for discussion and negotiation for those who want to move beyond silence. Dialogue and mutual adjustment are significant components of Mi’kmaq law. Elder Augustine suggested that other dimensions of human experience—our relationships with the earth and all living beings—are also relevant in working towards reconciliation. This profound insight is an Indigenous law, which could be applied more generally.46

Elder Reg Crowshoe told the Commission that Indigenous peoples’ world views, oral history traditions, and practices have much to teach us about how to establish respectful relationships among peoples and with the land and all living things. Learning how to live together in a good way happens through sharing stories and practising reconciliation in our everyday lives.

When we talk about the concept of reconciliation, I think about some of the sto- ries that I’ve heard in our culture and stories are importantThese stories are so important as theories but at the same time stories are important to oral cultures. So when we talk about stories, we talk about defining our environment and how we look at authorities that come from the land and how that land, when we talk about our relationship with the land, how we look at forgiveness and reconcilia- tion is so important when we look at it historically.

We have stories in our culture about our superheroes, how we treat each other, stories about how animals and plants give us authorities and privileges to use plants as healing, but we also have stories about practices. How would we practise reconciliation? How would we practise getting together to talk about reconciliation in an oral perspective? And those practices are so important.47

As Elder Crowshoe explained further, reconciliation requires talking, but our conversations must be broader than Canada’s conventional approaches. Reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, from an Aboriginal perspective, also requires reconciliation with the natural world. If human beings resolve problems between themselves but continue to destroy the natural world, then reconciliation remains incomplete. This is a perspective that we as Commissioners have repeatedly heard: that reconciliation will never occur unless we are also reconciled with the earth. Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous laws stress that humans must journey through life in conversation and negotiation with all creation. Reciprocity and mutual respect help sustain our survival. It is this kind of healing and survival that is needed in mov- ing forward from the residential school experience.

Over the course of its work, the Commission created space for exploring the meanings and concepts of reconciliation. In public Sharing Circles at National Events and

Community Hearings, we bore witness to powerful moments of truth sharing and humbling acts of reconciliation. Many Survivors had never been able to tell their own families the whole truth of what happened to them in the schools. At hearings in Regina, Saskatchewan, Elder Kirby Littletent said, “I never told, I just told my children, my grandchildren I went to boarding school, that’s all. I never shared my experiences.”48

Many spoke to honour the memory of relatives who have passed on. Simone, an Inuk Survivor from Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, said,

I’m here for my parents—‘Did you miss me when I went away?’ ‘Did you cry for me?’—and I’m here for my brother, who was a victim, and my niece at the age of five who suffered a head injury and never came home, and her parents never had closure. To this day, they have not found the grave in Winnipeg. And I’m here for them first, and that’s why I’m making a public statement.49

Others talked about the importance of reconciling with family members, and cautioned that this process is just beginning. Patrick Etherington, a Survivor from St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany, Ontario, walked with his son and others from Cochrane, Ontario, to the National Event in Winnipeg. He said that the walk helped him to reconnect with his son, and that he “just wanted to be here because I feel this process that we are starting, we got a long ways to go.”50

We saw the children and grandchildren of Survivors who, in searching for their own identity and place in the world, found compassion and gained new respect for their relatives who went to the schools, once they heard about and began to understand their experiences. At the Northern National Event in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Maxine Lacorne said,

As a youth, a young lady, I talk with people my age because I have a good understanding. I talk to people who are residential school Survivors because I like to hear their stories, you know, and it gives me more understanding of my parents.… It is an honour to be here, to sit here among you guys, Survivors. Wow. You guys are strong people, you guys survived everything. And we’re still going to be here. They tried to take us away. They tried to take our language away. You guys are still here, we’re still here. I’m still here.51

We heard about children whose small acts of everyday resistance in the face of rampant abuse, neglect, and bullying in the schools were quite simply heroic. At the trc British Columbia National Event, Elder Barney Williams said that “many of us, through our pain and suffering, managed to hold our heads up … we were brave children.”52 We saw old bonds of childhood friendship renewed as people gathered and found each other at TRC-sponsored events. Together, they remembered the horrors they had endured even as they recalled with pride long-forgotten accomplishments in various school sports teams, music, or art activities. We heard from resilient, courageous Survivors who, despite their traumatic childhood experiences, went on to become influential leaders in their communities and in all walks of Canadian life, including politics, government, law, education, medicine, the corporate world, and the arts.

