National Indigenous Peoples Day is on June 21. Celebrate with activities such as attending a pow wow, eating traditional food and learning about Indigenous peoples. You can find information and event listings online.
I invite you to open your mind and heart to learn the truth, facts, history, current events. Read a report or book, watch a movie on the subject, perform your own research. Do you now about the treaties and their legacy? Do you know why the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Inquiry Final Report uses the word “genocide”? Do you know the definition of genocide and how it fits? Would you rather avert your attention? I would, but that would mean that nothing would improve. Do you know the 4 main areas identified in the MMIWG report? Do you understand why Indigenous peoples are called “stewards of the land”?
I am very happy to have finally pieced my teachings together to reveal this. I encourage you to do the same. The original peoples of this land and the settlers made treaties that exist today, for the most part. The post-treaty relationship has been shameful, hurtful but it can be fixed if enough of us are willing to look at the truth and make the needed changes suggested in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry. These are a few of the resources that we may use.
It is a long, daunting journey that we each make, or hinder. Being curious and believing in fairness and justice, I want my children to have a better, healthier community relationship than is possible today. The truth hurts but that is where the healing begins. My mind and heart are open. If yours are not, will you at the least open your ears?
With respect,
Ruby Langan
National Equity Representative for Aboriginal Peoples