Canada's Apology to Aboriginal People
Can the Apology Be a First Step to Making a Better Canada?
Forgiveness is the key to true healing. Forgiveness is the act of letting go of blame, and of the stories of hurt and judgment. The first part of healing is the apology and the second equally essential part is the act of forgiving.
Forgiveness Is The Key to Moving Forward
In cases of abuse the victim of the abuse is hurt first by the wrong done them, and then, more insidiously, by the hatred, anger, and blame that are stored in consciousness. It can feel impossible to forgive someone who has done harm. And yet the odd thing about holding onto the hurt is that it really only hurts the person holding on.
Chief Phil Fontain Accepts the Apology From the Pope
Assembly of First NationsChief Phil Fontaine traveled to Rome to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s words about the wrongs done to aboriginal children sent to residential schools. What he heard in private pleased him, he said. Chief Fontaine accepted the sorrow in the Pope’s words about the tragedy of what took place as an expression of apology. Chief Fontaine found significance in the Pope’s declaration that it is unacceptable and intolerable for abuse in any form to be perpetrated on children.
When Healing Becomes a Personal Choice
Chief Fontaine recognizes that the next steps toward healing are steps only the ones who have been harmed can take. Only through the act of letting go of the past can the harmed begin to heal themselves.
The key to true healing is to forgive. Healing through forgiveness is a personal choice. Faced with the inability to forgive, it is imperative to ask what would have to happen in order for it to be possible to forgive. At the heart of the resistance to forgiving may be issues of
- Self-respect
- Trust
- Self-confidence
- Self-love
- Judgment
- Shame
When these issues are brought to the light of day the healing can begin. The act of forgiveness is the first step.
Taking the Next Steps After Canada'a Apology
Chief Fontaine was the invited speaker at the 2009 David Makow Lecture series on Tolerance and Intolerance held at the University of Ottawa. Emma Godmere of the student newspaper, the Fulcrum, asked what can be done to maintain awareness of Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.
Chief Fontaine responded that all of Canada will benefit from the governments apology because it opens the way to restoring consciousness of the history of the First peoples of this country. He suggested that every child in Canada be taught aboriginal history and Native Studies as a way of correcting this. It is timely that the University of Ottawa Press has just published Dr. Georges Sioui’s Histoires du Kanatha/Histories of Kanatha, the first collection by an Aboriginal Canadian on the Aboriginal understanding of history and the colonial experience.
The Contribution of Aboriginal People Will Lead to a Paradigm Shift for Canada and The World
The First Peoples of Canada have much to contribute to the human consciousness around stewardship of the land, about legacy, and about living in harmony with the environment. It will take courage for the European descendants to welcome and accept what could be a veritable paradigm shift in thinking. And it is time. Canada has an opportunity to create consciousness around the culture and history of her Aboriginal People, as is being done in Australia and New Zealand. And she will be enriched for it.
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