What Does Reconciliation Mean To You? | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Special

Speaker: 00:00:00

I acknowledge that I have resided on the ancestral lands of

Speaker: 00:00:04

Treaty 1, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Cree, Oji

Speaker: 00:00:08

Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and the national homeland of the Red

Speaker: 00:00:11

river maintees. I also acknowledge that our water is procured from Shoal Lake.

Speaker: 00:00:15

40th 1st nation I acknowledge that the social work

Speaker: 00:00:19

profession, my chosen degree, has played an active role in destroying the cultural

Speaker: 00:00:22

traditions of the indigenous peoples of Canada. I am committed to discontinuing

Speaker: 00:00:26

this practice and restoring those traditions as I enter into my career. I

Speaker: 00:00:30

acknowledge that the education I received my empty on the history of Canada has come

Speaker: 00:00:33

from a colonial perspective, and I am committed to learning from different perspectives.

Speaker: 00:00:38

Colonization is not a thing of the past, but is still present in the structure

Speaker: 00:00:41

and systems of canadian society. I continue to learn and share what

Speaker: 00:00:45

I have learned with those in my community, both now and with the future generation,

Speaker: 00:00:49

in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:00:59

Hey, welcome back to journey with care. I'm your host for today, Johan. We're so

Speaker: 00:01:03

honored to have you with us on this very important episode commemorating

Speaker: 00:01:06

the national Day for truth and reconciliation. So hopefully today

Speaker: 00:01:10

we can explore the profound significance of reconciliation with our indigenous

Speaker: 00:01:14

brothers and sisters across Canada. So in this special

Speaker: 00:01:18

episode, we'll hear from some inspiring voices who share their deeply

Speaker: 00:01:22

personal and thoughtful insights on what reconciliation means to

Speaker: 00:01:25

them. We're going to play some clips from our past conversations that

Speaker: 00:01:29

we've had will walk through the experiences, challenges, and

Speaker: 00:01:33

hopes of both indigenous and non indigenous individuals and their

Speaker: 00:01:36

families. This day is not only about reflecting on the

Speaker: 00:01:40

past, but also actively participating in a future where

Speaker: 00:01:43

reconciliation is at the heart of our communities. So we feel

Speaker: 00:01:47

it's crucial that we come together to listen, learn, and engage in

Speaker: 00:01:51

these conversations. We'll honor the resilience and strength of the

Speaker: 00:01:55

indigenous peoples, acknowledging the trauma imposed by

Speaker: 00:01:57

colonialism, and commit to walking alongside them in a

Speaker: 00:02:01

spirit of genuine partnership and respect.

Speaker: 00:02:04

Reconciliation is a journey that requires humility,

Speaker: 00:02:07

intentionality, and the willingness to face uncomfortable truths. So

Speaker: 00:02:11

as we listen to our guests, let their words inspire you to strive

Speaker: 00:02:15

for meaningful change in your life and in your community.

Speaker: 00:02:18

By embracing reconciliation, we bring to life the call to love our neighbors

Speaker: 00:02:22

as ourselves, promoting healing, restoring dignity, and

Speaker: 00:02:26

nurturing relationships. This process can be challenging, but

Speaker: 00:02:30

it's vital for fostering a world that reflects the fullness of God's

Speaker: 00:02:33

kingdom. So here we go. First, let's hear from Jimmy Thunder, an

Speaker: 00:02:37

OG Cree MbA graduate who is currently serving in the

Speaker: 00:02:41

premier's office here in Manitoba. We interviewed him in episode seven

Speaker: 00:02:45

of season one and we asked what reconciliation means to

Speaker: 00:02:48

him. Here's what he had to say.

Speaker: 00:02:55

I would say reconciliation is when two parties

Speaker: 00:02:59

come together, come to an agreement of a wrong being

Speaker: 00:03:02

done, and have a renewed commitment to

Speaker: 00:03:05

rebuild a relationship and to make amends and to commit to a better

Speaker: 00:03:09

relationship into the future. Jimmy also works in partnership

Speaker: 00:03:13

with circles of reconciliation. Here he shares a practical step

Speaker: 00:03:17

that we can all take to participate in reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:03:21

What we were seeing is that there's a lot of people who have this now

Speaker: 00:03:24

renewed interest in learning about reconciliation and learning about our history.

