Truth & Reconciliation 2025
Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation also known as Orange Shirt Day.
As I continue to do my own work related to Truth and Reconciliation, I wanted to highlight two books I read recently. The first was mentioned a couple of week’s ago as a part of the Knox College Summer Book Bingo - Ma-Nee Chacaby’s A Two-Spirit Journey.
From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community, Ma-Nee Chacaby's extraordinary story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social and economic legacies of colonialism.
I’d highly recommend this book as a way of bearing witness to the incredible resilience of Ma-Nee and uncovering the systemic injustices in Canada when it comes to Indigenous peoples, especially women and more especially Two-Spirit peoples in Canada.
The second was powerful in a different way, Tanya Talaga’s The Knowing, as described by the publisher, is the unfolding of Canadian history unlike anything we have ever read before. Award-winning and bestselling Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga retells the history of this country as only she can—through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and her family as they experienced decades of government- and Church-sanctioned enfranchisement and genocide.
Deeply personal and meticulously researched, The Knowing is a seminal unravelling of the centuries-long oppression of Indigenous People that continues to reverberate in these communities today. It is also a docu-series on CBC if you’d rather experience the story visually.
Watch The Docu-Series on CBC
Journalist Tanya Talaga and her family’s eight-decade long search for family matriarch Annie Carpenter, reveals a story deeply intertwined with Canada’s Indian residential school system.
I found her story of accompanying the Indigenous delegation from Canada—comprising First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders, elders, survivors, and youth— who met with Pope Francis at the Vatican from March 28 to April 1, 2022, to discuss the impacts of residential schools particularly convicting.
The way she theologically reflects on the cognitive dissonance of the experience of visiting the Anima Mundi - “The Soul of the World” at the Vatican and being asked to leave left me reeling.
Hearing about Tanya and the Indigenous Elder Delegation's visit to the Vatican reminded me of the podcast and CBC show, Stuff the British Stole.It is worth a listen or a watch to learn more about how colonization continues to be perpetuated by governments, collectors, and museums.
As I’ve mentioned previously in my emails, I was able to visit with Yvonne Bearbull, Executive Director of the Anamiewigummig Fellowship Centre in Kenora, Ontario. It was a meaningful experience to be accompanied by Yvonne to the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School Memorial to offer prayers and tobacco for the children who died there. I will never forget circling the memorial and noting all of the children’s shoes and toys that have been laid there.
To learn more about the Cecilia Jeffrey School, you are invited to explore the archival record of the PCC here.
And please take a moment to reflect at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s entry for Cecilia Jeffrey (ShoalLake) School where they list the children who are known to have died while attending there.
The late lead singer of the Tragically Hip, Gord Downie was deeply moved by the story of twelve year-old Chanie Wenjack who died as he sought to be reunited with his family after being forced to attend the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in 1966. The Secret Path tells Chanie’s story.
You are encouraged to read the book or watch the documentary.
Today would be a great day to donate to an Indigenous ministry as you are able!
Since the story of Chanie Wenjack is tragically interconnected with the Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School, consider making a donation to the The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
Or make a donation to the Honouring the Children Fund of the PCC as a part of your commitment to the work of reconciliation and healing today. Learn more here.
Take some time to pray for and learn more about the National Indigenous Ministries Council and the various ministries that are apart of it here.
Then, consider donating to the PCC’s Indigenous Ministry Fund to provide ongoing support to these meaningful ministries.
May we continue to educate ourselves, reflect, and be spurred to action as we pursue justice and healing for Indigenous peoples in Canada.
To connect more deeply to this today, you are encouraged to read The Apology of The Presbyterian Church in Canada for Its Complicity in Colonization and the Residential School System and if you are a ministry leader, it may be appropriate to share The Apology in worship this week.