We heard from officials representing the federal government that administered the schools. In a Sharing Circle at the Manitoba National Event, the Honourable Chuck Strahl (then minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada) said,

Governments like to write ... policy, and they like to write legislation, and they like to codify things and so on. And Aboriginal people want to talk about restoration, reconciliation, forgiveness, about healing ... about truth. And those things are all things of the heart and of relationship, and not of government policy.

Governments do a bad job of that.53

Church representatives spoke about their struggles to right the relationship with Aboriginal peoples. In Inuvik, Anglican Archbishop Fred Hiltz told us that

as a Church, we are renewing our commitment to work with the Assembly of First Nations in addressing long-standing, Indigenous justice issues. As a Church, we are requiring anyone who serves the Church at a national level to go through anti-racism trainingWe have a lot to do in our Church to make sure that racism is eliminated.54

Educators told us about their growing awareness of the inadequate role that post-secondary institutions played in training the teachers who taught in the schools. They have pledged to change educational practices and curriculum to be more inclu- sive of Aboriginal knowledge and history. Artists shared their ideas and feelings about truth and reconciliation through songs, paintings, dance, film, and other media. Corporations provided resources to bring Survivors to events, and, in some cases, some of their own staff and managers.

For non-Aboriginal Canadians who came to bear witness to Survivors’ life stories, the experience was powerful. One woman said simply, “By listening to your story, my story can change. By listening to your story, I can change.”55

Reconciliation as relationship

In its 2012 Interim Report, the TRC recommended that federal, provincial, and territorial governments, and all parties to the Settlement Agreement, undertake to meet and explore the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as a framework for reconciliation in Canada. We remain convinced that the United Nations Declaration provides the necessary principles, norms, and standards for reconciliation to flourish in twenty-first-century Canada.

A reconciliation framework is one in which Canada’s political and legal systems, educational and religious institutions, the corporate sector and civic society function in ways that are consistent with the principles set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada has endorsed. Together, Canadians must do more than just talk about reconciliation; we must learn how to practise reconciliation in our everyday lives—within ourselves and our families, and in our communities, governments, places of worship, schools, and workplaces. To do so constructively, Canadians must remain committed to the ongoing work of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships.

For many Survivors and their families, this commitment is foremost about healing themselves, their communities, and nations, in ways that revitalize individuals as well as Indigenous cultures, languages, spirituality, laws, and governance systems. For governments, building a respectful relationship involves dismantling a centuries-old political and bureaucratic culture in which, all too often, policies and programs are still based on failed notions of assimilation. For churches, demonstrating long-term commitment requires atoning for actions within the residential schools, respecting Indigenous spirituality, and supporting Indigenous peoples’ struggles for justice and equity. Schools must teach history in ways that foster mutual respect, empathy, and engagement. All Canadian children and youth deserve to know Canada’s honest his- tory, including what happened in the residential schools, and to appreciate the rich history and knowledge of Indigenous nations who continue to make such a strong contribution to Canada, including our very name and collective identity as a country. For Canadians from all walks of life, reconciliation offers a new way of living together.

• History of Canada
• History of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean
• James Frideres and his Historical Review: Chapter 1: Knowing Your History in Indigenous Peoples in the 21st Century
• Five Colonizing Nations: Britain, France, Portugal, Netherlands, and Spain
• Examples of Mainstream Rewriting of History

• Who prepared this?
• When was it created?
• Where was it created?
• What was stated?
• Why was it created in the manner it was?
• And how (a sixth W question) was it created?

• Historical foundation of Canada’s policy and framework regarding Indigenous peoples (Searle & Mulholland, 2018): Denial of Indigenous sovereignty + Imposition of patriarchal European sovereignty
• Two means to approach this injustice is to: Help the victim + Convince ourselves no injustice occurred
• Institutions reinforce built-in perspectives of “the way things are,” which deflate the “other” : Raises narrative privilege Settlers have settler imaginary: Represents their views of First

• Privilege is an institutional (not personal) set of benefits granted to some people who dominate powerful positions in our institutions
• White privilege is the ability to make decisions for all without having to take others into consideration
• White elite set standards for all, not maliciously, but because it was their “destiny”; e.g. British North America Act (1867)

• Distance themselves from the responsibilities of previous generations
• Argue Indigenous are an uncaused tragedy; refute the relationship of whiteness and Indigeneity
• Argue people today cannot be responsible for action in the past
• Are so disconnected with the past they have no feeling of responsibility and reject seeing themselves as the benefactors