Speaker: 00:03:28

But it's just amazing to realize that we don't even

Speaker: 00:03:31

have a common base yet to begin with. We're not even at square one

Speaker: 00:03:35

together. And so a great starting point is to look at the

Speaker: 00:03:39

work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Not only the final

Speaker: 00:03:42

report and all the research that's been done, but even just start at

Speaker: 00:03:46

square one and just look at the 94 calls to action. How many Canadians

Speaker: 00:03:50

do we have even today that don't know what the 94 calls to action

Speaker: 00:03:53

are? What's in there? What are the themes? And much

Speaker: 00:03:57

less which one of the calls to action can they commit to working? And

Speaker: 00:04:01

a lot of misconceptions are that the calls to action are directed towards the government,

Speaker: 00:04:04

but it's actually meant for each member of canadian society. There's even a whole

Speaker: 00:04:08

section for the church, isn't there? Exactly. Yeah, there definitely

Speaker: 00:04:12

is. Let's go through all of these calls to action one by

Speaker: 00:04:15

one, every day for 94 days. And let's commit to reading

Speaker: 00:04:19

each and every one of them. And not just ourselves, but let's challenge all

Speaker: 00:04:23

those around us, everyone in our networks, our organizations. Let's get people to

Speaker: 00:04:27

read these and to commit to action on them.

Speaker: 00:04:34

Next up, let's revisit our conversation with Doctor James Robertson of

Speaker: 00:04:38

Tyndale University in Toronto. We sat down on episode

Speaker: 00:04:41

eleven in season one to talk about his book, overlooked and the

Speaker: 00:04:45

church's relationship and history with the indigenous peoples. In this

Speaker: 00:04:49

clip, Doctor Robertson shares an illustration of what it means as a

Speaker: 00:04:52

Christian to engage in reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:05:00

Let's say we've had a friendship for years, and if I

Speaker: 00:05:04

have been perpetually and constantly doing something that harms

Speaker: 00:05:07

you, maybe not intentionally, maybe not physical, but I'm using

Speaker: 00:05:11

insensitive language. We can put it right down to a baseline. Like, I'm just saying

Speaker: 00:05:14

something about you or to you that you don't appreciate. You

Speaker: 00:05:18

know, you're like, okay, at first, well, you know, this is. James, I'm gonna let

Speaker: 00:05:21

this go, but eventually, because we have a relationship. You bring it to my attention.

Speaker: 00:05:24

Like, listen, this is how it's going. Well, now I have a choice. You know,

Speaker: 00:05:27

I can be like, what. Do you mean, like that? And we can have all

Speaker: 00:05:28

those fake sort of, I'm sorry that you feel that way. Those terrible apology apologies

Speaker: 00:05:32

that are just reiterated for me. If

Speaker: 00:05:36

I'm going to follow that Nazarene Carpenter, that super

Speaker: 00:05:40

cool God of mine, human that lived 2000 years

Speaker: 00:05:44

ago, I don't have an option other than to

Speaker: 00:05:47

be like, I hear you. You're right. It is now my

Speaker: 00:05:51

choice to value our friendship or

Speaker: 00:05:55

my desires. And what Christ has taught me is that our friendship

Speaker: 00:05:58

matters more in the economy of God and therefore my

Speaker: 00:06:02

rights, my desires, which we've heard so much of in the

Speaker: 00:06:06

past few years. And people reacting to that. And what

Speaker: 00:06:09

saddens me is of course, a lot of christian voices are hopping on that as

Speaker: 00:06:12

well. But if we are followers of Christ, I mean, it's

Speaker: 00:06:16

right in Philippians too. Like, he didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped,

Speaker: 00:06:20

but he humbled himself to the point of death, death on a crosse. At the

Speaker: 00:06:23

very least I can look at my sister in Christ and say, you know

Speaker: 00:06:27

what? I'm sorry. You're right. I will do better going

Speaker: 00:06:31

forward. Please forgive me. And then that gives you the chance to say, I

Speaker: 00:06:34

do forgive you. Doctor Robertson then shared some

Speaker: 00:06:38

of his concerns with reconciliation becoming a buzzword rather

Speaker: 00:06:42

than facilitating change. Here's what he had to say.

Speaker: 00:06:46

I think the damage to reconciliation now is, one, it will become trendy and like

Speaker: 00:06:49

all trends, it'll go away. And this cannot go away. Right? And

Speaker: 00:06:53

two, the words are better, but there's no sense

Speaker: 00:06:57

of community, there's no actual respect for indigenous

Speaker: 00:07:00

perspectives in a way that will actually facilitate change. And

Speaker: 00:07:04

of course, the word for which I think is a great word for it, both

Speaker: 00:07:06

biblically and realistically, the word reconciliation, that's what

Speaker: 00:07:10

concerns me about the trajectory of settler and indigenous relations.

