A descendant of the Squamish and Musqueam First Nations of the Coast Salish People, Campbell is the youngest of the sixteen hereditary Chiefs of the Squamish Nation. He was speaking at the final event of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum that took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba. The TRC brought these traditional knowledge keepers together from across the country for a forum on “reconciliation” that was livecast around the globe.

Chief Ian Campbell at the Talking Stick Festival 2011 Opening Gala.

“When we talk about reconciliation,” Campbell said, “I think about my abuser who took advantage of me as a little boy — and I think of Canada and all of the factors that have brought us together here today.”

He referred to fire — the “fire still needed to be added” for transformation to occur as the same power of “the ember of light, the spark that ignited various realms of existence.”

He continued, “We all have memories of supernatural beings, tricksters and transformation stories … and we have our own stories of our lineage…. Suffering is necessary — you must go through the fire to get to the other side.”

He contrasted the teachings he heard as a boy — of love and respect for all beings — with the hardships wrought by the Residential Schools era and colonialism, removing Indigenous peoples from their own culture. “How do I find value — how do I move beyond blame, shame and judgement?” To make the shift, he said, it “starts within myself.”

Campbell: “What time is it? It’s our time.”

 

However, he added, “we now have the language for this [the legacy of Residential Schools and colonialism] to be discussed” publicly on this level, and noted that Vancouver has just declared itself a city of reconciliation.

“I believe in adaptation rather than assimilation,” said Campbell. “Tradition is today … it’s constant adaptation.”

Later he spoke again, this time about his nation’s tradition of using red clay on the young men going into ceremony. “We do it to show the ancestors, spirits, the Creator, that we are ready to step into our responsibilities.”

He told those gathered, “I appreciate the healing that has taken place, in this safe space that has been created for us here.

“What time is it? It’s our time.”

***

Mary Deleary shared words from an Anishinaabe teacher, who had taught her about the four directions. The first responsibility is to ourselves, said the Algonquian Anishinaabe mother, grandmother and Three Fires Midewiwin, who originates from Kitigan Zibi (Garden River), Quebec. “The second is to our land.”

Mary Deleary at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

His teaching of “the two roads,” she told those gathered, means that “where we stand [influences] how we understand the four directions. The [European] people who came across the water to our land, they must have four directions, too. Our relatives across the water, they also have teachings to share.”

Fundamental to four directions teachings, she said, are “honesty, sharing, strength and kindness” — the four sacred medicines which each represent one of the four directions.

Deleary: “Now is about restoring.”

“I have a hard time understanding “reconciliation,” she continued, “but I understand the four directions — and that is what provides healing.

“The right hand, we shake hands with that hand … it’s the hand of sharing and responsibilities. With the left hand, we hold our ceremonies, defining who we are. We don’t let this one go.”

The past 100 years have been about forcibly removing those ceremonies, she pointed out.

“Now is about restoring. What was forcibly taken and what will they help to restore?”

 ***

Jim Dumont at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Jim Dumont spoke extensively about the words “truth” and “reconciliation.”

The soft-spoken Chief of the Eastern Doorway of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge is Ojibway-Anishinabe of the Marten Clan, originally from the Shawanaga First Nation on Eastern Georgian Bay. He is also a founder of the Midewiwin Society (or Grand Medicine Society) and one of the founders of the Native studies department at the University of Sudbury of Laurentian University, where he was a professor for 25 years. He has also served as a spiritual advisor and laughingly called himself Justice Murray’s “spiritual bodyguard.”

The word for “truth” in Ojibway, he said, is “the sound of your voice as you speak from the heart. It doesn’t literally mean facts. In Ojibway thinking, to speak truth is to speak from our hearts.”

Speaking about forgiveness, Dumont referred to “healing practices” as opposed to “pain inflicted on people who are already in pain by insisting they have to forgive.”

In the way the word is primarily used in Ojibway, it means “to forget,” or “the act of forgetting,” he said.

Smiling, Dumont mentioned a line from a song by “Elder” Bob Dylan: “Even Jesus could not forgive the things that you do.”

His point was a serious one. “Maybe there is some truth there. If someone violates a child and it cripples almost their entire life … is [forgiveness] possible? Is that required? I can’t help thinking there’s something wrong there.”