• Indigenous people argue that norms of fair treatment and equality of opportunity are not met
• Canadians are reluctant to see any “bias” within social structures; they see the status quo as legitimate
• Most Canadians reject the references to genocide (physical, social, and cultural), considered too harsh and that actions taken were in the sense of righteousness and justified
• Individuals who created laws and policies rarely showed guilt or remorse; settlers did not view the actions as criminal
• Dominant group engaged in the erasure of truths, removal of knowledge to legitimatize Western ideology, history, which continues to hide Western imperialism while simultaneously maintaining superiority over Indigenous people

• Historical content keeps points of view or documents of events in some form to be transmitted to the next generation
• The written history of First Nations for the most part has not been written by them, so does it capture the essence of Indigenous life accurately?
• Between 1850–1950, most items made by Indigenous people would be owned by others
• Literature homogenizes the Indigenous Nations under the category of “Indian”
• Writing reflects the cultural ethos and perspective of the writer(s)
• How accurate would your history be if it were written by people from another culture?

• The view that Indigenous people did not contribute to Canada’s history was written into Canadian texts by elites who benefitted by representing the Indigenous people in a negative light

• Indigenous peoples did not contribute to Canada’s development
• They have lost cultural vibrancy
• They are headed for extinction
• Covered up the physical, psychological, and cultural violence, reduced to wardship, neo-liberal philosophy
• Forgotten are Indigenous technologies, social organization, ecological knowledge, and the direct assistance and adaptation to the settler people

• An estimated 500,000 Indigenous people inhabited what is now Canada
• Semi-nomadic and sedentary by Great Lakes and West Coast, kinship units, extended family and clans
• Little separation of social, economic, and spiritual dimensions of people’s lives
• Some societies were matrilineal and inclusive of women in the political sphere, while others viewed women as sacred
• Life organized around annual cycles
• Sense of family and community
• Pre-contact conflict focused on control over trade routes, obtaining slaves, and political organization and control
• Across Canada, there are seven major cultural areas with over 50 languages in 12 language groups, each with their own political and social structure tied to the ecological niche in which they lived

• About 1000 BC, Vikings sailed across the Atlantic and settled for several years
• Jacques Cartier, 1534—near present-day Quebec City; returned to France with two sons of Donnacona
• Samuel de Champlain, 1603—encountered Inuu, Kanienkehaka; founded Quebec City in 1608
• Brought with them the concept of the patriarchal family and the idea that the white man’s burden was to “civilize,” and reorganize based on their concepts
• Brought about the displacement of women’s roles in government and leadership and reorganized the family
• Men were brought into line with patrilineal system using punitive measures against the women
• 1876 Indian Act cemented the new social system dispossessing women from all power, denied votes, and forced into the reshaped version of family
• Interface with Indigenous people can be described in phases

• French and English made inroads with considerable conflict
• First Nations are allies
• First Nations and Inuit were essential to settler survival; taught settlers about land and survival about foods, clothing to wear, travel, and routes
• Symbiotic relationship
• Europeans supplies metal tools and firearms, and other material objects

• Royal Proclamation, 1763—recognized Indigenous interest and common use of ancestral lands
• Resistance by First Nations Iroquois (1609–1701), Fox (1710–38), and Mi’kmaq (1613–1761) wars
• Peace and Friendship Treaties
• First Nations drawn deeper into economy of the settlers through trade
• Become dependent on trade goods
• Devastation by diseases began to have an impact
• Pre-contact First Nations numbers reduced to barely 100,000 by the end of the 19th century
• French fur trade in its infancy was controlled by the Compagnie des Indes occidentals
• Company first dealt with fur and moose hide trade, then changed to timber, minerals, and food stuffs
• Fur trade was profitable and allowed the French to control the settlers
• Local animal populations declined
• 1860, Hudson Bay Company established
• Defeat of French (1759) and Montreal (1760) and Treaty of Paris (1763)
• War of 1812, First Nations as allies, promises made are ignored, First Nations now viewed as impediments to progress

• Colonization seriously impacts the way of life for First Nations
• Settlement, disease, First Nations doomed to extinction
• Beothuk do become extinct; last known died in 1829
• First Nations numbers decline
• Epidemics decimate First Nations populations—no resistance to typhoid, smallpox, common maladies