Speaker: 00:07:17

Moving on to an earlier episode, episode ten of season one,

Speaker: 00:07:21

our season one host, Melvina, sat down with Jennifer Mason, an

Speaker: 00:07:25

Anishinaabe woman who is one of Melvina's fellow co workers at inner

Speaker: 00:07:28

city youth alive here in Winnipeg, sharing what reconciliation means to

Speaker: 00:07:32

her. Jesus is at the

Speaker: 00:07:36

center of everything because of how real he is for

Speaker: 00:07:39

me. And so everything always comes back to my faith.

Speaker: 00:07:43

And so for me it stems from, you know, I

Speaker: 00:07:47

grew up in a home, wherever Jesus was in the home.

Speaker: 00:07:51

But what I learned was to

Speaker: 00:07:55

know him well, to be a good Christian, meant that I couldn't

Speaker: 00:07:58

be me. It meant that I had to learn how to look like

Speaker: 00:08:02

someone else, to act like someone else, to be like someone else in order to

Speaker: 00:08:06

be a good Christian. And it's been a really long journey, but

Speaker: 00:08:10

for sure, actively, at least the last ten years, God has just showed me

Speaker: 00:08:13

that all of that was wrong and taught me how to

Speaker: 00:08:17

love myself. And that in that I am

Speaker: 00:08:21

indigenous, he has intentionally made me

Speaker: 00:08:25

Anishinaabe and all that that entails, and

Speaker: 00:08:28

that he didn't make any mistakes. It wasn't, oops, I did this.

Speaker: 00:08:32

You gotta figure out how to make it better. And, you know, he

Speaker: 00:08:36

intentionally chose for me to be Anishinaabe. And he has

Speaker: 00:08:40

been teaching me that. So my journey of reconciliation,

Speaker: 00:08:44

it began to. With decolonizing my mind because

Speaker: 00:08:47

what I was taught was done so well, yeah,

Speaker: 00:08:51

that I rejected all of the things that were

Speaker: 00:08:55

associated with me being indigenous, with being first nations.

Speaker: 00:08:59

And he's like, nope, I knew what I was doing when I made you.

Speaker: 00:09:03

And I want to be proud of that. And so, yeah,

Speaker: 00:09:06

he's taught me to love myself and to be proud of the

Speaker: 00:09:10

fact that I am Anishinaabe.

Speaker: 00:09:21

Our next clip we hear from Karen Jolly, a pastor

Speaker: 00:09:24

and indigenous community leader who was our guest on season one, episode 14.

Speaker: 00:09:28

We're going to hear from her husband Howard a little later, but here's Karen Jolly

Speaker: 00:09:32

being asked the same question. What does reconciliation mean to

Speaker: 00:09:35

you? I think

Speaker: 00:09:39

probably the biggest thing, fixing something that has been

Speaker: 00:09:43

broken, and it carries into many

Speaker: 00:09:46

different places. Right, like, but probably the strongest thing is

Speaker: 00:09:50

relationships. When relationships are

Speaker: 00:09:53

broken, there needs to be a time where you

Speaker: 00:09:57

bring people together, you talk about what's

Speaker: 00:10:00

happened, and then you try to fix and mendeze

Speaker: 00:10:04

that relationship then. But it doesn't necessarily

Speaker: 00:10:08

mean that you become best friends. Yeah, but it

Speaker: 00:10:11

just means that there is nothing between you

Speaker: 00:10:15

and the other person, but that you can be on

Speaker: 00:10:19

friendly terms, not necessarily best friends, but at

Speaker: 00:10:22

least you've talked about the thing that has come between

Speaker: 00:10:26

you. And I guess even as when you think

Speaker: 00:10:29

of the country we live in,

Speaker: 00:10:33

and I don't know how we're gonna fix what's been

Speaker: 00:10:37

broken in our country, that one is a bigger question.

Speaker: 00:10:49

Moving ahead to season two, Tim, who is part of our executive team here at

Speaker: 00:10:53

Care Impact, was our guest host and interview, Joel Calabrese,

Speaker: 00:10:56

a dedicated community leader and scholar with a deep interest in

Speaker: 00:11:00

theology and indigenous reconciliation. He's working alongside of

Speaker: 00:11:04

Nates, the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies.

Speaker: 00:11:08

He also brings his experience as an archaeologist to share his

Speaker: 00:11:11

perspectives on reconciliation. In this clip, Joel shares a

Speaker: 00:11:15

few things we could, as Christians and as the church do to

Speaker: 00:11:18

participate in reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:11:23

Here are a few things. Do your own personal

Speaker: 00:11:26

reflection and do some archaeology on your theology

Speaker: 00:11:30

and dig into your own theology and put some context and story

Speaker: 00:11:34

to it. You know, who told you that? Where did it come from? Why do

Speaker: 00:11:38

you believe that certain kind of thing, particularly with things that disturb you

Speaker: 00:11:42

and bring up that unemotional response?

