EXPERIENCES CANADA

reconciliation Conversations

Environment and relationship to the land

Awareness of the past

• Relationship to the land: FNMI Cultures

Acknowledgement of harm

• Land disconnection: The Reserve System, The Pass System, The Residential School System
• Link between violence against the land and MMIWG
• Environmental racism
• Indigenous peoples on the front lines of climate change

Making amends for harm caused

• In policy: UNDRIP, The Canadian Constitution, Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
• #landback: What does it mean?

Actions to change behaviour

• Land acknowledgements
• Shifting our understanding

Activity: Whose land?

Move to reveal!

Relationship to the land: first nations

• Relationships between First Nations and the land are intricate, respectful, spiritual, and physically dependent.*
• These relationships are based on stewardship, not ownership. First Nations believe that they have been given a moral responsibility to care for the land and sea, and all of the creatures that occupy it.
• This responsibility is more than an emotional; First Nations believe that they are also spiritually connected to the land and its creatures.
• Traditional knowledge, languages, cultural practices and oral traditions built up over millenia are all connected to the land in some way or another.

Relationship to the land: Métis

• Métis peoples were raised to use the land as a communal resource to be able to provide the necessities of life, rather than a possession that can be exploited.
• The modern concept of individual ownership of land was not practiced within Métis communities, as they believe everyone has a right to the land.
• Métis believe that the land sustains their spirits and bodies.

Relationship to the land: Inuit

• For millennia, the Inuit have relied heavily on the environment for natural resources to adapt to the cold and harsh climates of the Arctic North.
• Above all, Inuit believe their story is based on how their people were able to learn how to live in balance with the natural world.
• Out of respect for the land and ocean that provides for them, when hunting, the Inuit, like most Indigenous peoples, make use of all parts of the animal efficiently.

Land disconnection

The Government of Canada has worked to disconnect Indigenous peoples from their lands through:

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• The Reserve system
• The Pass system
• The Residential School System

The reserve system

What is it?

Under the Indian Act in 1876, the Government of Canada created Reserves which set aside land across Canada for the use of ‘Indian bands’.

The Reserve system is still in place today.

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How does this affect Indigenous peoples’ connection to land?

• It does not allow for Indigenous peoples to freely use the land and water of their ancestral lands
• Reserves were placed in areas throughout Canada that were deemed less valuable and away from basic needs like running water in some areas

The pass system

What is it?

In 1885, the Government of Canada developed the Pass System. Indigenous people needed to have passes approved by an ‘Indian agent’ to leave or return to their reserve.

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Contribution to Land Disconnection:

• The Pass System was used to control people’s movements and prevent large gatherings where culture and language would be practiced
• This system also restricted the sharing of other lands, creatures, and water for ceremonies and livelihood
• People lost connections to land outside of their own reserve
• Many traditional teachings around land practices and customs were lost

The residential school system

What is it?

The Residential School System was a system created by the Government of Canada to assimilate Indigenous peoples.

The goal was to “kill the Indian in the child”.

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Contribution to Land Disconnection:

• Children were often taken far from their homelands. Some never returned.
• Indigenous knowledges, including those regarding respect for the the land, its preservation, and spirit were not passed down

Impacts of forced land disconnection

First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples have seen their land harmed and exploited by settlers for centuries and have often been forcibly moved and relocated. The impacts of this include:

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• Negative impacts on mental health and wellbeing
• Loss of land connection, teachings, and spirituality
• Loss of land sovereignty and land determination

MMIwg & resource extraction

What is it?

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• The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) started in 2016 and concluded in 2019.
• The report revealed that colonial structures like the Indian Act, residential schools, sixties scoop, and contemporary laws and policies of Canadian society have left Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA at a higher risk of experiencing violence compared to non-indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA.
• The exact number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA is unknown. A 2014 report by the RCMP estimates the number to be over 1,000.

• The Final Report delivered 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.
• Resource Extraction Industries
• The Final Report found a substantial link between increased rates of violence among Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA and migration camps composed of mostly non-Indigenous men.

Making amends: decolonization in policy

There have been multiple policies and agreements that have been enacted to try and move forward together in the spirit of reconciliation regarding land:

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• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP)
• The Canadian Constitution
• The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement

nunavut land claims agreement

Negotiated in 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement gave Inuit control of Nunavut, their traditional territory, with the goal of:

• providing rights to ownership and use of lands and resources, and of rights to participate in decision-making concerning the use, management and conservation of land, water and resources;
• providing Inuit with wildlife harvesting rights and rights to participate in decision making concerning wildlife harvesting;
• providing Inuit with financial compensation and means of participating in economic opportunities;
• encouraging self-reliance and the cultural and social well-being of Inuit

#landback

• One of the loudest and most frequent demands of Indigenous people is for the return of land.
• The Land Back project works to reclaim Indigenous jurisdiction, returning rights and responsibilities over land back to Indigenous peoples in Canada.
• What might this look like?
• What might the benefits be?
• What might be the hurdles to achieving this?

Land acknowledgements: statement or action?

• Land acknowledgements are important to actively engage in reconciliation in your speaking, practices, and activism
• Land acknowledgements can act as reminders of where you are learning, living, and working
• Land acknowledgements cannot just be a script or a political checklist
• They must be actionable and meaningful!

Shifting our understanding

Decolonization

“Decolonization and reconciliation affirms the sacredness of all life and restores our relationship to the earth”

Harsha Walia, Undoing Border Imperialism, 2013, p. 274

Society

Consider the following ideas. What feelings or thoughts do they bring up?

• Nature having Human Rights: ie. Lake Erie in Toledo, Ohio
• Trees as citizens:

“My Onondaga Nation neighbors call the maple the leader of the trees. Trees constitute the environmental quality committee - running air and water purification service 24-7. They’re on every task force, from the historical society picnic to the highway department, school board, and library. When it comes to civic beautification, they alone create the crimson fall with little recognition.”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, p. 169

Settlers

For settlers on Turtle Island, it is important to understand and recognize the following:

• Decolonization begins with the understanding that we all benefit from the illegal settlement of Indigenous lands and unjust laws forced upon Indigenous jurisdiction, locally and globally.
• The wealth of Canada is based on the colonial theft of Indigenous lands, waters and resources.
• Canada has forcibly and deliberately displaced many Indigenous communities and has put in place systems against Indigenous self-determination
• The system teaches us these are “Indigenous issues”, not settler issues.

Activity: whose land?

• Go to https://www.whose.land/en/ or https://native-land.ca/ to determine whose land you are on.
• Learn or review the creation story of the people whose land you are on.*
• Read or watch a land acknowledgement for that territory.**
• Prompts:
• How in-depth is it?
• Does it speak to commitments to protecting that land?
• Can you pronounce all the words in it?
• How does it honour the original keepers of that land?