My writings - and those of others.
Where are We?
As we now apparently are on the verge of space tourism as a future industry, there is more talk of space - why we want to enter it, how much will its cost increase the sense of difference between the billionaires and the rest of us, whether we have just found a new place to pollute. There are larger questions which few are asking or responding to.
Enter Mary Evelyn Tucker who responds to a different question at the Center for Humans and Nature. It poses some of the real questions for our time and invites others to respond.
Tucker starts by noting that evolution is new in the scheme of things - only 160 years old and not something we think about as a concept. We think of the universe as something stable and find it hard to imagine it as expanding. That’s a challenge. She notes that most of the findings of cosmology, biology and humans was not known to our grandparents or even our parents. I grew up thinking that the milky way was the limit. Modern science tells me that the universe is a developing 14 billion year journey and two trillion galaxies exist. But this story has been laced with facts rather than with a poetic sense of wonder.
Science and religion have split as studies, and many have abandoned both in a world using shopping and entertainment to find meaning. Tucker outlines how hard it was for the church to accept a change in the solar system, where humans were no longer the centre of the universe. While scriptural literalism is decried, its creation story is still the one that is fixed in our western worldview. What Tucker suggests is a need for a change of context. She details the experience of mediaeval scientists and their suppression and goes on to outline the experience of modern ones like Einstein, who notes his most serious mistake in not recognizing an expanding universe.
Where does this leave us? She proposes that we see ourselves as situated not just in the world, but in the universe and as part of its expanding diversity - with the gift of consciousness and ability to reflect, not as the pinnacle with the right to exploit it, but as part of its creation with potential. She ends:
“. . .we need an integrated cosmology where science and story are interwoven, where facts and values are braided. As Einstein said: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
The braid is a good metaphor as she reminds us that indigenous people have always understood the cosmos in an intimate way. Read this article - but also read Braiding Sweetgrass.
Changing Places
One of the people we need to learn from is recently retired Senator Murray Sinclair. He appeared a few months ago to speak to the law students at UWO but the address that I found stunning was this one he gave as recipient of the Tom Symons Medal lecture series at Confederation Centre in Prince Edward Island.
Unless you like lengthy introductions, you will want to skip forward to the lecture itself entitled, Confederation - We could have done better. Indeed he is right. We could have - and we must - all of us.
Sinclair knows the power of story and tells his own brilliantly. He notes that in legal training, one of the lessons is to lose your imagination and focus solely on facts. He then moves to facts with the audience. He invites them to take out their cell phones and find their favourite picture of a child. He stops the lecture and suggests that the audience share a story about that child with the person seated next to them - and the audience does so with great enthusiasm. He calls them back.
He then says “Delete that picture - after all it’s only a picture”. The room falls silent. He encourages them to do so even more - “Go ahead -You still have the real child after all”. He then asks to have a picture of his own samll granddaughter mounted on a large screen behind him. “I can’t either” - he admits. But Canada did that to our children.”
The point hits home. In this lecture and in so many others he outlines the damage of cultural genocide. In his book, coauthored with the other tribunal leaders, What We have Learned: Principles of the Truth and Reconciliation. he elaborates on the definition:
“Physical genocide is the mass killing of the members of a targeted group and biological genocide is the destruction of a group’s reproductive capacity. Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the targeted group. Land is seized. and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement in restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated or destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmissions of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next.
In dealing with Aboriginal people, Canada did all these things”. The stories relating to the schools follow and they tell the stories of the actions of all the schools. There is no excuse. All the religious traditions are implicated in the words of the survivors.
Later in the lecture he made reference to his personal story - which relates well to the announcement yesterday that Cowessess First Nation within the province of Saskatchewan becomes the first to control its child welfare system under Bill C-92; it empowers indigenous communities to reclaim jurisdiction. 83% of children in the province were from first nations as of last fall. The Eagle Woman tribunal there will help settle disputes,
Senator Sinclair’s father was a residential school survivor who suffered trauma from the experience which was increased when his wife died leaving him with four young children. He transferred the responsibility for them - including one year old Murray - to his parents in their sixties. “My grandmother connected every one of us with an auntie, with whom I went everywhere and learned from her. On the basis of long term results my grandmother proved to be an excellent child-welfare administrator.”
He also talked about his own lack of fellunderstanding of indigenous spirituality and the role it must play in his life, until he was counselled by an elder. That part of the video above is also moving and revealing. He told us of the importance of a name - and how his in his own language has prophetically given him direction as to how to live his life. His granddaughter has her own name story and we understand how fearless and true to that spirituality that is forming her. When asked to describe her grandfather’s occupation by a nine year old classmate when he visited her school - Senator Murray was not sure she actually knew - but she still had an answer - “He Sentaizes”
Thank the universe for Senator Sinclair - and even in retirement we hope he continues to Sentatize.