Speaker: 00:11:46

It seems like a lot of church communities do a book

Speaker: 00:11:49

study once a year or a few times a year, have different book groups.

Speaker: 00:11:53

There are a lot, you know, a significant amount of

Speaker: 00:11:56

indigenous authors following Jesus that you could

Speaker: 00:12:00

incorporate. Your church should be doing that, particularly in Canada,

Speaker: 00:12:04

in this land that we, that we now call Canada. This is something that it

Speaker: 00:12:08

has been. It's part of how we think about things,

Speaker: 00:12:12

this aspect of reconciliation with the re

Speaker: 00:12:15

in parentheses, because I don't know if there's ever been

Speaker: 00:12:19

conciliation to be re'd to.

Speaker: 00:12:22

So Richard Twiss's book, any of his,

Speaker: 00:12:26

Mark Charles's book on the doctrine of discovery would be a good one as

Speaker: 00:12:30

well. And they have questions in them that you can go through as a

Speaker: 00:12:34

group. They're built for group discussion. So

Speaker: 00:12:37

get everybody in the church reading some of those, and if they are not

Speaker: 00:12:41

even part of what you are thinking, the church leadership is

Speaker: 00:12:45

thinking about incorporating to their church. I think that needs to be discussion.

Speaker: 00:12:49

I think that's sort of that an internal thing the church can do.

Speaker: 00:12:53

And I've talked about the personal, individual reflection

Speaker: 00:12:56

kind of stuff of archaeology or theology, but I think

Speaker: 00:13:00

just start celebrating with people. Go to

Speaker: 00:13:04

powwow. There are gatherings and celebrations

Speaker: 00:13:07

and dance competitions and things like that,

Speaker: 00:13:11

and try to get your church group, your whatever

Speaker: 00:13:15

community to go, whatever community is willing to go.

Speaker: 00:13:18

This is an obligation for everybody across

Speaker: 00:13:22

Turtle island, is to build that relationship. This is the land we're on. These are

Speaker: 00:13:26

the treaties we're part of in any of those things.

Speaker: 00:13:33

Let's take a hop back to episode five of season one with Melissa

Speaker: 00:13:36

Spence. This is also our most listened to episode on the podcast

Speaker: 00:13:40

so far. Melissa is a pastor's wife living here in treaty one in

Speaker: 00:13:44

Winnipeg, and Melissa was asked what reconciliation means to

Speaker: 00:13:47

her. So reconciliation to

Speaker: 00:13:51

me is reconciling to God the father

Speaker: 00:13:55

and learning to have that

Speaker: 00:13:58

image, to take on his image in how we live

Speaker: 00:14:02

our lives and see ourselves. So it's all about

Speaker: 00:14:05

identity in him and what Jesus done for

Speaker: 00:14:09

us. So Jesus is a prime example of

Speaker: 00:14:13

what we here on earth should be where his kingdom is.

Speaker: 00:14:17

The kingdom is us, and we need to

Speaker: 00:14:21

reconsult him so that God could be glorified.

Speaker: 00:14:25

It's actually the Lord our father who actually started the

Speaker: 00:14:28

reconciliation process, and when he sent his son to

Speaker: 00:14:32

die for us. So in my mindset before, I used to

Speaker: 00:14:36

think that the lord sent his son so that

Speaker: 00:14:40

he could love us again. But that's not the case. That he

Speaker: 00:14:43

actually sent his son because he loved us, not

Speaker: 00:14:47

to make him love us. In religion, it

Speaker: 00:14:51

teaches you that we have to work for his

Speaker: 00:14:54

love. It just comes out in that story of the prodigal

Speaker: 00:14:58

son. We call it the prodigal son, but I think I'd rather call

Speaker: 00:15:01

it the sons, the elder and the prodigal. And so

Speaker: 00:15:05

I was kind of like that elder son who had everything

Speaker: 00:15:09

that the father had. It was living in his household, and

Speaker: 00:15:13

he was the oldest son and he had double

Speaker: 00:15:16

portion of the inheritance, but he didn't see that.