• Canada moved the jurisdiction of First Nations from military to civil society
• Provided some degree of self government with limited power
• Creation of the reserves
• Indian Act established in 1876
• Canadian government denies citizenship rights to First Nations people, including the right to vote
• Métis and Inuit are not recognized under the Indian Act at the time
• Assumption that First Nations are incapable of making adult decisions and need special protection of the Crown
• Creation of residential schools
• Enfranchisement legislation put into place
• Riel Resistance **** reminded the government that Indigenous people still pose a threat and needed to be extinguished forever, made subservient, or dependent (embedded link that describes a significant part of Canadian history and the Métis Peoples in Canada)
• By 1867, more than 100 treaties and land surrenders negotiated; today there are more then 500
• 1850–1923, 66 treaties were negotiated and signed between the government and First Nations people to extinguish First Nations and Métis land rights for expansion of the railway and settlement
• 1850 Robinson Huron (Ontario) treaties became the template for future treaties; changes to the template only occurred if more concessions were made by the First Nations
• Numbered treaties open the west; notable concession of the Medicine Chest in Number 6
• Implementation of treaty agreements were not fulfilled and if challenged by First Nations, they would be threatened or ignored or defrauded
• Results in Ottawa taking over lands and natural resources in less then a century
• Once treaties were signed, the government deemed their responsibility resolved; period of benign neglect
• Widespread settlement
• Government dominates over the First Nations, seen as superior race; manifest destiny added to the belief of superiority
• If First Nations resisted, starvation policies would ensure the First Nations capitulated
• Over time, lands would be removed from reserves as cut-off lands deemed not needed by the First Nations
• Government action and inaction
• Reserves established and Indian agents ensured rules were followed
• First Nations communities were systematically denied provisions to develop land; provisions of farm implements, animals, and agricultural equipment largely ignored
• Indian agents were instructed to discourage farming and encouraged small gardens and in some cases government refused to supply equipment
• Social barriers put into place with the pass system, which continued in some areas up to 1940s

• The democratic phase when government shifted its philosophy of assimilation; centered on the residential schools and changed to a policy of integration
• Revisions to the Indian Act 1951 repealed laws against ceremonies, potlatches, sun dances; allowed First Nations to exercise some control over their lives
• White Paper 1969 outlined a plan whereby the First Nations would be legally terminated and treaties would cease to be living documents
• Responsibility of health and education would be turned over to the provinces
• Government intended to do away with all legally recognized “Indian” people
• Protests by First Nations, and political, social, and religious groups would eventually cause the withdrawal of the Paper

• Since the 1970s the courts have been filled with challenges to the moral status of land claims on the grounds that Indigenous peoples’ rights that had been systematically ignored
• 1970 Supreme Court case that won the right for Indigenous people to drink
• 1982 Constitutional s.35 protection of “existing” rights
• Establishment of rights has been growing to include additional rights
• Indian Land Claims Commission formed 1991
• Since 1970, the government has embarked on a devolution of political and economic control over Bands
• Self-government or sovereignty is minimal at this point

• Researched for five years
• Findings and recommendations on how the federal government can change its relationship with the First Nations people of Canada

• The Indigenous experience has not been part of the written history of Canadians; assumption that Indigenous people did not contribute to the development of society
• First Nations communities, due to their remote locations, had little interaction with Canadians; however, their contributions to society were major—as settlers moved into the territories there was a melding of cultures, and Indigenous people were pivotal to growth in the early economy of Canada
• A philosophy of displacement and assimilation were the underlying factors and goals in policies and programming for Indigenous peoples
• Policies, which assumed Indigenous peoples are inferior and incapable of governing themselves, were designed to destroy Indigenous institutions, undermine cultural values, and damage identity
• There are many forms of resistance: overt, implicit, symbolic

• Indigenous cultures have changed considerably over the past few centuries
• Many elements of the culture continue to have a powerful influence on the lives of Indigenous people
• Federal government has not fully accepted the fact that First Nations have special rights—considerable denial, reluctance, and equivocation still exist
• Historical and contemporary strategies to curtail rights have resulted in passing legislation to keep Indigenous people from pursuing litigation

• Turtle Island
• Indigenous sovereignty
• colonialism / colonization
• colonialism / colonization
• assimilation / displacement
• paternalism
• dominant
• patriarchy
• matrilineal / women as sacred
• dependency
• colonizing nations
• reserve system
• court decisions
• Indigenous resistance

