Reconciliation

I recently went on a trip to the Yukon, I’m not a big hiker so when my friend led me along the side of a steep slope on a mountain sheep trail I was well out of my comfort zone.  But I was also exhilarated, it was a new experience for me, on a perfect fall day. I was enjoying good conversation with my friend, and we could see our goal far up the hill.  

“Grace is bad arithmetic”--famous words from my pastor Dave Vroege in a sermon just over a year ago. He continued, explaining how grace is nonsense.

“Grace is bad arithmetic.”

Nonsense! Why? Because it is given to us regardless of whether we want it or not.

I’ve always understood grace to be an action word. An invitation on how to behave and act. It’s the absence of anger and the presence of love and peacefulness.

Hard words to hold when one is full of rage.

We noticed her standing just inside the front entrance looking up. While she was waiting to load her bus with the summer camp kids, she had stepped into the church foyer and saw the land acknowledgement: The Community Christian Reformed Church of Meadowvale is located on the Treaty Lands and Traditional Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

Ever since starting to study at Redeemer, I’ve become more familiar with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and Canada’s history in the treatment of Indigenous people. Thanks to classes with William Postma and Naaman Wood, I’ve wanted to join the effort of reconciliation with Indigenous communities, but I didn’t really know what the process of reconciliation looked like practically. Maybe you’ve felt the same way.

Dear Tanya, 
In 2009, you became a number that I wasn't counting. 
Your sister, Vanessa, was counting.
The hours, days and the years of this silence.
I heard during the hearing. 
I heard your story. 
I heard your human-ness. 
You are not dead to her.
You are not a number.
I'm counting. We're counting.
With Love, 
Priya

Most Thursdays, I spend my afternoons at a local halfway house and healing centre, created to prepare Indigenous men for the transition from federal prison to the street. I walk through two sets of glass doors, up a short flight of stairs, and into the sweet smell of sage grass and fried food. Indigenous parole officers, administrators, and parolees mill around a front desk, filling out paperwork and discussing their plans for the weekend. Of the dozen or so people around me, I am the only one with white skin. Brown skin is the norm here, and my whiteness makes me an outsider.

I believe that God has a plan for everyone, but sometimes that fact alone doesn’t feel very comforting. I came across the Youth Ambassador of Reconciliation Program when I was struggling with God and his plans for me. I had just graduated from university and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my degree, or if I wanted to work in my degree’s field at all. I had decided to just take a year off to “figure it out” when I heard about this opportunity to go live among the First Nations in Kitchenuhmayoosib Inninuwag (KI), a remote reserve in northern Ontario.

This month on Do Justice we are working to unlearn the Doctrine of Discovery together through our series "In 1492, Indigenous peoples discovered Columbus". Welcome to the series! To make sure you don't miss a post, sign up here.

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 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.