Speaker: 00:15:20

And so he was working. And why, you know, you

Speaker: 00:15:24

see this whole conversation with the elder son

Speaker: 00:15:28

and the father when they're talking about the prodigal son, like,

Speaker: 00:15:31

you didn't kill the fatty calf for me. And

Speaker: 00:15:35

the Lord said, everything I have is yours. Yes. And he could have just

Speaker: 00:15:39

killed a calf whenever he wanted to. And

Speaker: 00:15:43

so reconciliation, I think, is just

Speaker: 00:15:46

understanding that Jesus died on the cross for us.

Speaker: 00:15:50

Rose was buried and Rose again so that

Speaker: 00:15:54

he could reveal the father to us.

Speaker: 00:16:07

In episode 20 of season two, Wendy sat down with Lynn

Speaker: 00:16:11

Dick, executive director of the Evangelical

Speaker: 00:16:14

Mennonite Mission conference. Lynn discussed being a settler

Speaker: 00:16:18

and then his experience fostering children with indigenous heritage.

Speaker: 00:16:22

Here's what he had to say.

Speaker: 00:16:26

So your path into fostering was through respite, and you got a

Speaker: 00:16:30

feel, and obviously it tugged on your heart that maybe

Speaker: 00:16:34

this is something that I could offer in a parenting role

Speaker: 00:16:37

and provide a safe and nurturing home. How was that

Speaker: 00:16:41

leap from just general fostering to going

Speaker: 00:16:45

cross cultural with indigenous people being overrepresented in

Speaker: 00:16:49

the child welfare system? What was it like for you to

Speaker: 00:16:52

go there? Well, that was actually fairly

Speaker: 00:16:56

intentional on our part. When we looked at getting involved with

Speaker: 00:16:59

fostering, we felt that we were being led to do

Speaker: 00:17:03

this with indigenous people, with indigenous kids because we saw such

Speaker: 00:17:07

a great need there, and we wanted to learn.

Speaker: 00:17:11

We already were looking at it at that time already. There's

Speaker: 00:17:15

got to be something to this. There's got to be something that

Speaker: 00:17:19

we as, like now we're learning the term as settlers,

Speaker: 00:17:23

but that we can do to start to build some of this

Speaker: 00:17:26

reconciliation, right. This was before the TRC was even. Was

Speaker: 00:17:30

even a thing. But we just felt like God was saying to

Speaker: 00:17:34

us, you guys gotta put yourself out there and do something like this.

Speaker: 00:17:38

So when we had our first placement,

Speaker: 00:17:41

it was like trial by fire. We had a

Speaker: 00:17:45

two and a half year old little guy that came to. To be with us,

Speaker: 00:17:49

and he was just, wow, he was

Speaker: 00:17:53

like. He was a whirlwind, right? Like, he came in

Speaker: 00:17:56

and energy galore. He had some

Speaker: 00:18:00

disabilities that arose from being fas, so

Speaker: 00:18:04

he was ADHD and different kind of things like that. And,

Speaker: 00:18:08

you know, when you first go into some of these things, you have this idyllic

Speaker: 00:18:11

thing of, oh, we're gonna. Really just love

Speaker: 00:18:15

the child. We're just gonna love the child, and it's all gonna

Speaker: 00:18:19

be wonderful. And it was like, oh, my goodness.

Speaker: 00:18:23

We started to say that, you know, this little guy was.

Speaker: 00:18:26

Was our spiritual exercise, right? And if you think about it,

Speaker: 00:18:30

when you think of doing any kind of exercise, if you want to build a

Speaker: 00:18:33

muscle to get stronger, you put resistance to it. Right? What do we

Speaker: 00:18:36

learn through different trials? How does that. How do we learn to be

Speaker: 00:18:40

resilient in another area? And that was what we were learning here.

Speaker: 00:18:44

This was. We were learning something here. We were learning about

Speaker: 00:18:47

a family, about a situation. We got to be his, his

Speaker: 00:18:51

parents for three and a half years until he was able to

Speaker: 00:18:55

transition back to be with his. With his mother and with his other

Speaker: 00:18:59

brothers and sisters. It was a really neat process. And did you

Speaker: 00:19:03

learn a lot about his indigeneity in that

Speaker: 00:19:06

process? Mm hmm. I mean, one of the things that it allowed us to do

Speaker: 00:19:10

was to become part of the community. We got to

Speaker: 00:19:13

learn and get to know the social workers who, the majority of

Speaker: 00:19:17

them were indigenous. We get to learn about his community that he was part

Speaker: 00:19:21

of, go to the celebrations, to the powwows, because one of the

Speaker: 00:19:25

things that we wanted to make sure was, we didn't want.