• 1534 Jacques Cartier's arrival to the New World
• Royal Proclamation of 1763
• Friendship and Friendship Treaties
• Indian Act 1876
• White Paper of 1969
• 1970's Court decisions
• 1996 Royal Commission on Indigenous Peoples
• 1982 Constitution Act and s.35 protection of “existing” rights
• 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

1. L’nuey: Treaties of Peace and Friendship
2. We Were Not the Savages (Paul, 2000): pp. 23-43 (Mi'kmaq Social Values and Economy)

• Mi’kmaq Historians: Augustine, Augustine, Paul, and Sark
• Mi'kmaq Social Values and Economy / Pituamkek - A Mi’kmaq Heritage Landscape?
• Treaties
• Royal Proclamation Act of 1763
• Indian Act of 1876

• Where did they live? Were they nomadic, semi-nomadic, or anchored to one place?
• What characterized their lifestyle?
• Did they know poverty, starvation, or unhealthy ways?
• What did they eat? What was daily life like?
• How did they treat their Elderly?

• The First Wabanaki Treaty with the Crown, 1725
• The Treaty of Halifax, 1752
• Governor Belcher’s Guarantees to the Mi’kmaq, 1761
• Royal Instructions to British Governors, 1761
• Royal Proclamation of 1763

• What did you know about the Indian Act prior to viewing this video?
• What did you learn from this short video?
• What were some of the aspects of the Indian Act that you found profound, disturbing, or not fully understood?
• Are you aware of any other type of legislation that has such widespread impacts on a group of people?
• Why do you think there has been no movement toward repealing the Indian Act, although it has been heavily criticized for many years?
• How would you describe the Indian Act if someone asked you to explain it?

• Mi’kmak’i, the land of the L’nu or Mi’kmaq peoples
• Maw'omi, gathering of the people
• traditional regalia
• birchbark wigwam (Mi'kmaq structure used for shelter and living)
• definition of treaty
• Treaties of Peace and Friendship
• Royal Proclamation of 1763
• assimilation
• traditional Mi’kmaq government structure / role of Chiefs
• Mi'kmaq Social Values and Economy (Daniel N. Paul)
• Indian Act of 1876

• Why has this happened?
• Why has colonialism been such a destructive force?
• Why does it take so long to resolve or reconcile our past?
• Why are there still instances of on-going ‘colonization’?

• Mastering Terminology
• Frideres' Overview of History of Indigenous Peoples in Canada
• Colonization Practices and the Indian Act of 1876
• Reserve System
• Indian Residential Schools (including Vowel’s Chapter 20)
• Sixties Scoop & Inuit Relocation (including Vowel’s Chapters 21 & 22)
• Broken Promises, Racism, and Genocide

• Varis Presentation on Siksika First Nation, Alberta, Canada

• Reservation | Native Americans | One Word

• Residential Schools in Canada: A Timeline

1. Statistics (150 years of operation, 150,000 children attended, 6000 children (at least) who died while in the system…pp. 171)
2. Historic trauma transmission - “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding across generations” (pp.172)
3. It was legal, acceptable and happened (pp. 172)
4. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: 2008-2015 (pp. 172)
5. How did you not know this? (pp. 173)
6. Canada’s First Public Apology: 2008 (pp. 173 and, as we know, Roman Catholic Church only offered apology in 2022 (Varis)
7. TRC (2015): “The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as “cultural genocide.” (pp. 173)
8. TRC Calls to Action (pp. 174)
9. Education for Reconciliation: “Education is key to reconciliation.” University of Winnipeg and Lakehead University (2016-2017) introduced the mandatory course. (pp. 176)
10. K-12 Education on Indigenous peoples’ shows that no mandatory courses, only six provinces offer elective Indigenous Studies courses. (pp. 177)

• Stolen Children | Residential School survivors speak
• Sisters & Brothers
• E’nikaq Nsitunaq / I Lost My Talk

