Members of our local Indigenous communities spoke both about their heritage and solutions for the future at an evening of Truth and Reconciliation hosted by the Newmarket Bahá'í last night.
With the chairs at the Old Town Hall arranged in a circle to respect the Indigenous guests, the evening began with a land recognition and an Indigenous prayer by Anishinaabe elder Mim Harder, a recipient of a Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers from the Governor General of Canada.
Jacob Charles, after performing an opening song, spoke of rediscovering his Indigenous heritage and how he found out that he is a song maker and not a warrior. He added, however, everyone fights in their own way and he learned to channel his anger in "good" ways. Drumming helps Charles ground himself now that he lives off reserve, he said.
Charles said he works with young Aboriginal men to help them change their macho ways to better understand women. "It is hard to be an Anishinaabe man," he said.
Becky Big Canoe spoke of her passions: protecting our waters, missing and murdered Indigenous women, natural building methods, and Indigenous cultural revitalization.
Big Canoe said natural building methods are a solution to the housing crisis on reserves and she has a proposal to teach women how to build their own homes.
As this proposal is "bottom up", and outside of the normal bureaucratic realm, Big Canoe is crowd-sourcing funding for the initiative.
She is also looking for solutions to addiction through restoring the social fabric by revitalizing Indigenous culture.
The final speaker of the evening was Dr. Gerald Filson, who has served as director of public affairs of the Bahá'í Community of Canada since 1993 and is a member of the National Spiritual Assemby, the national governing council of the Bahá'ís of Canada.
Filson told the history of the relationship between the Bahá'í faith and the Indigenous peoples, adding that the Canadian Bahá'í governing council always had Aboriginal members. He said there are similarities between Indigenous spirituality and the Bahá'í faith, adding that reconciliation is the mission of the Bahá'í.
Indigenous justice is relational and transformative, not punitive like Western justice, Filson said.
The evening ended with everyone spontaneously joining Charles in a closing circle dance.
