Dec 12th is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when the Church in Canada celebrates The National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. This initiative, coordinated since 2002 by the CCCB Advisory group, the Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council, marks this feast as a day of prayer, solidarity and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patron of the Americas, appeared in Mexico in 1531 as an Indigenous woman to St Juan Diego, whose Indigenous name was Cuauhtlatoatzin (“Eagle Who Speaks”), and spoke to him in his Indigenous language of Nahuatl. She is wearing the black sash around her waist, which is an Aztec Maternity Belt that Mexican women would wear to indicate they were with child. At a time when colonizing powers in the Americas were showing little respect for Indigenous ways, language, and culture, the mother of Jesus, comes as an Indigenous woman to this land, affirming her special love, indeed her identification with and embrace of Indigenous Peoples and culture. God walks with Indigenous Peoples and has always walked with Indigenous Peoples.
