Truth and Reconciliation
By Celeste Halliwell, PHD Neuroscience
“I have had the honor to work with the Blackfoot people to learn about many customs, beliefs and Niitsitapi. It has brought me humbleness in my life in addition to a great joy to know many wonderful Blackfoot people. I feel the need to share with our community with encouragement for community members to engage with the First Nations people and begin the healing process for all (Celeste Halliwell).”
Canada’s Legacy
The Truths
The Indigenous people of Canada have faced continuous dispossession of their lands and resources to be governed and exploited by settlers, with an intentional genocide of their language, spiritual beliefs, and cultural practices since the colonization of European settlers (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015). It has taken hundreds of years until the year 2008, when a number of Canada’s Indigenous peoples stood together to fight the Canadian government with a class action lawsuit that our country is finally faced with the truths of our past with the recognition of a need to reconcile these truths with our native people (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement with the inclusion of elders travelling across Canada to collect personal stories around residential school experiences and how it affected individuals and families for many years.The purpose of this commission was not to point out the wrong activities or shaming of settlers in Canada but was a critically necessary action to discover and realize the truths about the removal (sometimes forced) of indigenous children from their parents and place them into residential schools to “kill the Indian”. The truths that have recently been revealed by many native people across Canada can be psychologically destabilizing for most readers and it will feel uncomfortable to learn. It has been assured to all that this process is necessary in order to reach a long-awaited reconciliation of the injustices that have been, and continue to be, imposed upon our country’s First Nations people (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
The colonization of European settlers was disruptive in every way to the First Nations communities in Canada. Cultural genocide has been stated in numerous discussions and is considered a central element of the residential school mandate to remove the existence of an entire culture’s language, customs, and spirituality. Children were removed from their parents and raised in an institution to learn new a language and new customs while experiencing the loss of their kinship. Many parents in turn consumed alcohol from their loss of children. Upon some of the children’s brief return home, many children weren’t able to resume the healthy relationships once established with their kinship because of the alcohol in addition to being removed from their families each year to return to school. This process has had a profound effect on the children’s ability to learn healthy parenting as they had lost the loving communication from their own families (Chief Moon-Riley, Copeland, Metz, Currie, 2019; Brave Rock, 2022; Pace, 2022). In addition to suffering the loss of family, they also suffered abuses that have made a long-standing mark in their history as these behaviors and resulting traumas continue to be passed through the generations. The traumas that continue today are complex, intergenerational, and known to have an epigenetic component that has affected the physical health, mental health, spirituality, and cultural identity of the native people (Haskell & Randall, 2009). Studies with the First Nations people in Canada have confirmed the adverse and intergenerational effects of this complex trauma to be maladaptive and destructive (Bombay, Matheson & Anisman, 2009).These maladaptive changes are accompanied by changes in areas of the brain that govern emotional regulation and decision-making processes. Processes critical for regulating symptoms of anxiety and depression, to make adequate decisions, understand consequences, and to learn empathy. These changes are as a result of surviving traumatic experiences (Bombay, Matheson & Anisman, 2009; Burrus, 2013; Koizumi, 2014). The biological impacts have also been found in the children of mothers who attended residential school with disruptions in various physiological processes, particularly those required for emotional and stress regulation (Chief Moon-Riley, Copeland, Metz, Currie, 2019).
Currently, there continue to exist First Nations people that live with clinically significant functional impairment, or distress contributing to experiences of emotional, spiritual, and physical pain as victims. Pain that includes childhood neglect, domestic violence, physical and/or sexual abuse, exposure to substance abuse, family dysfunction, and the loss of loved ones to substance abuse (Bombay, Matheson & Anisman, 2009). The First Nations people are also known to have higher rates of accidents (Shahzeer et. al., 2005) with higher morbidity rates (Proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute, 2001). As some children are fostered through child protective custody, their educational and social learning can become severely affected that may be characterized with neurodevelopmental delays and learning disabilities (Taboda, Iglesias, Lopex, & Rivas, 2020; Lindstrom & Choate, 2016).
Not every Indigenous person has experienced the same level of disrespect, and many have become very successful with their livelihood. The inherited misgivings of the native people, however, should not be disregarded and needs to be learned with an empathetic viewpoint to help families and communities move forward through the generations. We need to be reminded that when something happens to an individual it affects their entire family and community.