Learning
When we encounter something we see is wrong, we automatically want to fix it - which hardly ever works. Right now we are dealing with the pre-eminent failures of our country and the wider world to address the two issues of our day - systematic racism and climate emergency. How we got here requires much study and reflection - but also the worldview we have inherited that put us where we are. I am working hard to understand the latter but for today I’ll look at what struck me most profoundly I didn’t know about the Indian Act from Bob Joseph’s excellent short book. It’s almost all of it. I was pleased to see an interview with him in the Globe and Mail this morning.
For a more global view of systemic racism the UN statement here is a good place to start.
These are the things among Joseph’s 21 that are most damaging
First nations had systems of government based on heredity that worked for them. We imposed an elected system that did not meet their needs and competed with their own. The traditional leadership often continued with different responsibilities allocated to the two systems, creating the same kind of disputes and confusion that we already live with between federal and provincial areas of jurisdiction.
Women had no status from 1869 to 1985. If a woman married a non status person, she lost her own status and had to leave the reserve. If a male married a person without status, that person was granted status on the reserve. Since women played a significant role in traditional leadership - and often succession was from a matrilinial line, this was a further outrage.
People were placed on reserves from 1876 until today. This meant that people were moved from the land they used with care and viability to places where they more often than not had little ability to flourish. Even then the government reserved the right to take reserve land away for public works.
They took away their names and gave them European ones. As the last of my branch of a family that can list its ancestors back several centuries, I can only imagine the effect of this.
They needed a permit to sell produce from farms - because their produce would compete with that those on the lands that were taken from them.
They could not buy guns, alcohol or go to pool halls.
Worship ceremonies were illegal. (They had to go underground - and they did.)
They couldn’t even leave the reserve without the permission of an Indian Agent.
That is enough outrage for one day. We will have to continue with more of it - and reckon with what is still in force.
A shameful history
All countries like to celebrate their achievements. So do people on social media these days, who seem to assume that their meals, children’s graduations, hair styles and the like merit interest and praise from the rest of us. I am surprised that some people I know do this so often. We’re much less apt to cite our failures - as individuals or as nations. That would reveal how vulnerable we really are behind these facades of achievement.
But is time to come to terms with reality. As Canadians we thought that people who had been here fourteen thousand years earlier needed to be taught how to live, how to dress, what language to speak and how to worship their creator. We took young children from their parents and placed them in residential schools where we abused them physically and sexually, transmitted our diseases. starved them and buried them in unmarked graves. We left a legacy to the generations that followed them. many who are still among us.
In answer to all the “Buts” and “What Abouts” of Canadian history, the best response is to pause and look at the current realities - as both individuals and institutions where we have connections. What have we to learn from a suffering people? What do they have to teach us now?
The recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are here. It’s time for temperature taking and further action. Suffering takes time to heal. But denying the changes that need to happen doesn’t even allow healing to start. Not all actions are our personal responsibility - but both as individuals and institutions, some clearly are.
Honoring the Four Directions
On this National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, there is no better way to spend it than to watch this video:
It is especially worth seeing while remembering Ginny Doctor, the Executive Producer who also appears in the film. She died recently. May she rest in peace. To know and understand the Doctrine of Discovery and its impact on all our lives is necessary and she could not have left us a better legacy for reflection and action.
A prayer for people of all faiths - or no faith:
Come Great Spirit, as we gather in your name.
We face East:
To your symbol colour Red, the hue of revelation;
To your animal symbol the Eagle, strong and nurturing;
To your lessons calling us to the balance of your Spirit in Harmony with brothers and sisters;
To invoke your wisdom and grace, the goodness of the ages, We pray: COME HOLY SPIRIT, COME.
We turn to face South:
To your symbol colour Gold for the morning star.
To your symbol Brother Sun that enlightens our intellect and brings light on our path to live responsibly;
To your lessons calling us to balance of Mind in the Spirit of humility;
To invoke your spirit of illumination and far sighted vision;
Help us to love you and one another with our whole heart, our whole mind, and our whole soul, We pray: COME HOLY SPIRIT, COME.
We turn to face West:
To your symbol colour Black, still and quiet.
To your animal symbol the Thunderbird;
To your symbol the Thunder mighty and purposeful;
To your lessons calling us to balance our emotions in the spirit of Gentleness and Honesty;
To invoke your spirit of introspection, seeing within; Give us your strength and the courage to endure, We pray: COME HOLY SPIRIT, COME.
We turn to face North:
To your symbol colour white of clarity and brightness.
To your animal symbol the swan which brings us in touch with Mother Earth and growing things;
To your lessons calling us to balance of our Body in the spirit of a good sense of humor;
To invoke your spirit of innocence, trust and love; Help us to open our eyes to the sacredness of every living thing, We pray: COME HOLY SPIRIT, COME.
(Note: There are several interpretations of the colours of the medicine wheel. A Cree adaptation is used here.)