1. Sixties or Millennial Scoop also be referred to Stolen or Lost Generations (pp. 181)
2. Similar child welfare and protection policies were also implemented in Australia with unfavourable results (pp. 181)
3. Adoption as cultural annihilation. Statistics show that at least 11,132 status-Indian children removed from home between 1960-1990. Estimates show about 20,000 Metis and non-status were placed in care. With 70-90 percent placed in non-Indigenous homes (pp. 182)
4. One Manitoba Judge appointed to an inquiry into the child welfare system in 1982 commented, “The miracle is that there were not more children lost in the system run by many well-intentioned people. The road to hell was paved with good intentions, and the child welfare system was the paving contractor.” (pp.  183)
5. By 2002, 22,500 Indigenous children in foster care. Indigenous children are six to eight times more likely than non-Indigenous children to end up in care. (pp. 183)
6. This over-representation…. “is not rooted in their indigenous race, culture and ethnicity. It’s rooted in the same colonial history and resultant poverty, social and community disorganization….” (pp. 183)
7. Systemic discrimination and underfunding, and Federal Court ruling of 2012 (pp. 184), and 2021 federal government decision not to appeal and settle law-suit in 2021. (Varis)
8. Millennial scoop and continuation of over-representation, e.g.: Indigenous children represent 21 percent of children in Manitoba; but 84 percent of children in permanent care. (pp. 184)
9. Statistics tell us one thing; but, it becomes evident that poverty is at root, and compounded by intergenerational trauma and poor structural conditions. (pp. 185-187)
10. Legacy of 100 years of cultural abuse (pp. 187)

• Separating children from parents: The Sixties Scoop in Canada

1. Another apology by Federal government, this time to the Inuit for the relocation of families from Inukjuak and Pond inlet to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay during the 1950s. (pp. 191)
2. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) pointed this out in its 1996 report, and included such impacts as a) severing Aboriginal people’s relationship to the land and environment and weakening cultural bonds; b) a loss of economic self-sufficiency, including, in some cases, increased dependence on government transfer payments, c) a decline in standards of health, and d) changes in social and political relations in the relocated population. (pp. 191)
3. Federal government’s approach to the Inuit of the North was different than for First Nations, it was characterized by unwillingness to take responsibility, although Supreme Court ruling of 1938 affirmed otherwise. (pp. 186) Rather a disinterest and neglect approach. (Varis)
4. Inuit relocations between 1930s and 1950s saw a disruption to lives and decisions made with no consultation. (pp. 193)
5. Qimmiijaqtauniq: The Dog Slaughter actions by authorities (RCMP) in the 1950s to 1970s saw Inuit sled dogs killed en masse. While under the guise of public health and safety, it coincided with relocations, removal of Inuit children from their families for extended periods of time, and destruction of a traditional way of life. (pp. 194)
6. Another goal of the relocation was to assert Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic. (pp. 203)
7. Vowel concludes, “Perhaps the only way relocation will cease to be offered as a solution to the ‘Indian and Inuit problem’ is if non-Indigenous Canadians learn the history and recognize that abandoning a failed tactic is in the best interest of all peoples living in this country.” (pp. 204)

• IKE1040 Forced Relocation Video by Assistant Professor, Enooyak Sudlovenick

• Ausuittuq - Larry Audlaluk

• Canadians have been breaking their promises to Indigenous people
• Confronting racism in Canada on National Indigenous Peoples Day
• How Canada changed the definition of genocide while engaging in crimes against Indigenous Peoples

• Self-directed

• Self-directed

• The Land, Water, Air, Fire and Relations of the L’nu
• Alfred, Venne, and Manuel
• Land Dispossession
• Systemic Racism
• Right to Self-Determination

• How do you feel about this?

• How do you feel about this?

• How do you feel about this?

• What did you think?
• How do you feel about this?
• Why does systemic racism still continue to this day?

25. The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada including:

1. a) any rights or freedoms that have been recognized by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763; and
2. b) any rights or freedoms that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.

• Self-directed

• Trauma: What is Trauma?
• Intergenerational Trauma
• Traditional Healing
• Contemporary Health and Wellness

• persistent dysphoria;
• chronic suicidal preoccupation;
• self-injury;
• explosive or extremely inhibited anger (may alternate); [and]
• compulsive or extremely inhibited sexuality (may alternate).

3. Alterations in consciousness, including:

• amnesia or hyperamnesia for traumatic events;
• transient dissociative episodes;
• depersonalization/derealization; [and]
• reliving experiences, either in the form of intrusive post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or in the form of ruminative preoccupation.

4. Alterations in self-perception, including:

• sense of helplessness or paralysis of initiative;
• shame, guilt and self-blame; • sense of defilement or stigma; [and]
• sense of complete difference from others (may include sense of specialness, utter aloneness, belief no other person can understand or non-human identity).