Speaker: 00:19:28

I hope this sounds not too strange, but we didn't want him to become

Speaker: 00:19:32

white. We wanted him to be able to be part

Speaker: 00:19:36

of, you know, our lives,

Speaker: 00:19:39

but to gain an understanding of who he was,

Speaker: 00:19:43

what his heritage was, and that he could be proud of

Speaker: 00:19:46

that, to help him to learn those things. And in the process, we

Speaker: 00:19:50

were learning as well.

Speaker: 00:19:58

Next we hear from Jared Ross, who shared his story walking through

Speaker: 00:20:02

trauma. And even though he's a young adult, he talks about the

Speaker: 00:20:05

implications that residential schools had on him and his family.

Speaker: 00:20:09

I sat down with Jared to share a story in a two part series in

Speaker: 00:20:12

episodes four and five in season two. Really inspiring

Speaker: 00:20:16

story. But here's what he had to say about what reconciliation means to

Speaker: 00:20:20

him. So I think, like,

Speaker: 00:20:24

the reconciliation part, like, the way that I

Speaker: 00:20:27

live my christian life is like, I try and go by the word and what

Speaker: 00:20:31

it says, you know, so ministry, reconciliation out of two corinthians

Speaker: 00:20:35

518 about, you know, the Lord reconciling

Speaker: 00:20:38

people to him, but also at the same time, we carry this ministry of reconciliation

Speaker: 00:20:42

and we're just pleading, come back to Goddesse, you know. And I

Speaker: 00:20:46

think that's just the way I viewed reconciliation was just like, okay,

Speaker: 00:20:50

that's what I want from my people as well. And seeing that vision and also

Speaker: 00:20:53

just the revelation scripture

Speaker: 00:20:57

that I mentioned, the Ministry of Reconciliation to me just means like,

Speaker: 00:21:01

you know, I want them to be healed from this trauma that

Speaker: 00:21:05

came from residential schools. I feel like if we go through that and also

Speaker: 00:21:08

just walk through that healing of what happened to, but also just

Speaker: 00:21:12

not carrying that shame anymore, I feel like we'll just see

Speaker: 00:21:16

such a huge revival that comes out of the First nations people. There's so many

Speaker: 00:21:19

young people who are still walking through what I did and not

Speaker: 00:21:23

getting the gospel in such a true form. And I

Speaker: 00:21:27

feel like once they understand on the healing process,

Speaker: 00:21:31

but also understanding the true gospel, I feel like the youth are the key to

Speaker: 00:21:34

reach out to every youth in Canada. And I feel like

Speaker: 00:21:38

this revival would just start from the First nations people.

Speaker: 00:21:47

Another interview that Tim led, he sat down with Ray Aldred,

Speaker: 00:21:51

an author and status Cree from northern Alberta and director of the

Speaker: 00:21:54

indigenous studies at the Vancouver School of theology.

Speaker: 00:21:58

And he shared his perspective on the common Bolan treaties and their

Speaker: 00:22:01

relationship to reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:22:06

But they have essentially set the table for reconciliation in Canada. And I

Speaker: 00:22:10

immediately, as you were making those comments, I was thinking of the ancient practice

Speaker: 00:22:14

I learned about called Salcha, which you're probably familiar with, where the one who is

Speaker: 00:22:18

offended actually sets the table to sit down and eat with the person who's

Speaker: 00:22:21

offended them. And I was very moved when I heard you speak

Speaker: 00:22:25

to that. I don't know if there's more you want to unpack or you can

Speaker: 00:22:28

correct exactly how I'm understanding what you were talking about. But even the

Speaker: 00:22:32

funding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, you were saying, was being done by

Speaker: 00:22:36

funds that belong to indigenous people. Yeah, it came out of their

Speaker: 00:22:39

settlement where the residential schools, that's what paid for

Speaker: 00:22:43

it. The treaty among the six nations

Speaker: 00:22:47

with the newcomers is called the common bowl

Speaker: 00:22:51

aspect that are called the common bowl. We all eat from the same

Speaker: 00:22:54

bowl. One of the privileges of living in this land is

Speaker: 00:22:58

that to be fed, to be fed by Mother

Speaker: 00:23:01

Earth, to be able to enjoy the bounty of Mother Earth, this is to

Speaker: 00:23:05

share with everybody. The idea, though, is that everybody should

Speaker: 00:23:09

share, not that some should have all of it or others shouldn't have

Speaker: 00:23:13

all of it. And it's not a merit based kind of a thing.

