A recent trip to Nunavut by Canada’s Governor General Michaëlle Jean caught the attention of many, including Patrick Gossage, Chairman of Media Profile and a member of our parent company’s Business Advisory Committee.  Originally published in the June 7 edition of Tandem Weekly, what follows are some of this thoughts on the importance for all of us to appreciate, respect and value Canada’s first peoples.

Mission Possible
By Patrick Gossage

The deliberate, highly public act by our marvelous Governor General Michaëlle Jean of eating the heart of a seal among her Inuit hosts marks a major turning point in our recognition and acceptance of the rich culture and practices of our first nations peoples, cultures we have spent generations trying to destroy.

Sometimes in our media saturated world it takes such a controversial public act, by a person who represents us all, to focus our minds on how significant a distance we have come and how far we have to go in completely accepting that those who lived in the nation long before we arrived must be respected and valued for who they are, not for who we, who came later, wanted so badly to make them.

It’s a long story. It forces itself into our consciousnesses briefly and occasionally as we are confronted with the horrors of residential schools, of mass resettlement of Inuit from their northern communities, of the “missionary” work of Catholics and Anglicans particularly who only saw souls to save, pagans to convert, and did not realize they were destroying families and peoples.

The results are visible in lost generations, in middle aged men and women who were torn from their parents, in alcoholism, in once proud peoples now reduced to being the wards of government.

The natives who gracefully and generously taught the early settlers what they knew about the unknown continent, showed them the canoe routes that opened it, taught them survival, were quickly marginalized, their lands robbed.

Even in what is now the GTA, there were once 60,000 first nations living in huge long houses and cultivating the land. When York was founded in the late 1700’s, the son of Lord Simcoe the first Governor of Upper Canada, played with native children. Natives fished in Toronto harbor. Soon they were persuaded to sell a huge tract reaching up to Lake Simcoe for pennies and retreated farther north.

“Civilization” and settlement was to literally finally do them in. None less than our father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald first stated what became routine in the growing young country – we must, he stated “do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects.” Official government policy remained true to that doctrine well into the 20th century, and the removal of children from their families to residential schools, largely staffed by personnel from the major churches, was the blunt instrument for that assimilation.

Let’s not forget that this assimilation or evangelism was a major motivating factor as early as the 17th century in the founding of New France. Jesuit missionaries saw in the “savages” only souls to bring to Christ. The best history of those early years remains their “Jesuit Relations”.

The assumption that the native culture was inferior to ours remained into our days.

Fast forward to 1999 and a pastoral message from Catholic Bishops which stated: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in aboriginal traditions.” They encouraged Aboriginal Catholics “to recognize, preserve and promote the spiritual, moral and cultural values found within your traditions and to work together in a spirit of prudent and charitable dialogue and collaboration.”

This is indeed missionary work stood on its head. And all faiths are learning that respect and reverence for native traditions are a real expression of their faith, not a distortion.

Atonement and reconciliation are now the order of the day. The Government mandated Truth and Reconciliation Commission, formed in June 2008 to bring some closure to the shameful residential school era, had a rocky start. Its commissioner resigned, but it is set to re-form under new leadership this spring. We must watch and participate, whether new or old Canadians — what happens as they cross the country will re-write our shared history.

But being penitent for sins of the past, whether deriving from beliefs in a superior religion or culture, is one thing. The kind of respect our Governor General displayed is quite another. As is accepting that there may be costs of land claims across the country which seek to redress the pittance we offered the original occupants for their lands.

The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations Mississauga who were parties to the “Toronto Purchase” 200 years ago argue they never agreed to the boundaries in the original transfer of land to the British 200 years ago. This means the original surrender of what is now Toronto may be null and void. Whatever happens as negotiations drag on, we will be forced to pay attention to the way those who lived here were treated.

But at the core of the challenge for us all is learning to value our native Canadians. We have to learn to appreciate where natives were, and where they have come. Appreciate their art – in this region we are lucky to have the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinburg with its amazing collection of Innuit and Woodland tradition art and sculpture.

We have to recognize the contribution of native political thinking – the fact that the Six Nations who lived here had a form of parliamentary democracy when Upper Canada was a dependent colony ruled by a Governor and an oligarchy. The “circle” format for group problem solving or brainstorming has deep native roots. We could all learn from profound respect for elders. And that their spiritualism is genuine and deep.

Finally, and important for newer Canadians with roots abroad, the eyes of the world are on us and will judge us for how we respect in words and deeds our first peoples as individuals, and as a country through our politicians.