September 30th 2021 marks the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots commemoration marked by the wearing of Orange Shirts for children forced to leave their families and attend residential schools.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or TRC) was active from 2008 to 2015 and documented the stories of survivors, families, and communities affected by residential schools. Established to assimilate Indigenous children into euro-Canadian culture and remove Indigenous identity, many well documented abuses took place. The report released at the conclusion of the TRC included 94 calls to action suggested by those most impacted in an effort to repair the harms caused by residential schools.
Today we offer you the opportunity to reflect on some of these calls to action as Christians who believe in a God that reconciles us to himself and one another.
This reflection is designed to take approximately an hour and we recommend that you take space to listen and reflect. You will be guided through calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Calls to Action 74, 75, 59, 60 and 48) with prayer and reflection prompts. Engage in this podcast in the way that allows you to fully immerse yourself in this material: find time in the day when you can walk in solitude and listen, or enjoy a beautiful drive while you reflect. Curl up in your favourite chair to draw and journal while you connect with this podcast.
Listen below or on your favourite podcast service.
September 30th 2021 marks the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots commemoration marked by the wearing of Orange Shirts for children forced to leave their families and attend residential schools.
The day is intended to commemorate the colonial legacy of residential schools in Canada and provide an opportunity for solemn reflection. The establishment of this holiday also fulfils Call to Action #80 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or TRC) was active from 2008 to 2015 and documented the stories of survivors, families, and communities affected by residential schools. Established to assimilate Indigenous children into euro-Canadian culture and remove Indigenous identity, many well documented abuses took place. The report released at the conclusion of the TRC included 94 calls to action suggested by those most impacted in an effort to repair the harms caused by residential schools.
Today we offer you the opportunity to reflect on some of these calls to action as Christians who believe in a God that reconciles us to himself and one another. This day offers us an opportunity to live into the Action for Reconciliation statement that the Christian Reformed Church made at the TRC in 2015 that said in part, “We have been honoured to witness the expressions of truth in the TRC, and in them have seen a sacred momentum of reconciliation and hope. Because of this hope, and with the help of our Indigenous neighbours and Creator God, we are committed to turning from the systemic evils behind colonialism and living into a sacred call of unity and reconciliation.”
This reflection is designed to take approximately an hour and we recommend that you take space to listen and reflect. Feel free to hit pause after each song. A transcript of this episode is linked in the show notes if you would like to read along while you listen. Engage in this podcast in the way that allows you to fully immerse yourself in this material: find time in the day when you can walk in solitude and listen, or enjoy a beautiful drive while you reflect. Curl up in your favorite chair to draw and journal while you connect with this podcast.
We enter now into reflecting on Calls to Action 74 and 75. These calls to action reflect on missing children and burial information. In light of recovered unmarked graves in Kamloops (also known as Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc in the Salish language) and many other communities - these calls to action are particularly important to focus on.
For context, the National Residential School Student Death Register, established by the TRC represents the first national effort to record the names of the students who died at residential schools. Work is now being done at provincial levels to find names of the missing children: an estimated 6,000 children died while attending these schools, according to former Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Murray Sinclair.
Students were often housed in poorly built, poorly heated, and unsanitary facilities. The continued discovery of graves drives us to reflect what we can do as Christians to implement these calls to action to honour the surviving families.
Join us now as Calls to Action 74 and 75 are read for you.
74. We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child’s burial location, and to respond to families’ wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.
75. We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.
Read the full Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports here.
Now we turn to a time of reflection, a time for you to actively engage in the information you have heard about missing children. To begin, engage your whole self.
When you are ready, step into a space of action.
Let’s pray these words from 2 Corinthians 5:18 in the NIV “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Creator God, equip us as brothers and sisters in Christ, for a ministry of reconciliation. Help us in our calling to serve a Messiah who came to break down walls between people and between humanity and the Lord.
Residential School Song (Indian Boarding School Song) · Cheryl Bear · Socan 2021
℗ 2007 Cheryl Bear Used with Permission
We will now move to reflection on Calls to Action 59 and 60. We have chosen to focus on these actions because they relate to us specifically as a faith community and individual believers.
While making change and taking action can feel overwhelming, the CRC has taken steps forward in the journey of reconciliation. The CRC’s governing body or “synod” of 2016 acknowledged that the Doctrine of Discovery was a heresy and rejected and condemned it. The Doctrine was a political and theological framework that justified European imperial ventures around the world, including the colonization of North America. It led to great injustices.
In June of 2015 at the Ottawa Truth and Reconciliation Commission event, the CRC promised to continue learning about the common history it shares with Indigenous people through the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, wrestling with the church’s own history of interaction with Indigenous peoples and advocating for Indigenous education reform in Canada.
2020 ushered in the launch of the CRC’s Hearts Exchanged program, a co-learning journey that is designed to prepare us as Christians to build relationships with Indigenous communities that are marked by mutual respect and reciprocity. Participants are invited into honest dialogue about the harms of colonialism, and to encounter ‘hearts broken’ stories and experiences.