Speaker: 00:23:16

It is what it means to live in connection with

Speaker: 00:23:20

of the earth, to be able to be fed. A

Speaker: 00:23:24

friend of mine said indigenous people were advocating

Speaker: 00:23:28

for universal Medicare long before Tommy Douglas

Speaker: 00:23:31

did. This was part of their thinking in

Speaker: 00:23:35

making the treaty. This is why they would always say that this when they were

Speaker: 00:23:39

making treaty in one place. They said this needed to apply to everybody,

Speaker: 00:23:42

all the first nations and all of Canada when it was talking

Speaker: 00:23:46

about providing the medicine chest, as it's

Speaker: 00:23:50

called in some of the number treaties. So the idea is

Speaker: 00:23:53

that human beings are sacred. They're sacred

Speaker: 00:23:57

beings, so we should be respectful of

Speaker: 00:24:00

them.

Speaker: 00:24:08

On our second last clip, we're going to hear from Wendy, our beloved host

Speaker: 00:24:12

and co founder of Care Impact. This was taken from episode 13

Speaker: 00:24:16

of season two, where the tables were actually flipped. Here wendy was actually

Speaker: 00:24:19

being interviewed by doctor James Robertson, whom you heard from earlier a little

Speaker: 00:24:23

bit on organizations and the church working together for the purpose of

Speaker: 00:24:26

reconciliation, something that she's really passionate about.

Speaker: 00:24:32

There's so many good organizations. There's tons of assets in all the cities across

Speaker: 00:24:35

Canada, tons of programs and oodles of

Speaker: 00:24:39

resources being thrown at these nonprofits, and a lot of them doing

Speaker: 00:24:42

good things, but they just don't communicate, particularly with the

Speaker: 00:24:46

church. And when we wanted to go into saying,

Speaker: 00:24:50

hey, I think we are feeling called, look at the research on residential schools and

Speaker: 00:24:53

the tie with the church. We've got to do something. We've got to like,

Speaker: 00:24:57

nobody's talking about it in the sanctuaries, at least in my tradition

Speaker: 00:25:01

and the circles I was in. Why isn't anybody talking about

Speaker: 00:25:04

this? I was warned by very prominent

Speaker: 00:25:08

leaders saying, oh, that's nice, but just don't go there. That just gets

Speaker: 00:25:12

messy. Just talk about children and families. But let's not go

Speaker: 00:25:15

into the TRC or reconciliation because that's just another

Speaker: 00:25:19

thing that's more political. And I'm like, reconciliation is the

Speaker: 00:25:23

gospel. Reconciliation is so central to the Bible,

Speaker: 00:25:27

and yet somehow we've tailored that out. In

Speaker: 00:25:30

whatever denomination, it's been easy to tailor it out. We

Speaker: 00:25:34

curate our own narrative, right? We curate our own theologies

Speaker: 00:25:38

and to our convenience, because that hurts. I've

Speaker: 00:25:41

seen people squirm, but fortunately, God gave me the gift of making

Speaker: 00:25:45

people squirm. And I don't mind that, because I think we need to go there.

Speaker: 00:25:48

It's not a condemning thing. It's just like, if we're gonna find healing, let's not

Speaker: 00:25:51

pathologize the indigenous. Let's not pathologize the one that can't keep the job

Speaker: 00:25:55

or the homeless, the cycle of poverty. Let's

Speaker: 00:25:58

pathologize the church and see. Okay, where's this stemming from?

Speaker: 00:26:03

And why aren't we effective in our ministries?

Speaker: 00:26:06

Why is it us and them? Why can't it be we?

Speaker: 00:26:10

And I want to see a lot more

Speaker: 00:26:12

collaboration we ing, if you call that

Speaker: 00:26:16

with people. But I think we can do a lot

Speaker: 00:26:19

more togetherness. To close out our

Speaker: 00:26:23

episode. Today, we're going to hear from pastor Harold Jolly,

Speaker: 00:26:27

Karen Jolly's husband, whom you also heard from earlier. This is taken from

Speaker: 00:26:31

the episode the estranged indigenous from the loving the Stranger among us

Speaker: 00:26:34

series, which is episode 32 in season two.

Speaker: 00:26:38

Harold shares both from a pastoral and indigenous perspective

Speaker: 00:26:42

of what reconciliation means.