• pre-occupation with relationship with perpetrator (includes preoccupation with revenge);
• unrealistic attribution of total power to perpetrator (caution: victim’s assessment of power realities may be more realistic than clinician’s);
• idealization or paradoxical [relationship]…
• sense of special or supernatural relationship; [and]
• acceptance of belief system or rationalizations of perpetrator.

• isolation and withdrawal;
• disruption in intimate relationships;
• repeated search for rescuer (may alternate with isolation and withdrawal);
• persistent distrust; [and]
• repeated failures of self-protection.

7. Alterations in systems of meaning, [including]:

• loss of sustaining faith; [and]
• sense of hopelessness and despair.” (Wesley-Esquimaux and Smolewski, 2004, p.95)

• What did you take away from this viewing?
• Did anyone note where this animation was produced?  What does that mean?
• What other thoughts occurred after you had time to reflect upon viewing?

• What did you take away from this viewing?
• What does this tell you about the impacts of historic and intergenerational trauma?
• What are the costs of intergenerational trauma?
• Does our knowledge of impacts and costs suggest we need to pay attention to current day actions and harms?

• Self-directed

• Indigenous Resilience
• Reclamation
• Resistance

• What did you take-away?
• What did you learn about resilience?
• What role do women play in advancing resilience, reclamation and resistance?

1. the process of claiming something back or of reasserting a right.  Usage: "the reclamation of our shared history"

• recovery
• recapture
• retrieval
• rescue
• repossession
• replenishment
• recoupment
• redemption

Figure 36: Mawi’omi at the University of Prince Edward Island 2016 ~ Reclamation

• What were the main messages from each reporting?
• How does this make you feel?
• To what extent are these reclamation initiatives representative of what is happening across Turtle Island?
• In your opinion, how long will it take before full reclamation is a reality?

• How do you feel about this?
• What role does resistance play in illuminating the 'truth'?
• Do you think it's more important to celebrate or resist? Please explain.

• How do you feel about this?
• What may Melina have been experiencing physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually at the time?
• Where does resistance or the act of resisting come from?
• Why don't others feel these intensity of thoughts and emotions as Melina?
• Do you think the author will see her vision come to fruition? Her vision is summarized as follows: "People from diverse backgrounds and creeds will truly begin to work together in honesty and respect – with a deep sense of solidarity with one another. It is a time when people from the Four Directions will come together to work for justice, peace, freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit and the sacredness of our Mother Earth. This time, my friends, is upon us (p. 40).

• Self-directed

• Indigenous peoples in the 21st Century
• Inuit and Métis Nations
• Social Activism: Creating a New Narrative for Social Change

• Assembly of First Nations
• Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
• MétisNational Council
• National Association of Friendship Centres
• Native Women's Association of Canada
• Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
• Women of the MétisNation

In 2005, as a member of the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey delegation with Veterans Affairs Canada, which I spoke about earlier, I had the opportunity to meet several Inuit. In Figures 42, 43, and 44, I present two of our Inuit youth, an Inuit Elder, and members from the Inuit community, who unveiled an Inuksuk in Juno Beach in France.

• fighting for social rights?
• actively protesting injustice?
• a collective social movement to enact or bring about change?

• marginalized and racialized (Anyiwo, Palmer, Garrett, Starck, & Hope, 2020)
• eccentric and militant (Bashir, Lockwood, Chasteen, Nadolny, & Noyes, 2013)
• tree-hugger, hippie, over-reactive (Bashir et al., 2013)
• unpleasant extremists (Sobieraj, 2011)
• feminists, aggressive, unconventional and disagreeable (Berryman-Fink & Verderber, 1985; Twenge & Zucker, 1991; Dutt & Grabe, 2014)
• radical, aggressive emotionality, moral superiority, virtue-signaling (Phelan, 2019)
• disadvantaged, strong, and aggressive (Burrows, Selvanathan, & Lickel, 2023)
• raging grannies (Sawchuk, 2009)

• How did that make you feel?

• Self-directed

1. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Dancing on Our Turtle's Back: Stories of Nishnaaneg Recreation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Press, 2011), 17.
2. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), 56.

• Understanding and Enacting the TRC Calls to Action
• Reconciliation through Education
• Exploring Responsible Citizenship 

Figure 51: Charlene Bearhead at special UPEI Faculty of Education workshop

• What do you think Richard is saying? Does it make better sense now after our learning journey?
• What does this mean for your continued learning?
• What action is required of you going forward?

