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Indigenous Justice

Learn more on the Centre for Public Dialogue website.

Relationships First: the Youth Ambassador of Reconciliation Trip

The Youth Ambassador of Reconciliation Program has officially begun! Two CRC members (Israel Cooper and Thea deGroot) and two CRC staff (Bernadette Arthur and Shannon Perez) have recently left for a week-long stay in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation, a fly-in community approximately 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

I'm not an Expert: Growing with the Blanket Exercise

In the space of two weeks in June, over 400 people participated in two mass Blanket Exercises. Wow. Each one was significant in its own way.

I first participated in the Blanket Exercise (BE) just a few short years ago at a meeting of the Canadian Aboriginal Ministry Committee. Since that first experience, I have participated in the BE, led the BE as a facilitator, and taught dozens of people to be facilitators. I’ve done it with small and medium groups and large groups of up 200 participants or more. What a journey!

Wrongs to Rights: Relocating Hearts to Respect

The Declaration is a clear pathway to never again: we must never again allow a forced relocation, never again allow residential schools, and never again allow the patronizing postures that shaped colonial relationships and their ongoing legacy.

Wrongs to Rights

Nearly 50 authors have contributed to a new, challenging collection of reflections on how churches can engage in this framework of reconciliation. If you are somehow troubled by that history, curious about how Indigenous Christians think about this history and future, or believe it is your personal, Christian, or civic responsibility to work for reconciliation with the peoples who lived in the land before European settlers arrived, you will find in this volume thoughtful, committed contributions from church people on Indigenous rights, the role of the state and the church, what the scriptures say, relationships with the land and the church, and living into our responsibilities together.

Learning from Indigenous Peoples - Sharing Circles

I realized that for many or most of these participants this sharing circle was the first time they had the space to really tell their story or cry out for answers. 

Cautious Optimism on Budget 2016

Budgets are moral documents. They reveal to us the priorities of our government, especially with respect to the needs of marginalized people. They call us as Christian citizens to respond, whether with praise or constructive criticism.

Indigenous Rights are Human Rights

My favourite part of my job is leading the Blanket Exercise. I love seeing a light go on for people as they learn parts of Canadian history that they never learned in school and realize how we came to the broken place we are today. I love learning from participants in the sharing circle afterwards, especially when they speak about Indigenous people that they know. I love how it helps our intellectual, brainy denomination to learn with our hearts as well.

Live Justly for Lent: for Families

This past year, as new parents, my spouse and I have been figuring out how to raise our family and also find time to continue serving God. In our church, we have been learning about being a family on mission. As parents, it can get complicated choosing between spending time with our family or serving God; or trying to find the time for both our family and serving God, while keeping the two separate. But God has designed us to be a family that is on mission together for him and with him.

Who is She: The Stories Behind the Red Dress

Under this red dress is a sign that reads “Who is She?” It is this sign that truly compelled me to read about and pray for the people who are represented by these red dresses that many Canadians have seen in their cities over the past few month.

What I Learned from the Miskito People of Nicaragua

“Some of our elders died of broken hearts, far from their homes,” said Dionysio Brown, Miskito leader and cultural expert. He was speaking of the forced relocation of his people from their homes along the Rio Coco to inland communities by the Nicaraguan government in the 70s, during Nicaragua’s conflict between the ruling sandinistas and the US-backed contras . We were standing in his dimly lit, one-room museum on his Indigenous Miskito culture, among the dictionaries, Bible translation, postcards, and Miskito clothing that represent his life’s work.

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