Dumont: “If someone violates a child and it cripples almost their entire life … is [forgiveness] possible? Is that required? I can’t help thinking there’s something wrong there.”

 

The word used for “forgive me,” he went on, is an old word and is the original word for forgiveness. He said it is the same word used in offering tobacco, and it means you “release” the tobacco.

“You release something. It means, I release it from my mind,” he explained. He said it was also used in burial ceremonies, as a release of the spirit and from the hold that spirit has.

“So for someone who has been violated or abused, [it means] ‘I release this from myself, it no longer has a hold on me.'”

This “lifts” it from the other person, Dumont clarified; “It frees the perpetrator, but it doesn’t absolve them. They still have to get to a place of peace in themselves but you don’t have that responsibility anymore, for them.

“That place of healing we need to get to in our own lives has a lot to do with how we get to or understand reconciliation,” he said.

Dumont: “That place of healing we need to get to in our own lives has a lot to do with how we get to or understand reconciliation.”

Over the years since the commission began (in 2008), Dumont said that “there are things that have disturbed me.”

He described a movie in which Ghandi says to the missionary who has been working with the people (in a good way, says Dumont), “It’s time for you to get out of the way.”

The situation in Canada might be similar, Dumont suggested. “The church has to take responsibility,” he said, including for “their [own] need to reconcile with the Spirit.

“I’m not a Christian, but I have a high regard for this Spirit who came to those people, Jesus. When the Church can reconcile with their Saviour for what they have done, then maybe we can talk about reconciling with them. How can the people of Canada reconcile with this, continuing to hide, not dealing with things?”

Dumont has the ability to dream names, he said, and people often come to him for a name for their child. He told of a dream he’d had — actually a dream within a dream — in which he asked an Elder for the Ojibway word for “reconciler.” The Elder couldn’t think of the word.

“In every community,” said Dumont, “there was a person who was the reconciler. This was his gift, making peace, making things right, restoring the balance in a relationship.” Dumont spent time with two other Elders, neither of whom were able to recall the word.

Dumont said it was something like, “the one who puts things back in good order … something like a mechanic, the one who fixes things.”

***

Elsipogtog First Nations member and hereditary chief on the Mi’Kmaq Grand Council from the Signigtog region Stephen Augustine used the metaphor of the overturned canoe. He spoke about “the Spirit of the breath of life” (given to the wind); if somebody tipped our canoe, ceremony would take place to right things.”

He said that on behalf of his people he would take up the invitation made by Maria Campbell to meet four time per year, with an offer to host one of the meetings.

***

At the end of the two day event, Commissioner Marie Wilson spoke, in part about her journey as commissioner and in part summarizing what she had heard. She spoke “in the spirit of transformation,” she said, suggesting that the commission had been a transformative experience.

Quoting Elder Barney Williams, who gave her the name “Northwinds Song,” she spoke about “things being different because of things we can do differently.”

TRC Commissioner Marie Wilson. // Photo by Adam Dolman

She reviewed the past two days of the forum, citing Elizabeth Penashue’s concern about the protecting the land, and the points by several women about hands as keepers of tradition but also the reclaiming of hands for making, creating and teaching things. The wisdom shared, she reiterated, spoke to the significance of words and stories, from conversations with grandmothers and respected elders to animals, and pointed to the “clues in the language itself,” including, as many intimated, the importance of song and the concern for the land and the children.

Referring to Maria Campbell’s presentation on the violence towards Aboriginal women, she said, “I honour your outrage. As I heard you, we must find a way to honour those things that will move us to action. Poverty and violence were named, and there was a challenge to the men.

“I also heard commitment and promises,” she continued, “to the health of the people [and the factors of] housing, education and employment.”

The importance of ceremony was emphasized, in relation to the reclamation of self-identity and identity as a people, the reclamation of sacred lands and language, she said.

She echoed the need to “create an ethical space, where everyone is in that space,” and acknowledged the concern that the report not be “straightforward,” but needed to include stories and values. The concern was, she said, with “how do we do that in a report” — reflect the complexity and heart of a people, their identity and relationship to the land, and “guidance as to how do we speak from the heart to a people who seem to think from the head.”

