Elder Dan Fox of Kainai First Nation spoke to a virtual audience Thursday evening, sharing his journey to revitalize Blackfoot culture through raising buffalo. - SUBMITTED PHOTO WOLF CROW BISON RANCH
“Our stories and experiences become part of our bundle that we carry with us on our journey for life.”
— Lori Calkins,
Indigenous Birth of Alberta
What is the ‘truth’ in Truth and Reconciliation? Whitney Ogle, Winyan Waste (‘Good Woman’ in Lakota) addressed a virtual audience last week about the need for shared truth as the foundation in the journey of healing and reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous communities across Turtle Island (Native North America).
Ogle joined a lineup of powerful voices speaking at the Journey Towards Healing and Reconciliation Conference, March 7-11, a forum now in its seventh year and hosted by Miywasin Friendship Centre. Generously sponsored by Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association and Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, the online event welcomed more than 500 attendees from across Canada to hear stories of resilience and deep healing from guest speakers who are making positive impacts in their home communities and internationally.
“Everything I have been taught is for the next generation,” said Ogle. Sharing a sobering timeline of colonial violence up to modern-day discrimination, Ogle told a rapt audience, “It is important to continue speaking our truth until there is systemic change.”
Turning to First Nations ceremonies as part of her own healing journey, Ogle shared that “(traditional) medicines connect us to our bloodline and our elders past.”
Sharon McKay, Notigwew (‘One who sits in the grandmothers’ spot at the Sundance Lodge’ in Cree) closed Monday’s conference, sharing her experiences with traditional ribbon skirt sewing. She recounted sewing small white skirts for young Indigenous girls’ Christening in a Catholic church.
“We have so much work yet to do with bringing culture into spaces like (churches),” said McKay. To her, making traditional clothes for her community is healing. “Sewing is like therapy. We’re going to make mistakes in life. We have to find ways to work through that.”
On Tuesday, the conference welcomed an engaging lineup of new and returning presenters for International Women’s Day.
“Together we can forge women’s equality, collectively,” proclaimed Miywasin’s Chasity Cairns, Saaam aakii (‘Medicine Woman’ in Blackfoot) as she introduced a video of the Miywasin Singers’ “Strong Woman Song” traditional drumming performance.
Kihew awasis wakamik – Indigenous Birth of Alberta’s Nadia Houle and Lori Calkins spoke about growing a community of Indigenous birth workers, knowledge keepers, and midwives across Alberta who share a common vision of healing families by improving access to culturally safe and inclusive maternity care by awakening the traditions and teachings centered around reproductive health and kinship.
“We started to see that our job is that sister, auntie and grandmother role, to ensure families don’t fall through the cracks,” recalls Houle.
Conference attendees also heard an update from Stephanie Harpe, a prominent advocate for murdered, missing and exploited Indigenous peoples on the grassroots movement to end such violence.
Throughout the week, many respected Elders and knowledge keepers brought prayers and wisdom to the online circle. Elder Mervin McKay, ‘Grey Wolf’, shared his Indigenous perspective of education systems, stages of life and tipi teachings.
“Kiyanaw in Cree means all of us,” explained McKay. “It means we all have a responsibility for educating children – teachers and everyone in community. (But) we can’t do teachings as well in the classroom; we need to go to the land.”
Elder Earnest Poundmaker spoke of the importance of language in connection to culture.
“Language is a direct connection to culture,” he said. “It is a link and lifeline to our sacred teachings and values system.”
The Calgary Circle of Wisdom Elders and Senior Centre’s Doreen Williams shared how her centre is a gathering place for Indigenous older adults to find fellowship and that connection back to culture that was severed during pandemic lockdowns. Her centre also offers a resource online on land acknowledgement education, an Indigenous protocol that is becoming increasingly honoured by non-Indigenous allies (visit the circleofwisdom.ca homepage).
Artist, activist and engaging educator Eddy Robinson spoke of role modeling a traditional way of life.
“Ceremony as a cultural thread has to be the foundation of everything as Indigenous People,” he said. “We carry this knowledge in all of us, we all have different gifts and responsibilities to move us forward. We have to stoke that fire in each of us, we have to hold each other up.”
Robinson closed his session with a captivating original traditional drum song, “The Spirit of the Eagle is Rising Up; Please Help the People”.
Kainai First Nation Elders Charlie Fox, Pii tonista (‘Eagle Calf’) and Dan Fox, Omahksipiitaa (‘Big Eagle’) shared Blackfoot history and their experiences with vocations in equine riding therapy and buffalo ranching, respectively.
On Friday, reserved for Métis culture highlights, fiddler Alex Kusturok entertained the virtual audience with the Red River Jig, Log Driver’s Waltz and others from his album “Métis Fiddling for Dancing” available free on Spotify and Apple Music.
Métis Nation of Alberta President Mme. Audrey Poitras and lawyer Zachary Davis joined the circle to give an important update on the development of a long-sought Métis Constitution and a brief history on the Métis people’s efforts for self-determination in government.
“Now it is up to the citizens of the Métis Nation of Alberta to take the reins and drive our future … The Métis Nation will be here forever,” declared president Poitras.
Two-spirit mental health advocate Teddy Syrette is slated to share his story, “A Journey in Rainbow Moccasins,” in a bonus evening session March 24 from 6-7:30 p.m. Online registration is free at Eventbrite.
The conference’s tagline this year, “spark change for the next seven generations”, is in reference to Elders’ teachings that it will take seven generations to heal from the traumatic legacy of lost culture at residential schools. Miywasin Centre hosts the virtual forum to inspire courage to return to Indigenous ways of knowing.
“If we don’t share these teachings and stories, they’ll be lost,” said Miywasin’s Carol Syrette.
With blended First Nations and European heritages, Ogle understands the mixed emotions felt by many who ‘walk within two worlds’.
“To all of us who may be struggling with identity, you are more than enough,” assures Ogle. “You are all spiritual beings in this fight for humanity.”
JoLynn Parenteau is a Métis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com.