As Christians ‘Calls to Action 59 and 60’ should prompt us to un-learn racist and prejudiced information about Indigenous people and Canada’s history. Let’s take time to reflect and consider our role as treaty and covenant people.
We will begin reading these calls to action shortly. Within them you will hear “church parties to the settlement agreement.” This refers to churches that set up and ran residential schools with and on behalf of the federal government and the agreement that was made between them and residential school survivors for compensation. All faith communities, and people living in Canada, have responsibilities in the reconciliation journey.
59. We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement to develop ongoing education strategies to ensure that their respective congregations learn about their church’s role in colonization, the history and legacy of residential schools, and why apologies to former residential school students, their families, and communities were necessary
60. We call upon leaders of the church parties to the Settlement Agreement and all other faiths, in collaboration with Indigenous spiritual leaders, Survivors, schools of theology, seminaries, and other religious training centres, to develop and teach curriculum for all student clergy, and all clergy and staff who work in Aboriginal communities, on the need to respect Indigenous spirituality in its own right, the history and legacy of residential schools and the roles of the church parties in that system, the history and legacy of religious conflict in Aboriginal families and communities, and the responsibility that churches have to mitigate such conflicts and prevent spiritual violence.
Read the full Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports here.
Now we turn to a time of reflection. We acknowledge that the church has played a devastating role in the history of residential schools, and that the attempt to assimilate Indigenous children through religious coercion was wrong. We repent and desire to walk into a space of hope for the future. We have committed to a time of learning and understanding as a denomination. We are thankful for Indigenous brothers and sisters who enter into this relationship with grace and forgiveness, allowing an exchange of dialogue, compassion and community to begin.
When you are ready, step into a space of action.
Let us pray again from 2 Corinthians 5:18 this time from the Message translation. “The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. … God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.”
Holy Spirit on our own we are not capable of this high calling. Enter our hearts and transform them so that in the same way we are reconciled with you we may be reconciled with others.
Our Prayers · Jonathan Maracle · Socan 2021
℗ Jonathan Maracle Used with Permission
We’ll now turn to our final Call to Action reflection for today number 48. Number 48 addresses the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We’ll call it “The Declaration” from here on in. The Declaration is a legal framework that outlines the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world. There are 46 articles mentioned in the declaration as minimum standards. And each standard comes from a time when a right has been violated or outright denied to Indigenous peoples.
The CRC responded to Call to Action 48 in March of 2016 - and affirmed the declaration as a framework for reconciliation.
Significantly both the Declaration and Call to Action 48 address self-determination or the rights of Indigenous people to decide what is best for themselves and their communities. Many CRC members actively advocated for this legislation to be implemented in Canada. And this year Canada's Parliament passed Bill C-15 which implemented the Declaration. Bill C-15 provides a significant framework for a reset in the working relationships between Indigenous nations and communities and the Canadian state. Such a reset is essential for the path of decolonization and reconciliation.
Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Murray Sinclair said at the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission “We have described for you a mountain, we have shown you the path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.” We recognize that with this legislation we are now in the foothills of this mountain. Today the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted but complying with it requires further steps.
48. We call upon the church parties to the Settlement Agreement, and all other faith groups and interfaith social justice groups in Canada who have not already done so, to formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for reconciliation. This would include, but not be limited to, the following commitments:
i. Ensuring that their institutions, policies, programs, and practices comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
ii. Respecting Indigenous peoples’ right to self determination in spiritual matters, including the right to practise, develop, and teach their own spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies, consistent with Article 12:1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
iii. Engaging in ongoing public dialogue and actions to support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Read the full Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports here.
Now we turn to a time of reflection, a time for you to actively engage in considering what our future looks like as a nation committed to ensuring that Indigenous peoples have the rights and opportunities they deserve as God’s image bearers.
When you are ready, step into a space of action:
Let’s invite God into this space with the words of 2nd Corinthians 5:18 from the First Nations Version translation. “Through the Chosen One, Creator has removed the hostility between human beings and himself, bringing all creation into harmony once again. The Great Spirit has chosen us to represent him in the sacred task of helping others find and walk this path of peacemaking and healing - turning enemies into friends.”
Our Prayers · Jonathan Maracle · Socan 2021
℗ Jonathan Maracle Used with Permission
Heavenly God, renew our faith in your covenant promises. Fill us with love for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Give us the will to break down walls of racism and injustice. Bless us with thoughts, words, and deeds that build bridges of grace, peace and justice for all.
Amen!
The Lord's Prayer · Cheryl Bear · Socan 2021
℗ 2007 Cheryl Bear Used with Permission
Other music used in this episode includes River of Life · Jonathan Maracle · Socan ℗ Jonathan Maracle Used with Permission
We are thankful for the music in this episode created by Indigenous songwriters Cheryl Bear and Jonathan Maracle and used with permission.
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