She quoted Barney Williams again, who said, “We are looking for that light. The ancestors are excited by the joy of what we are trying to do.”

Thanking all of the participants for their “wealth of knowledge … and the depth of teaching,” she told the participants that the forum has been restorative to her as well. She offered an image she encountered on her drive to Manitoba to the event: A beautiful, fully-formed double rainbow. She compared the rainbow to an umbilical cord, linking to Mother Earth. Its double nature spoke to her about “what we hold onto and what we can share,” she said.

And as “a symbol that new life is possible.”

Read Part 1 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 3 here.

She walks to raise awareness of the problems facing the Innu peoples, and to make a statement to the Canadian government: “We are still here.” [You can see the 2013 short documentary film about her annual walk here and follow her blog here.]

The walk is also part of her larger desire to preserve the old ways for her children and grandchildren. “Before, we didn’t use ‘white’ things and we didn’t use government money. We knew how to live on the land. Everyone knew what to do…. The elders and parents were like teachers. In the bush/in the country your mind is clear, your feelings are clear, you are healthy and happy. This is why it is important for the people to continue to go out on the land. I know we live in the culture and world of today, but that does not mean we have to loose or let go of who we are and where we came from. It is important for the Innu to hold on to some things, to carry those things into the present and the future. Our children need to know both ways.” (From Penashue’s blogspot, May 2009)

At the final event of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum that took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba, Penashue spoke simply and emotionally. The TRC had brought these traditional knowledge keepers together from across the country for a forum on “reconciliation” that was livecast around the globe. A small, wiry woman who exudes a sense of deep calm and caring, her words were powerful.

Elizabeth Penashue at the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, which took place at the U of M on June 25 and 26. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land and Innu culture — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

 

Besides her annual walk, for more than thirty year she has been a tireless activist for the preservation of her culture and the environment. She’s been arrested five times and in 1989, spent two months in jail for protesting NATO’s low-level missile training program. More recently, she’s led protests against the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric dam project, which will flood much of what’s left of the ancestral Innu land.

“The government doesn’t understand,” said Penashue. “Everyone wants a job, but there is too much damage to the land.”

When she sees news reports about machines on the land on TV, it’s painful for her. “All the machines. I say ‘Please, don’t bring the machines to our land…. This is my home.

“I wish you understand how I feel — like Mother Earth’ — when machines cut [down] trees, it’s the same as when we are cut,” she said, holding her arm to demonstrate.

“Maybe Mother Earth feels the same.”

Penasue has said she wants to show the government what she’s doing, to respect the land. “Everything is like a circle. Everything. [A circle] where we respect animals, the land, rivers, my people and children. It’s not easy — same thing when I’m going for a canoe trip or a walk, it’s not easy.”

Penashue went on to speak about her desire to save the land from further damage and about the deep hurt she feels. “I talk to the animals, I talk to the water, I say, ‘I will try to help you.’ But the government don’t listen to people, don’t listen to women. I want to save the land for the children.”

She called for other women to join her. “Where are the women?” she asked.

“What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

Penashue: “What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

She described previous walks of protest and time she spent in jail. “I used to think men are strong, it’s not up to me. But women are strong too…. I say, I’m going to try,” she finished.

“I’m going to try.”

***

Penashue was one of the forum participants, 15 Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, all of whom told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The commission had asked all participants to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing. The event was livecast across Canada and around the world.

There were three questions under consideration:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Speaking on the second day of the two day event, Stephen Augustine of Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nations (NB) echoed the sentiment in Penashue’s statements, emphasizing the Indigenous belief that “we belong to the land rather than the land belonging to us.”

When I was young, he said, I didn’t know Aboriginal philosophies — “we live our philosophies rather than expressing them,” he said. “Now that we are becoming our elders, we are also becoming interpreters and teachers of our culture.”

He spoke about the aspect of “negotiation” in Indigenous culture, demonstrated through ceremonies and in the creation story. He described the creation story as a story in which “all elements, including human elements” were part of a negotiation; ceremonies, too, emulate this process.

“We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation,” he explained.

Augustine: “We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation.”