        THE MACHINERY OF COLONIZATION

Crown title : A legal lie

Sharon Venne

Red Rising Magazine

 

Most Canadians assume that somehow Canada acquired formal title to this land 150 years ago in the British North America Act, the country’s founding document. That this is not the case is clearly reflected in the fact that Canada is still desperately negotiating with hundreds of First Nations to have them surrender, once and for all, their title to the lands given to us by the Creator.

So, it is clear even today that Canada and the provinces that were created by an Act of the British Parliament in 1867 do not have any inherent authority in our territories. In the creation of the state, the lie of underlying title was passed along without much thought to the implications. Or, if the British House of Commons or Lords thought of the implications, there was a decision made at some point to try to simply disinherit the rights of our nations.

We see the continuation of these same legal lies today in the so-called British Columbia treaty process, which is clearly a sham process. It is not a treaty process. It is not dealing with the real issues of underlying title. The land claims policy of Canada works from the assumption that the title vests in the Crown and that the Indians are making a “claim” for our own lands and territories.

The British used the Doctrine of Discovery to assert authority and jurisdiction over our territories throughout Turtle Island. It was to prevent other colonizers from asserting their jurisdiction. The British Crown sent representatives across the oceans to the shore of our island. What they saw, they wanted. There was only one problem. The lands and resources were being used by our nations. In order to gain access to our territories, the British Crown enacted the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to govern the subjects. This Proclamation was for the subjects of the Crown to follow when trying to access our territories. There are three important aspects of the Royal Proclamation: 1) In order to access the lands and territories of “Indian Nations or Tribes,” there needed to be an agreement or a treaty. 2) If the Crown’s subjects were within the territories of the Indian Nations or Tribes, the Crown was obligated to remove them (they would be considered squatters). 3) Agreements or treaties would be made only if the Indians “so desired.” This makes treaties a prerequisite to the Crown’s subjects legitimately moving into the territories of Indigenous Nations.

There was a start to the treaty-making process that moved from the east going west and north; when the colonizers reached the Rocky Mountains, they stopped making treaties with our nations.

Except for the treaties made on Vancouver Island and a small section of the northeastern part of what is now called British Columbia, the rest of the present province remains without the treaties that were demanded by the directives of the British Crown.

In 1972, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – which some people refer to as the World Court – issued an advisory opinion in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Western Sahara case. The Court struck down the concepts of discovery, conquest and terra nullius – lands without any people. Our nations were never discovered; we were not lost. We were not conquered. Our territories were not terra nullius – the ICJ directed that there needed to be a treaty prior to entering into their territory. British Columbia and large areas of Canada did not have treaties with the colonizers. Instead, Canada tries to manipulate the treaty process. The policies leave our nations in debt as our small underfunded communities need to borrow money to have the resources to negotiate with Canada. The irony of the whole process is not lost on our old people – “Why are we borrowing money to talk about our lands?” Then, there are the non-ending unilateral decisions by Canada while it changes the non-ending policies and directives. Canada makes no attempt to have a true treaty relationship based on trust and good faith. It is one-sided. It is also contrary to the United Nations’ directives.

This was clear in Canada’s creation of the federal Comprehensive Land Claims Policy in 1986. This is a policy. It is not a law. It is not based on the elements of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Canada continues to seek certainty largely through a de facto extinguishment of Aboriginal title. Most of the recent settlements contain a clause: “This Agreement constitutes the full and final settlement in respect of the aboriginal rights, including aboriginal title, in Canada of X First Nation.” If our nations did not have title, why does the state spend so much money and time to get the nations to sign off on the extinguishment clauses of a claims settlement?

There is no attempt by Canada to seek co-existence as set out in the Royal Proclamation, which recognized our nations and tribes as having ownership to our lands and the need for a treaty to access them. What is so hard to understand? Ownership would eliminate poverty. It would raise up our nations to their rightful place in the family of nations. Clearly, the state of Canada has a vested interest in maintaining the lie.

Sharon Venne, a lawyer and member of the Cree Nation who has worked on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and with First Nations communities on the implementation of their own legal systems. She has played an active role in the national and international struggles of many Indigenous peoples, including the Lubicon Cree and Dene Nation. She has a Masters of Law degree from the University of Alberta, and is presently a doctoral candidate, writing a thesis on treaty rights of Indigenous peoples and international law.

From dispossession to dependency

Arthur Manuel