The challenge for the Social Justice in Motion Conference was to provide participants with experienced interactive strategies they could use in their own parishes to start a conversation on reconciliation with first Nations and Métis people.
The video “native knowing” by Larry Merculieff, and Aleut Indigenous Messenger and Teacher, underpinned the entire conference. In his talk, Merculieff maintains that Western society works in reverse to First Nations society: the mind informs the heart for nonaboriginals, rather than the heart informing the mind. Aleut children learn by observing their adult mentors and nature, rather than by having their minds filled with other peoples thoughts and conclusions. The message for the conference planners was clear: few words and lots of action and reflection. Sessions were interactive so participants could deepen their understanding not only of the content, but also of the emotional impact from the ensuing conversations. The conference worked on two levels, the “what”, and the “how” attempting to mirror First Nations ways of learning. Let’s first see what happens and then ask ourselves did it work?
The conversations allowed participants to find meaning by considering the responses various groups made to the same shared experience. Throughout the day, groups shared ideas with a various people including Roman Catholics and Christian brothers and sisters from other denominations, with young people and seniors, and those in between, First Nations as well as people from India and Korea. They all contributed to a rich dialogue from many various perspectives.
The blanket exercise got people up and moving. Ruth Robillard and her students from Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) provided an interactive dramatization which connected participants in both mind and heart to the history of First Nations people from a shared experience of the land and peaceful trading, to the exploitation of First Nation’s land and children.
After lunch, Lyndon Linklater from the Office of the Treaty Commissioner (OTC) discussed treaty as a path to reconciliation. Calling it an “undiscovered country”, he asked the participants to imagine their responses if visitors from a dying planet indicated they were coming to reside on earth to escape the calamity at home. They were just coming – there was no question of treaty. This simulation help participants understand what the inhabitants of this land faced as the Europeans arrived, stayed, and settled. Lyndon provided an original immediate context around which to frame and an understanding of treaty.
The final segments dealt with the consequences of Canada’s history with first Nations and Métis peoples. First, Presley Thompson shared his experience as a former gang member who has turned his life around. His courage and sincerity underlined the strength needed to surmount the consequences of a childhood compromised as a result of the lasting effects of residential school and attempted cultural annihilation.
After the testimonial, table groups wrestled with the question, Now what? How could both individuals and parishes nurture relationships with First Nations true experience and conversations? Even more to the point, how might the conference sessions as well as books, films, and speakers listed in a resource document, be a catalyst for dialogue? Archbishop Donald Bolen then connected the day’s experience with the call to action growing out of the truth and reconciliation commission, and the responsibility of the church to respond to that call.
Archbishop Bolen’s call to action brought the day full circle to a holistic conclusion. As we prayed in closing, the powerful prayer “we cannot merely pray to you, O God,” (reprinted below) reminded everyone that, while prayer is important, in action is inexcusable as God has already tooled us and empowered us to bring about justice in his name.
As planners, we might ask ourselves whether we achieved our goal. Given that our goal was to provide a day aligned with First Nations ways of knowing that would give participants strategies with which to start conversations in their personal lives or in small groups in their parishes. We, the planning committee, are happy with the results. The heart was to inform the head. During the blanket exercise, I saw many people wipe away tears; some so constricted they could hardly speak when the talking stick came their way. Lyndon’s session inspired one participant, who had indicated to me that he would leave after lunch to attend an afternoon commitment to delay his departure until the last possible minute in order to experience as much of that session as possible. Hearts were moved. Throughout the day, I saw smiles and people engaged in processing ideas through conversation and reflection: the mind at work. Participants were able to come to their own conclusions without interference from planners. After a daylong opportunity to deepen their understanding, participants were called to action. No one knows what form that action might take. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, to move the hearts once again and keep the circle going. For us, designers and planners of this conference, we have put in our brick; we have done our work.
We Can Not Merely Pray
Jack Riemer and Likrat Shabbat
We cannot merely pray to you O God to end war;
For the World is made in such a way
That we must find our own path of peace
Within ourselves and with our neighbors.
We cannot merely pray to you O God to root out Prejudice:
for we already have eyes
With which to see the good in all people
If we would only use them rightly.
We cannot merely pray to you O God to end starvation:
For we already have the resources
With which to feed the entire World
If we would only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to you O God to end despair:
For we already have the power
To clear away slums and to give hope
If we would only use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to you O God to end disease:
For we already have great minds
With which to search out cures and healings
If we would only use them constructively.
Therefore we pray instead
For strength, determination, and will power,
To do instead of merely to pray
To become instead of merely to wish:
So that our World may be safe,
And so that our lives may be blessed.
