Friday, September 20, 2013

Snuneymuxw Addresses Reconciliation


Snuneymuxw Statement Regarding Reconciliation

During this week, Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are being challenged to reflect upon the path of reconciliation that we must all walk together. We are happy that this fundamental challenge is coming to the forefront of Canadian society - for only when we collectively confront the truth of past injustices, and that our future is one of interdependence and interconnection, will the necessary new patterns of relations amongst us fully emerge.

Like First Nations across the country, many generations of Snuneymuxw were subjected to the horror of Residential Schools. Grounded in a pernicious ignorance and racism, Residential Schools were part of a focused attempt to destroy our family systems, break the transmission of core values and knowledge, and decimate our social structures. Thanks to the strength, resilience, and earned wisdom of generations of Snuneymuxw Survivors, this evil injustice failed to accomplish its goals. While the suffering and harm caused by the Residential Schools is inestimable, the Snuneymuxw People continue to rise, and carry forward the trust handed to us by past generations of our People to preserve and advance our culture, values, and way of life for future generations.

Reconciliation is not merely an event, a process, or taking certain actions. At it's core, reconciliation demands a new mindset and orientation to ourselves, each other, and the relationships we forge between us. It is rooted in the firm recognition that we must forge bonds of unity amongst us that recognize, respect, and build upon our beautiful diversity. Reconciliation demands that we move far beyond merely learning to tolerate one another - but rather cultivate true altruistic love in our hearts and minds for each other. Reconciliation is much more then a political, legal, social, and cultural enterprise. It is also a spiritual, moral, and ethical challenge which every Canadian, of whatever background, is challenged to rise to and express in their daily lives and actions.

In recent years, Snuneymuxw has endeavoured to place this challenge of reconciliation in the forefront of the imagination of all citizens of our Territory. We have been grateful as countless Canadians from all walks of life have joined us in taking on this important work together. Let us use the events of this week to further spur on and accelerate our efforts - together - to translate our vision of a reconciled future into reality.

allvoices

1 comment:

  1. Yes, we need to walk this path of reconciliation together. I can certainly empathise with my First Nations brothers and sisters; As a parent I have experienced what they have gone through! But we've only just begun working TOGETHER on the problem that the Canadian Charter of Rights is supposed to address for us ALL! I have personally lost marriages, family, wealth and now my health to the type of injustices perpetrated "In YOUR best interests" like the residential schools run by the government religious denominations. But his is no longer a patriarchial society that tells us what is best for us, love it or leave it; it is a matriarchal society that makes all perpetrators out to be men and sends us the bill! My children have been abducted from Canada and/or committed suicide at fourteen years of age in Comox in order to escape from the lies and ministrations (falsehoods) of the "women's shelters"; Somenos House in Duncan and Haven House in Nanaimo and Courtenay; all the while, they've had me FALSELY arrested and convicted of crimes I never committed. People; TOGETHER WE CAN PREVENT VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE! This is HERE and NOW! http://bit.ly/1aUOf6i

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