‘We have taken a wonderful first step’: a century of Indigenous and Church relationship and reconciliation

A continuing series looking at progress made in healing and reconciliation initiatives between the Archdiocese of Vancouver and Canada’s Indigenous peoples since their first encounter. This week, apologies from B.C. and Whitehorse bishops.

• Part 1. ‘Dialogue and sharing’: a century of Indigenous and Church relationship and reconciliation
• Part 2. ‘We have heard their cries of distress’: a century of Indigenous and Church relationship and reconciliation
• Part 3. The first residential schools apology from Vancouver
• Part 4. A ‘deeply flawed’ system

In May 2008, Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM, and more than 100 band members from across the Vancouver Archdiocese gathered at the Chief Joe Mathias Recreation Centre in North Vancouver to answer an Invitation to Dialogue on Prayer issued by the Archdiocesan First Nations Council and hosted by the Squamish Band in North Vancouver. Among the discussions was the idea of seeing the blending of native traditions and native languages with Catholic worship as an opportunity rather than a difficulty.

The council was founded 18 years earlier by Archbishop Adam Exner, OMI, and co-chair Shirley Leon was delighted to see over a dozen priests and religious sisters come to hear the concerns of natives about their faith and culture.

For positive change to happen, said Leon, there must be a shift in thinking on the integration of native customs into parishes which serve a Catholic Aboriginal population. “We have taken a wonderful first step today to realizing that inculturation is not a problem but an opportunity. I think this was a turning point in everyone’s consciousness because we saw a spirit of cooperation and acceptance which encouraged the sharing of our individual and collective stories. I was impressed by the questions and the comments, because it’s only through open dialogue that we can find solutions.”

In his welcome, Archbishop Roussin said, “Today we have an opportunity to learn more about native traditions and spirituality,” which is “closely connected to the earth.”

Speakers at the Invitation to Dialogue and Prayer included Squamish Band member Rennie Nahanee, who would later become a deacon and First Nations ministry coordinator, and Betty Wilson of the Sliammon Band, who described translating school curriculum into the Sliammon language.

The federal government had just announced that an Aboriginal judge had been appointed to head a five-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine the residential school abuse legacy. Leon expressed frustration that it would duplicate the efforts of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples a decade earlier.

“What we do desperately need is funding for our communities to begin to heal. We are dealing with the aftermath of a pathological grief, the result of losses we have had in the past and continue to suffer through the high number of deaths of our young people today due to the abuse of alcohol and other substances. Our communities must work together to find solutions, but we need resources at the grassroots, not more money and years spent on government commissions.”

Solutions can be found in proven programs set up by Indigenous people themselves, she said. “It doesn’t need a big infrastructure.”

Leon called the Invitation to Dialogue event a great success because of the numbers and broad age range of those who attended. “Becoming active on our own behalf is the only way for any real change to happen,” Leon said.

Leon, who has served for several years on the Canadian Bishops’ Council for Reconciliation, told The B.C. Catholic that the bishops have a good understanding of the problems of native peoples, but “lack resources to allocate to native issues.”

A special collection held in churches across the country had failed to raise enough money to make a dent in problems faced by natives. A detailed look at that will come in the coming weeks.

Based on recommendations from the recent Archdiocesan Synod, Let Us Act, the First Nations Council has now drawn up a pastoral vision to implement a plan for native communities.

Programs such as Returning to Spirit, which has been used successfully in other parts of the country and in the northern territories, promote forgiveness and healing for those wounded by family and/or church personnel.

Leon said First Nations lay ministry programs have been successful in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba. “They are keeping faith alive in these Aboriginal communities, and if they can do it, so can we.”

Bands should try to resurrect their ancestral language because language is connected to the past and can help promote healing in spiritual, emotional, and intellectual ways, said Leon.

Rennie Nahanee, a parishioner at St. Paul’s Parish in North Vancouver, succeeded Leon as the Vancouver Aboriginal liaison to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and met twice a year with the bishops in Ottawa.

“We always had our own spirituality before other religions came along, and we need to rediscover these spiritual and cultural roots,” Nahanee said. “Our traditions all but disappeared when the government instituted the residential school system, but I really believe that we can work toward native spirituality and the Catholic faith going hand in hand today.

“Yes, many have rejected the Catholic faith altogether, but those of us who have remained within the Church can find ways to integrate our native traditions.”

Archbishop Roussin told The B.C. Catholic a few days after the event that he had been very moved to witness “how much we can share together and teach each other. We all came before the Creator God, and I think He was smiling down on each of us that day.”

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