***

Jerry Saddleback at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

An Elder and a member of the Samson Cree Nation in Hobbema, AB, Jerry Saddleback is also Canada’s leading expert on Cree syllabics.

He spoke about forgiveness, and noted that there is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to forget or to release.

Saddleback: There is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to “forget or to release.”

 

“Prayer is also a way of releasing,” he added.

Another word, he said, means “It’s being done for show.” He offered a final word, which means “reciprocity, fairness, point for point.”

He suggested that seemingly “sweeping statements” his ancestors had made had been “twisted” away from the spirit in which they were spoken.

When Europeans first arrived, Saddleback said, “We called them our first cousins — the people from the other part of the world.”

He remembered that elders had a way of looking at the bigger picture to seek balance.

“They believed and we believe everything is alive and created in the Creator’s image. We lived at one with the Earth, Mother Earth, and the Creator made everything perfect — let’s leave it as it is.”

During the Residential Schools era, he said, “we hid our ceremonial objects [much in the same way that the] King was hiding the Baby Jesus.

“We believe in a compassionate, kind God who is gentle and caring. We pray for people who do wrong until us … as we would want people to pray for us.”

***

Also speaking was Maria Campbell, a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker and Elder from Saskatchewan and a 2012 Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow at the University of Ottawa.

Maria Campbell at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

She told people that “Elizabeth [Penashue] has always been a role model” for her and then introduced her own work, saying, “All of us have different ways we serve our people.”

In her work as a Trudeau Fellow, Campbell has been researching violence against Aboriginal women. She’s been looking at early documents that go back as far as the 1600s, many of them Jesuit records. “There are ugly things in those journals, but there are also many powerful things,” she said.

“We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men. It is not only white men who kill or batter our women. Men have to step up. We can’t go on blaming; we have to take responsibility. We have to talk about that.”

Campbell: “We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men.”

She said that sometimes people said to her ‘Don’t be talking about stuff like that, don’t be making noise.’

“But it’s part of the role of the commission. As long as we stay sick, the government will always give us money to pick our scabs.”

Recounting workshops that she went to in her youth, she told the circle that “Elders from elsewhere would come into town and sit with us and tell us stories — and make us feel good about who were are.

“We may not all have as much knowledge, but we all have passion and we have respect for each other — and I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell: “I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell emphasized the importance of self-responsibility, and also spoke about child poverty. “We need to be taking responsibility [for this in our communities] and for sharing our stories.

“I don’t believe it should be about ‘them’ — if they care, they’ll help and nurture. To think that the government is going to make any changes, forget it. It’s not going to happen,” she pointed out.

“I feel so privileged and honoured to be here. Thank you for sharing your really good knowledge. But men, get your act together. Get out there and teach your young men., We can be talking in the institution forever but they need you in the communities.”

***

Speaking again on the second day, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations (BC) Elder Barney Williams said how moved he was by what had been spoken at the event. “I am reminded how important all of you are as keepers of knowledge.”

He described how in his territory, the whale hunters, after they killed a whale, would then invite everyone to share in the feast — “as we are doing now. We are inviting all of our nations to share….

“We’ve lost that. We have to do that again.”

Continuing with the theme of finding reconciliation, he told those gathered, “We need to be cognizant of the fact that we are talking about a place and time when no English was spoken.”

When he was a boy, he said, his grandmother told him, “Listen to me. You’re going to fly away, you’re going to speak differently. But don’t ever forget who you are. Don’t ever forget where you come from.

“I’ve walked with that. I’ve embraced another form of teaching and have done my best to bring these all together,” he said.

He feels privileged to be a knowledge keeper, he said. “Through storytelling we’re given such profound wisdom — rather than saying ‘don’t do that!’

“The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

Williams: “The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

He told Campbell and the others that he would go home to tell his people about the invitation to gather.

Read Part 1 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 4 here.

See this story on the Walking With Our Sisters quilt to honour missing and murdered Aboriginal women. It was unveiled at Neechi Commons on July 3.

Check back for the final part of this special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

The response to the TRC — intended to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the 100-year Indian Residential School system — was similar for many First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

They needed to understand how this commission — its language and definitions, its processes — could be approached from their own individual and collective experiences and in terms of their own cultures, practices and languages. They struggled with how to make the process their own.