‘Jagged worldviews’ is a term put forth by Leroy Little Bear (2000) to highlight the fragmentary worldviews among indigenous people as a colonial legacy. “People no longer had an aboriginal worldview, nor did they adopt a Eurocentric worldview. In attempts to understand a modern life for indigenous people, their consciousness consists of overlapping, contentious, and fragments of ideas competing for desires and values.” Little Bear discusses there is no longer an aboriginal worldview for the indigenous people as it was known, rather, everyone tries to understand the various values posed within their societies and make adaptable decisions based on their collective knowledge and experiences. The tendency to revisit traditional practices intermingled with modern day practices can make choices about how to live out their lives difficult (Little Bear, 2000). Our local native community has grown to have members living their lives along a spectrum of these ‘jagged worldviews’; some have become very well educated, whereas others continue to fall through ‘the cracks’ as a result of having an inability to adhere to societies norms and expectations for a community.
Our Community
The truths of social and cultural oppression have been evident and living in plain sight for many years with our most vulnerable and homeless people, but much of our society continue to blame the “Indian” for learning to drink alcohol and to take drugs; even though it was never a part of their culture. The homeless people, most of which are of our local native origin, should exemplify a reminder to our community of a need to further our education regarding the injustices initiated by our past social and cultural beliefs of European settlers. Yet, much of our community continues to find ways to absolve themselves of recognizing a responsibility of these injustices. Our government continued disregard for recognition of the native rights through land exploitation that led to massive losses in land, language, and culture of the local Blackfoot and Métis people that was accompanied with oppression and discrimination. Waziyatawin and Yellow Bird (2012) have stated this oppression as “colonization as an all-encompassing presence in their (native) lives”.
Mark Brave Rock is the founder of the Sage Clan Patrol for the homeless people in Lethbridge, Alberta, most of which are Blackfoot and are “his people”. Mark himself lives with complex trauma but continues to learn how to ‘connect’ with his people with attempts to bring them out of substance abuses and into recovery.
“For many years, the Lethbridge shelter had been operated through ‘white policies’ which had great limitations about making ‘connections’ with the residents and the homeless people. This in turn was ineffective with regard to offering hope for people living with trauma. Making this connection with people is critical to our healing.”
“Working at an arm’s length with homeless people, especially amongst my Blackfoot people doesn’t work; even as I was getting the Sage Clan organized”.
“When we look at the trauma, we still don’t understand how deep-rooted this is.”
“My children have gone to college but yet I see addictions in some of my children and grandchildren. They also have severe anxiety. My upbringing taught me to have patience I wish I could get back. When others try to do something to help the native people, they don’t realize it is going to take years. The ‘white society’ must understand the hurdles that need to be overcome in order to begin healing and living among Eurocentric ways of life. Colonizers used punitive measures expecting the native people to readily learn and adapt to live a completely different culture. These expectations continue with judgement and discrimination against our people, as is evident in how we are still marginalized in society. We need to be allowed to begin to take baby steps to overcome these hurdles and to learn to adapt a more modern way of living (Brave Rock, 2022).”
“Our people were policed by white policies that continued the cycle of oppression and prevented our true strength and identity of who we really are. These policies brought us into the complex traumas we have to live with (Brave Rock, 2022).”
Reconciliation
Prior to colonialization, the Indigenous people lived healthy lifestyles with traditional Niitsitapi values that did not include punitive measures for learning or using substances to work with pain. To expect such a different culture to be able to adapt to a dichotomously different Euro-centered culture quickly is not realistic and is evident in our Canadian communities.
There are deep scars remaining in the lives of Canada’s First Nations people with deeply damaged relationships between the native and non-native people. The process of reconciliation will take many years and will require a better understanding and acknowledgement among the settlers and a commitment to regaining trust and friendship with the native people. Although the government of Canada has initiated calls to action according to the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples (2008), it has taken continued media exposure of the hidden graves at Residential Schools for many of us to further acknowledge the injustices that First Nations people continue to endure. It is therefore, recognized that “Reconciliation needs to be an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships at all levels of Canadian Society. Aboriginal people’s right to self-determination must be integrated into Canada’s constitutional and legal framework and civic institutions, in a manner consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of the Declaration” (National Advisory Committee, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).
The Canadian government has committed to recognizing the importance of indigenous self-government and laws that incorporates all indigenous perspectives and rights and is critical to Canada’s future (Government of Canada, 2018). As part of this commitment, Canada has implemented the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to recognize each individual’s rights necessary for survival, dignity, and well-being. The changes to achieve indigenous self-government requires recognizing that indigenous nations are “self-determining, self-governing, increasingly self-sufficient, and rightfully aspire to no longer be marginalized, regulated and are administered under the Indian Act and other similar instruments” (Government of Canada, 2018).
