On relationship
by David Ball
General Secretary
This morning, we drove down from Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation) the final time of this 10-day delegation with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
As our road bent and curved, we passed beaches serenely facing the lakes; passed beaver dams, their swamps a mix of dead, dying and new; passed white hunters in their orange coats and hats on quads (and remembered Kaaren describing her fear of being ‘accidentally’ shot, so she wears orange – not to prevent being shot, but to reveal the truth if she is); passed the Trans-Canada Highway – four lanes of transport trailers, national shipped goods, vital economic movement and travellers.
My heart is full. Our international delegation – with members from Philippines, UK, USA and Canada – has spent such a short time up here, and yet it seems as though we’ve been here for months. The curves of the road are familiar now, but I see my world with new eyes.
What has touched my heart?
My heart was touched by the chance to play soccer after dark last night on the reserve following a trappers’ feast, where local teenagers terrified us with animal noises from the forest; we smoked and lay on the grass staring at the stars between the clouds. One of them, Cody, asked why we would want to come to their community (as if it were a preposterous proposition). We spoke of our anger at the logging, of our friendships, and for me the memory and inspiration of my roommate, Dave Brophy, who died two years ago July and had been a tireless non-Anishnaabe supporter of Asubpeeschoseewagong.
“You know, you guys are pretty cool in my books,” Cody spoke as he said goodnight. I’m not sure if being willing to visit Grassy makes us particularly good people, but what it meant to me was that our relationships do matter to people; it’s not merely a one-way relationship, either. We are all touched in some way.
My heart was touched also by hearing the sorrow of trappers and hunters who have lost their traplines (more properly called ‘traditional hunting areas’) to clearcutting, and also by those who have re-learned the skills of their culture and are practising as much as possible, to keep the traditions alive.
My heart was profoundly touched by Stephanie, a staffperson at the local sexual assault centre in Kenora, who looked me in the eye and spoke of rape as a tool of warfare against Indigenous people and the land, and the need for allies; she said that she does not know any Anishnaabe women who have not been sexually assaulted, and for this I wept.
Yesterday, CPT organized a Prayer Walk to Honour the Treaties (View our media release and photos). Our message was that we all – Native and non-Native – have rights and responsibilities under the treaties. Our scripture verse this morning hit hard in this light:
Listen! The valiant cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly (…) the treaty is broken, its oaths are despised, its obligation is disregarded. The land mourns and languishes (Isaiah 33:7-9)
Our walk began at the shopping mall, addressing discrimination Indigenous people experience coming into town to shop. We stopped outside the museum where a display educates about the Residential School abuses. We prayed outside the courthouse where our delegation has been making an active witness this week as the right to appear physically in court is being stripped away from the mostly-Anishnaabe prisoners, at the whim of a justice of the peace who we heard explicitly lie about the issue. Over the last week, we have witnessed trials, spoken to lawyers who are fighting for Indigenous rights, met with court support workers and police officers.
As one Anishnaabe friend, Roberta, highlighted this week, “This is nothing like a justice system. It is a system of legalism, nothing more.” Charged for building a trapping cabin on her people’s traditional territories, she told us she was prepared to enter the courtroom “like a beaver would if it were charged for chopping down a tree.” On Friday, all her charges were dropped.
Each CPTer wrote a prayer for one of the stops on our Honour the Treaties walk. I was moved profoundly by talking to Stephanie and her coworker, Paula, at the sexual assault centre, and as a man and a pro-feminist, felt a strong need to speak out. Here is my prayer (in hopes that others might use or adapt it):
We gather here, outside the Kenora Sexual Assault Centre, to acknowledge all survivors or sexualized violence, and to cry out in memory of those who have not survived, especially Indigenous women.
Creator, we cry to you in sorrow for the more than 500 missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.
Creator, we cry to you in rage that Indigenous women are targeted at higher rates for sexualized violence, including rape, and are too often not protected by the State of society.
Creator, we cry out in lamentation that violence against women continues today, and decry rape and sexism as weapons of war against Indigenous people, their land, and culture.
O Great Healer, grant us the resolve to end violence against all women. Help us, we pray.
O Great Healer, grant us who are non-Native settlers on this land the humility to face our indifference and prejudice. Help us, we pray.
O Great Healer, grant us who are men the compassion and vulnerability to support our sisters, daughters, mothers, grandmothers and neighbours, and the strength to confront abuse of power. Help us, we pray.
Source of Life, it is said that a nation is not broken until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Be with us as we resist oppression; give courage to defenders of the land and their allies; and lift our hearts today in unity. May it be so; amen.
When we had finished praying, and shared a moment of silence and song, Stephanie approached me and offered me a hug. She had brought a Sisters in Spirit silver button for me to honour the missing and murdered women, and I feel utterly grateful for having made a connection with her.
I feel truly blessed by all we have met, all who have shared their tears and their time with us, all who have offered us food, energy, housing, and company this week. I dream that SCMers can share in such rich relationships with Indigenous people. Our resolutions and statements on the issues around colonialism are a starting point, but we need to do so much more.
The complicity of the Church needs to be more aggressively addressed, in my opinion. Residential schools were not a mistake; they were a weapon. Can we really come to terms with this truth? Regardless of good intentions among some, the effect is that of genocide. No apology will take that away.
Healed relationships are not built by policy, nor by rushing headlong into campaigns and activism (as needed and vital as those are). Relationships are built over time, person-to-person, nation-to-nation. Not only through protests – but also through smoking in fields under the stars, or sharing soup in a basement, and sitting quietly in a living room, without the need to speak. Relationships with our neighbours are, theologically speaking, as important as our relationship to God, eternal mystery, great healer, love, and comforter of the weeping envoys of peace. May it be so!