Since it was initiated in 2008, the TRC has collected more than 6,200 statements — and statements will continue to be collected. It has done the work of statement gathering as a way to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the Residential School system.

Led by its chair, the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, and two commissioners, the TRC has also hosted dozens events across Canada, including seven national events in different regions across Canada to promote awareness and public education about the IRS system and its impacts. The TRC’s mandate, which is “to guide and inspire the process of reconciliation in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people,” will officially end in the establishment of a house the national research centre (NRC), to be housed at the University of Manitoba.

The TRC’s final event, a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba. The forum participants, 15 Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation. One of them was Elder Dave Courchene.

***

Courchene said that “truth, understood in our language … is the spirit of grandmother turtle,” which, in Indigenous teachings, was chosen by Creator to hold the remembrance of all the teachings, including humans’ relationship to Mother Earth and the Spirit [additional information from The Journey of the Spirit of the Red Man: A Message from the Elders, co-written by Courchene].

Elder Dave Courchene speaks at the Traditional Knowledge Keeper event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

How is reconciliation possible, what does it mean, for “those who felt the brutality [of Residential Schools and the colonial system] and shared their own experience?” he asked. “Today we still see the impacts on our community.”

The answer, he suggested, may lie in reconciliation, but in reconciliation “first with Creator … and then with our ancestors.

“We must go back to the beginning, recognizing the Spirit within each of us and within everything. We cannot intellectualize Spirit; allow yourself to live from the heart. You cannot have truth without respect, you cannot have truth without love, you cannot have truth without courage, you cannot have truth without honesty, you cannot have truth without wisdom, you cannot have truth without humbleness,” he said.

“The mind is concerned with power, control, ownership … but we owe our existence to the land itself. I cannot be convinced that those in power have a vision … vision comes from the Highest. Real intelligence lies within the Spirit world, in the footprints of our ancestors. Each individual has to reach out — that will result in a collective vision.

“We [Indigenous peoples] have stayed here… We still have memory of the land, a memory, duty and sacred responsibility to our people.”

One of the greatest challenges, he said, would be “to teach the people who have imposed [their values] on us who we are.

“The commission has an opportunity to be a strong voice for us as a people.”

Courchene: “The commission has an opportunity to be a strong voice for us as a people.”

***

The commission had asked all participants to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing.

The focus was on three questions:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Opening the proceedings, Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Ceremonial learning, reconciling

Walter Linklater is Ojibwe/Anishinabe and a Residential Schools survivor who also serves as an Elder at the University of Saskatchewan. He added to the teachings already shared about reconciliation.

“The way to solve problems is to listen to the spiritual teachings of the elders,” he said. “The [final TRC] report has to incorporate some of those teachings.”

Walter and Maria Linklater at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Linklater recounted his own story, which started with seven years immersed in his own culture, values and language, then 11 years in Residential School, where he learned very different values.

The result? “I didn’t know who I was,” he said.

16 years of active alcoholism followed, during which time he was also teaching at a college in Thunderbay. It was in the 1970s that the spiritual renewal occurring amongst Indigenous people brought Linklater back to traditional teachings. He began meeting with an elder, who told him, about his identity confusion and pain as a result of his time in Residential School, “First of all, you are not a Catholic.”

“What am I, then?” he asked.

“What am I, then?” Linklater asked.

 

Linklater says that he started to reclaim his Anishinabe identity through ceremonial learning.

When he returned to see the Elder he called “the Old Man,” the Old Man told him, “I sense some resentment in you. Didn’t you go to Residential School? Have you forgiven them yet?”

“No,” responded Linklater. “I’ll never forgive those bastards.”

“You’ll never be able to live in peace with yourself and your family until you forgive them,” said the Old Man.

“Why don’t you go back to the Schools [where you went to Residential School], and the graveyards, put some tobacco down and ask for forgiveness?

Linklater went. “Now I have more understanding. I began to learn to live in harmony with myself, Mother Earth, the animals. I learned over the years to reconcile myself … to live in harmony with all.”

The act gave him the start of “a deep understanding of what the elders are trying to tell us,” he said.

