Remembering as Truth-Telling: Seven Commitments

Shari Russell of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s (EFC’s) Seven Commitments Working Group wrote the EFC’s September 29 Update Newsletter.

Titled ‘Remembering as Truth-Telling,’ she began:

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, invites us to learn the truth about Indian Residential Schools. It is a day anchored in remembering.

At its heart, remembering is about returning to the truth – to the truths of our histories, experiences, and the stories that have carried us through the generations.

Or, to use another phrase, it is about creating common memory. One of our Indigenous leaders, Georges Erasmus, the co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, used the quote by Richard Niebuhr that said, “Where common memory is lacking, where men or people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. And where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”

For First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, that common memory must include the truth of Indian Residential Schools and the profound harm they caused to individuals, families, communities, cultures, languages, and spiritual identities. Children were separated from their families and communities, and Indigenous languages, cultures, traditions, and ceremonies were suppressed.

Remembering is an act of truth-telling and caring.  We remember the children who never returned home. We remember the survivors and the generations of families who continue to carry the effects of what happened. We remember the strength and resilience of Indigenous peoples who have continued to protect and reclaim their languages, cultures, ceremonies, communities, and identities.

For us, remembering is also about our spiritual identity.

The impact of spiritual violence on our people, experienced through Indian Residential Schools and through the Church, has to be addressed so that we can heal and be confident in that spiritual identity.

September 30 is now past, but Russell is encouraging us not to let the significance of the day be forgotten. A good aid would be to revisit the EFC’s Seven Commitments, produced by a “working group is comprised of leaders and influencers from a broad spectrum of evangelical communities and inter-church contexts.

1. Recommitment to the Reconciliation Proclamation (text, video) by
   1. Circulating the Proclamation to key leaders in EFC circles
   2. Re-introducing (or in many cases, introducing for the first time) the Proclamation to the EFC affiliates
   3. Instituting an annual re-membering ceremony and training (as to what it means) among EFC leadership and constituency representatives
   4. Building awareness around Indigenous and colonial history (cf. TRC Call to Action #59)
   5. Initiate an awareness campaign/educational effort to share the good news of this Proclamation with constituencies. Reconnect with key partners and crafters of the Proclamation to pray and discern next steps
       
2. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #49, repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery and other legal fictions that claim jurisdiction over Indigenous lands and peoples
   1. Review existing resources developed by church bodies and/or create a short study resource for EFC affiliates to articulate its significance and implications for engagement.
       
3. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #48, the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its meaning and implications for evangelical church communities
    
4. An unsettling of evangelical theology resulting in evangelical thought and practice in Canada that
   1. renounces white supremacy
   2. renounces concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples
   3. proclaims that justice in human relationships is integral to God’s plan for restoration and affirms God’s preferential option for the poor and oppressed
   4. repudiates the idea of being neutral on issues of Indigenous justice, but commits to the struggle of being with those who are oppressed and fighting non-violently against the idols of our day as we pursue collective peace
   5. proclaims that Jesus is found amongst the most vulnerable and persecuted
       
5. Learning from partner ecumenical bodies that are leading the way in Indigenous justice, such as KAIROS, supporting their advocacy efforts as appropriate
    
6. Develop a theology of stewardship of land and creation and how that impacts our relationships to lands and waters and how we might stand with the Indigenous communities that protect them
    
7. Establish a review and accountability mechanism to measure and evaluate progress on the action items listed above. This will include sharing our commitment with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (Winnipeg), and submitting annual updates

Go here for the EFC’s ‘Indigenous Relations’ page and links.