Self-governance has also been described as a need to recognize that the native people “haven’t surrendered to the colonial structures embedded in the current government” (Karim, 2023). It is critical that all First Nations people be able to exercise their rights of “traditional knowledge of their spiritual ways, culture, language, social and legal systems, political structures, and inherent relationships with land, waters, and all upon them (Karim, 2023).” It is also critical that we do not use a “pan-Indian” approach to reconciliation for the First Nations peoples as each tribe has their own customs for managing their societies (Lindstrom & Choate, 2016) and it should be encouraged that Canadians learn and respect the traditional practices of each tribe.
The City of Lethbridge has recently committed to Blackfoot self-governance with the Blood Tribe Department of Health taking the responsibility for the Lethbridge Wellness Shelter and Stabilization Centre. The shelter’s success has been directed by Starly Brave Rock with relationships established with the Lethbridge Police Services, Fire and Emergency Medical Services, and Alberta Health Services. Thus far, positive results have been received from shelter guests with a positive feeling about the cleanliness and organization of the building. Furthermore, a relationship has been established with the Fresh Start recovery Centre with positive relationships (Brave Rock, 2023a). In February 2023, city council approved funding for Blood Tribe Housing to build local housing for independent elders, young adults, people with disabilities as well as, for some experiencing homelessness (Beeber, 2023).
Steps have been taken to acknowledge, understand the hardships and to begin reconciliation. Reconciliation is much larger than most realize however, and it will take many years of ‘decolonization’ to find a healthy balance between Indigenous and Euro-centred cultures in Canada. It has been cautioned to not view understand decolonization as a metaphor (Tuck, & Wayne, 2012). As we learn and adopt our First Nations cultural practices, language, and knowledge, it is critical that we be mindful about not attributing colonization as another part of history that taps into pre-existing stories thus preventing the emergence of meaningful alliances. There may also be a tendency to comply with innocence to reconcile settler guilt and complicity toward reconciliation. A most important issue to consider with reconciliation among the Indigenous people in our country and local communities is land. Settlers disrupted every aspect of native ways of life to include their relationship with the land, Which is considered a profound epistemic, ontological, cosmological violence.” Decolonization, therefore, also requires a respectful repatriation of land in addition to living as a self-sovereign nation (Tuck, & Wayne, 2012).
Claudette Commanda, a knowledge keeper professor and day school survivor from the Algonquin Nation, Kitigan Zibi Anishanabeg, has presented “reconciliation to be all about respect. It starts with respecting one another, respecting Indigenous peoples, respecting the land. Reconciliation cannot happen without the truth; it begins with the truth. Regardless of how bad or sad the truth is it must be told- it belongs to the children for our future” (Commanda, 2020).
Eugene Arcand, Aski Kananumowahwatah I, a knowledge keeper from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Whitecap Dakota First Nation, Saskatchewan, talks about September always being a difficult month as the children were torn away from their families every year to return to the institutions (schools). Children would experience the physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuses. “When you get home today, please, hug your mom, hug your father, hug your siblings and tell them you love them. Because you have no idea what it is like to have a childhood of never having been told you are loved”. Eugene thanks everybody for acknowledging and bringing more awareness to Orange Shirt Day- Every Child Matters (Arcand, 2020).
The Orange Shirt Day that represents Every Child Matters was founded by Phyllis Webstad who is from the Canoe Creek/Dog Creek First Nation in the land of the Shuswap people, Secwepemculucw of Williams Lake BC. She shared her story of how her grandmother took her shopping for a beautiful brand-new shirt that was orange to wear on her first day to school at the age of six. “It was bright and shiny just like how I was feeling going to school for the first time. When I got to school, my shirt was taken away and I never wore it again” (Webstad, 2020).
Mark Brave Rock has been healing from complex trauma and the addictions that came with it through engaging with his Blackfoot roots and realizes how critically important this is for his people to heal and for our community members to learn, understand, and accept. “We have been blessed to be born with a Blackfoot identity and that is our contribution to being Niitsitapi living in harmony with the land, Pumikaapi. Society can fail with reconciliation because the white man is losing spirit for humanity. Our communities need to walk together with the native people to begin to improve our nation of Kanata (Brave Rock, 2023b).”
References
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