“There’s a lot of goodness and power that exists in our ceremonies. Because there is so much evil out there, we have to learn not to hurt what Creator has given to us. We come from there, Manitou.”

Appealing to the circle of participants, Linklater advocated for “our spiritual development, being careful who you counsel. If we know where we come from inherently, we have all the spiritual principles we need from ceremonies. Always try to be aware of the Spirit [Mantiou] that’s there. We get power from those spirits, from those ceremonies.”

The final report, he said, has to include spiritual principles and teachings, so that “it will have a better impact on changing us.

“Thank Him for the experience of the Residential Schools. Ask for him to help us understand how we can reconcile, for when we die, [for] our spirits we came into the world with,” he continued.

Some of the teachings, he added, are very similar. “It’s how I was able to reconcile myself.

“We will always keep learning. Be kind, be nice, help the old people, help the young people.”

Honouring

Maria Linklater also spoke about the importance of spiritual teachings. “Look outside,” she said. “Honour the sky, the creator. The world is so beautiful. If I continue to teach my children, my words will live on. For women, honour your womanhood. Respect your womanhood. Women can be strong. Pray hard and be spiritual.”

The spiritual perspective is one to be cultivated, she suggested. Explaining the transformative possibilities, she drew on the example of the fear resulting from being told about “hellfire”; she said, “Fire can destroy, but it also gives us power.”

On being told about a “devil tree” by local children, she followed them to the tree and saw that it had a large branch jutting out from the trunk at a severe angle.

She told the children the tree is beautiful. “Our world is beautiful. If I hear about something [bad], I will turn it the other way, make it beautiful.”

***

Trauma and an ethical space for recovering practices

Dr. Reg Crowshoe. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Dr. Reg Crowshoe is Peigan/Blackfoot from the Piikani Nation, and is also its former Chief and a Ceremonial Grandparent. He noted that each geographic territory and nation has its stories and laws.

“Out of [our] belief system, we got our practices — that allow you to survive.” The songs also come out of practices, he explained.

The Residential School period, during which Indigenous peoples were taken away from that Circle and moved into Western practice — classrooms, bells, etc. — resulted in trauma and cognitive dissonance, he said.

“We were punished for every step we took,” Crowshoe said, referring to early reprimands for running in the classroom and commands to “proclaim Christ.”

The children were told that “God can see in my mind,” he said — which added to their fear, shame and cultural confusion.

Crowshoe: “We were punished for every step we took.”

“We need to understand some of our past,” he said, as it was before Western protocols — theories, libraries, fees. “We have an oral culture — how do we access our theories, stories, songs, practice?”

Emphasizing the importance of respecting other nations’ “authorities, their songs and ceremonies” when entering their territories, he told the other participants “we need to move away from” divisive conflicts.

There is a need for an “ethical space,” he suggested, one with “respect, honour, truth, where we hear each other’s stories…. One that allows us the right to start looking for best practices. We need to work together because our young people need that, our collective working together.”

Opposing this approach to an “anthropological” one — “being studied,” with someone else giving their findings, even given the incorrect information, Crowshoe asked, “What are our authorities? How do we say ‘forgiveness’?

“There were two different cultures that clashed,” he summarized, referring to colonialist practices.

“That conflict hurt. We need to go back and find our stories and theories.”

***

Read Part 1 here.

Check back for Part 3 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

“The ceremonies, prayers, dances, songs, stories — all of this reconnects us to who we are. It is all part of this time of the 7th Fire,” continued the Algonquian Anishinabe mother and grandmother and Three Fires Midewiwin, who originates from Kitigan Zibi (Garden River), Quebec. Her primary work has been in culturally based education and the acquisition of indigenous knowledge, and who has also worked in the area of culturally based healing practices.

Mary Deleary at the Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

“I know there is still much work to be done, and our youth don’t yet have all they need — but the opportunity is here now,” she said.

Those are seeds we are sending out … and I see the evidence of the work of the 7th Fire; I see all our our ancestors’ work and pain. We have [and are still dealing with] inter-generational trauma … but we are creating something now for our children, through our restringing, our reconnecting….

