About 40 years ago, as a newcomer to this country, I was trying to figure out where to put the coins in a photocopy machine when another student barged in front of me and said, “ Do you mind?” as she piled her notes, papers and textbooks on top of the document I meant to photocopy. As I stood there watching her proceed with doing her own photocopying, she asked, “You’re from up north, aren’t you?” Seeing my startled response, she continued, “You’re a native, aren’t you?” When I still did not answer, she said, as she completed her photocopying job and started compiling her papers together, “Don’t worry I’m defending you in my class today.” As she hurried off with her things, I asked after her, “What did we do wrong?”

My worry then was that I realized that even if she clumped me in with a group of people I did not belong to that I certainly did not want her defending me, or me with my newly associated group, even if we did do something wrong.

One summer a few years later, I was working with the CMHA on a summer job, doing arts and crafts at a drop-in centre in Vancouver, serving mostly those who were recently released from correctional services or a psychiatric facility. I observed then that those people who visited me at the centre – who were coming from the correctional or psychiatric facilities – were mostly native people. I wondered then whether there was something in this society that systematically criminalized – or pathologized – native people. It was unthinkable to consider that a people were simply born onto this earth to populate the prisons and mental institutions.

Some people who would take me as a first nation person would apologize profusely when they realized I am not one, as though by calling me native they called me a filthy name.

There were also other times when taken as a native person I was treated with disrespect, with rudeness, or as though I was not present.

So I learned that being taken as native is a negative thing. It is not uncommon for many who have assimilated, and who have killed the native person in them, to not claim their native identity. It is the same as hating your own culture, or the skin you were born in.

The elimination of Indigenous peoples, or from what we now hear as “Cultural Genocide,” is in itself the organizing principle of a settler colonial society.

First nations people in Canada are exiles in their own land. As a newcomer to this country, I am an exile. Today’s reading from Isaiah is about a people in exile.

The people in exile cry out to God, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.”

It is a cry for justice. The prophet responds with two questions and an assurance: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.”

Some of you may have been witnesses at the closing events in Ottawa for Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this past May 31 to June 3.

For more than 120 years, tens of thousands of Aboriginal children were sent to Indian Residential Schools funded by the federal government and run by the churches. They were taken from their families and communities in order to be stripped of language, cultural identity and traditions. Canada’s attempt to wipe out Aboriginal cultures failed. But it left an urgent need for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.

Since 1980’s survivors have sought justice and reparations from the government and the churches that ran the schools. Their cases led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007. It is the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. The agreement sought to begin repairing the harm caused by residential schools.

Apart from providing compensation to former students, the agreement called for the establishment of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada with a budget of $60-million over five years.

The Canadian TRC looked at other countries’ commissions, including the South African TRC, as a reference.

And this is just the beginning.

Today is National Aboriginal Day, a day for recognizing and celebrating the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 1996, after it was proclaimed that year by then Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc, to be celebrated on June 21 annually. June 21 was chosen as the holiday for many reasons-including its cultural significance as the Summer solstice, and the fact that it is a day on which many Aboriginal groups traditionally celebrate their heritage.

The census metropolitan area of Toronto, with 26,575 Aboriginal people, had the largest Aboriginal population of any city in Ontario in 2006 – more than twice the Aboriginal population living in Ottawa (12,965), or in Thunder Bay (10,055), these being the Ontario cities with the next largest Aboriginal populations.

To put in context, in 2006, only 0.5% of the total population of Toronto was Aboriginal. By comparison, Kenora, with 2,365 Aboriginal people, was the city in Ontario with the largest proportion (16%) of Aboriginal people.

The Toronto Urban Native Ministry (TUNM) is unique in Ontario. Working out of the Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, it blends aboriginal tradition with Christian spirituality, so that they can walk together in harmony. Founded in 2003, TUNM touches more than 6,000 lives each year. It reaches out to aboriginal people on the street, in hospitals, in jails, shelters and hostels, providing counseling, spiritual care and referrals to community services. TUNM also participates in sacred gatherings of aboriginal people, performing baptisms, weddings, funerals and Sunday services to sharing circles, spirit namings and feasts. Importantly, TUNM facilitates the reconciliation process between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”

This was the man who spoke to prostitutes, who drank with sinners. This was the man who made the blind see, who made the lame walk, the deaf to hear, who healed the sick and freed the prisoners.

Poor lives, Disabled lives, Native lives, black lives, ALL lives matter.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”

This was the servant whom God upheld, who valued every life, and held that every life mattered, of whom was said, “… a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. “

When we are faced with a champion like this, we need not worry about anything, because we can claim the words in Isaiah, “but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

The work is not finished. I thank you for running the course with me.

Tina Conlon
All Saints, Whitby
21 June 2015