Speaker: 00:26:47

There's a brighter day coming, and even in the midst of

Speaker: 00:26:50

darkness, you know, in the midst of chaos, there's this call

Speaker: 00:26:54

to trust God and that he's working in all things

Speaker: 00:26:58

for good. And so there's this hope, and there's this

Speaker: 00:27:02

idea, too, that all the things that happen matter to

Speaker: 00:27:05

God. So in talking about them, there's something in it that

Speaker: 00:27:09

we're not just talking about it to make people feel guilty or, you know, or

Speaker: 00:27:13

to talk down to people or to hurt people, but there's something in it that

Speaker: 00:27:17

as we talk about those things, that we're trying to bring

Speaker: 00:27:20

reconciliation, that we're trying to bring unity. The way that I think of

Speaker: 00:27:24

it is like we're trying to break forth the kingdom of God, you know, that

Speaker: 00:27:27

the kingdom of God would be present in this world. And the idea of that

Speaker: 00:27:31

happening is the reconciliation that happens. And I think that there's

Speaker: 00:27:35

something very powerful about acknowledging the pain

Speaker: 00:27:38

of and about tears being in that, and also

Speaker: 00:27:42

to people coming together and saying, will you forgive me

Speaker: 00:27:46

or forgive my people? And a person saying, I forgive,

Speaker: 00:27:50

you know, I forgive. Not just superficial, but in

Speaker: 00:27:53

light of all that's happened, I choose to forgive. So, for

Speaker: 00:27:57

example, not superficial would look like what

Speaker: 00:28:01

day to day. Oh, man. I guess just the

Speaker: 00:28:05

hearing of stories, just the embracing of each other,

Speaker: 00:28:08

just building friendships. Close friendships. I have close friends that are

Speaker: 00:28:12

caucasian, you know, and very close friends that are caucasian. And I work with

Speaker: 00:28:16

people that are caucasian, they're very encouraging

Speaker: 00:28:19

and I think that we acknowledge the history and we

Speaker: 00:28:23

talk about it and we work through it together. And you go

Speaker: 00:28:27

golfing? I go golfing. You go golfing with them? Play hockey.

Speaker: 00:28:31

Yeah, I spend time, spend time with them. I think that's huge. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Speaker: 00:28:35

Just enjoying being around each other.

Speaker: 00:28:47

I want to remind you that to continue to reflect on the importance of

Speaker: 00:28:51

this day, you can also find our episode from last year's day for truth and

Speaker: 00:28:54

reconciliation, season two, episode 25 learning

Speaker: 00:28:58

every day powerful father son story of reconciliation.

Speaker: 00:29:02

We had a ton of great feedback for that episode, so I encourage you to

Speaker: 00:29:05

check that out as you reflect on the importance of this day. You can find

Speaker: 00:29:09

that there in the show notes if you want to click on that. But thank

Speaker: 00:29:12

you for joining us on this special episode of Journey with care. We trust that

Speaker: 00:29:16

the stories, reflections and heartfelt messages shared by our

Speaker: 00:29:19

guests have inspired and moved you. That this national day for truth

Speaker: 00:29:23

and reconciliation be a reminder of our shared responsibility to

Speaker: 00:29:27

uphold justice, compassion and unite our communities.

Speaker: 00:29:31

Reconciliation is not a one time event, but an ongoing

Speaker: 00:29:34

journey that calls each of us to act with grace, courage and

Speaker: 00:29:38

sincerity. Take what you've heard today and consider how you can contribute

Speaker: 00:29:42

to this mission in your daily life. Whether it's through educating

Speaker: 00:29:46

yourself, sharing episodes like this one, engaging in

Speaker: 00:29:49

honest conversations, or supporting indigenous led

Speaker: 00:29:53

initiatives, every step you take matters. Let's commit to being

Speaker: 00:29:56

agents of change, fostering environments where every voice is heard and

Speaker: 00:30:00

valued. Together we can build a future rooted in trust,

Speaker: 00:30:04

respect and harmony. Thank you and God

Speaker: 00:30:07

bless.

Speaker: 00:30:11

Thank you for joining another conversation on journey with care

Speaker: 00:30:15

where we inspire curious Canadians on their path of faith

Speaker: 00:30:18

and living life with purpose and community. Journey with Care is an

Speaker: 00:30:22

initiative of Care Impact, a canadian charity dedicated to

Speaker: 00:30:26

connecting and equipping the whole church to journey well in

Speaker: 00:30:29

community. You can visit their website at CareImpact CA or visit

Speaker: 00:30:33

Journeywithcare CA to get more information on weekly episodes,

Speaker: 00:30:36

journey with prayer, and details about our upcoming events and

Speaker: 00:30:40

meetups. You can also leave us a message, share your thoughts,

Speaker: 00:30:44

and connect with like minded individuals who are on their own journeys of

Speaker: 00:30:47

faith and purpose. Thank you for sharing this podcast and helping

Speaker: 00:30:51

these stories reach the community. Together we can explore ways to

Speaker: 00:30:55

journey in a good way and always remember to stay curious.