“We’re a long way from lighting the 8th Fire, from reconciling and creating balance, but the truth of what we need to do has already been spoken here at this table.”

Deleary: “We’re a long way from lighting the 8th Fire, from reconciling and creating balance, but the truth of what we need to do has already been spoken here at this table.”

Anyone who had the opportunity to watch the livestreamed forum that took place on June 25 and 26 knows what a historic and deeply affecting event it was. The participants, Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Bringing these traditional knowledge keepers together to wrap up the the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 2008, the two-day forum continued the TRC’s mandate, which is “to guide and inspire the process of reconciliation in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.” For the past several years, the TRC has done the work of statement gathering as a way to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the 100-year Residential School system.

The traditional knowledge keepers were there to inform the final report of the TRC, and to discuss reconciliation. The commission asked them to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing.

The TRC commissioners at the forum, from left to right, Dr. Marie Wilson, Justice Murray Sinclair and Chief Wilton Littlechild. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Besides commissioners Dr. Marie Wilson, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Justice Murray Sinclair, who chaired the discussion, the forum included 14 or 15 participants from across Canada.

The focus was on three questions:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Opening the proceedings, Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

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Reconciling? Restoring?

Many told stories and tied the idea of reconciliation to the ongoing effects of what’s been lost and the importance of restoring traditional knowledge and values, such as ceremony.

Stephen Augustine.

Stephen Augustine referred to the traditional “sacred balance” resulting from the relationship of Indigenous people to their land. The hereditary chief on the Mi’Kmaq Grand Council from the Signigtog region, Augustine is a member of the Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nations community located outside Rexton, New Brunswick.

That relationship was about survival, he said, and included knowledge about hunting and fishing and gathering for food, medicines and shelter, about clothing and travel and tools of survival.

He addressed the “impact of knowledge loss” due to the Residential Schools period and the “pan-Indianism” in which Indigenous traditions are newly imported into one First Nation from another and shared amongst First Nations.

According to Augustine and others, Indigenous knowledge was traditionally protected and stored by collective sharing through storytelling, songs and spiritual ceremonies. “The teachings are about a way of living, an experience of life that relates to both the seen and unseen,” as he says in the Four Directions Teachings.

Barney Williams also stressed the importance of reviving traditional teachings. “I don’t know [the word] ‘reconciliation’ but I know about ceremony,” he said.

Using the example of preparation one took for events such as hunting, he pointed out that “it doesn’t just happen. It’s a process, one that says ‘Let me make sure I’m going the right way here. Tread softly.'”

The elder and residential school survivor is Nuu-chah-nulth and a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations in Meares Island, B.C.; he is fluent in the Nuu-chah-nulth language.

Elders Barney Williams and Dr. Reg Crowshoe. // Photo by Adam Dolman

“I won’t see reconciliation in my lifetime,” Williams said. “I don’t know what it looks like. All I know is the old people did ceremony — and there were witnesses. We saw what happened ‘if they did this.’

“I don’t have the answer.”

Indigenous peoples “need guidance to have answers,” and for that guidance, he asserted, “we need to go back to ceremonies. Otherwise we’ll keep spinning our wheels, asking ‘what is reconciliation?’ ‘How do we get there?'” he added.

“Our people always seem to come from a place of simplicity … a direct power and connection to Creator, one that comes from here,” he said, pointing to his heart.

“Collectively I believe we can achieve healing for our people. We’re reteaching — not saying ‘you have to reconcile.’ It’s an understanding in the spirit.”

Williams: “Collectively I believe we can achieve healing for our people. We’re reteaching — not saying ‘you have to reconcile.’ It’s an understanding in the spirit.”

For many, he continued, this is so that they (First Nations peoples) can “begin to live a life,” he said.

“Right now they are crying with pain. Reconciliation is the furthest thing from their mind right now.”

Read Part 2 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

There are about 14 or 15 participants — traditional knowledge keepers including elders and spiritual leaders. The mandate of the TRC is to guide and inspire the process of reconciliation in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. To inform the final report of the TRC, the Commission is gathering together traditional knowledge keepers in order to discuss reconciliation — asking them their understanding of reconciliation and what the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness: what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report, about reconciliation and healing.

The TRC website says: