 This morning we want to focus on that challenge in relation to a specific context and it's a Context which is both global and local which is the relationship between indigenous peoples indigenous cultures did indigenous societies and non-indigenous peoples and societies it's a very important challenge Because it comes to us with history of tremendous difficulty misunderstanding prejudice oppression colonization a focus on difference as Meaning that one peoples are superior to others and So we come into that challenge in a very particular and And very serious context healing was mentioned This morning. It's a context that requires us to contemplate on healing on the meanings of justice on the meanings of equality and Ultimately on the meanings of oneness we are very blessed to have a tremendous panel of Speakers and leaders and scholars to take us through this Exploration Jacqueline left-hand bull chief Douglas white and dr. Lee Brown They're each going to Share with us some initial reflections for about 20 or 25 minutes and then we're going to Have some time for a dialogue amongst them and a dialogue with you and You're welcome to write down questions. There's people collecting them and they'll be brought up and Time permitting will will have a discussion about with them about some of the issues that have been raised our first Speaker is Jacqueline left-hand bull and over the last few months I have Bothered this tremendously busy person and I'm so grateful that She is here to share with us. I have asked her on numerous occasions how I should introduce her and She has avoided that in true humility and avoided that Question in every way you can imagine So I will let her introduce herself Except to say and acknowledge as you all know that she is the chair of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States And as bestowed extreme blessings on that Baha'i community and Baha'i communities around the world So, please welcome Jacqueline left-hand bull. Well, good morning friends That's okay, I didn't want to do it myself. I was sure about that. Thank you. Oh Well again, good morning It's a beautiful day and what a beautiful beginning to this day very first thing I want to say is It's to draw our thoughts and our hearts to the Iran those Dear brothers and sisters who at this hour are suffering in a prison in Iran and if there is a Crucible of reconciliation at this moment that must be there and Especially as tribal people, you know, most Iran is is basically a tribal nation and to think that these people have Held fast to their beliefs and their commitment to Advanced civilization. I think our debt our efforts itself can clearly be dedicated to their well-being The next thing I want to say before I actually start is that I have called on Patricia Locke Who was my dearest friend a few times over the past week or so when I really tried to focus down and Think about this because she and I actually had a Project we were working on when she passed and that was to bring Nelson Mandela we were going to devise a big national gathering of Indians in the United States and Ask Nelson Mandela to come and to talk about the power of forgiveness Because we thought that it was that he was he had demonstrated it so well and it done much good was doing Much good for his country and I think since we've seen more of that but at the time we felt this was probably the biggest hurdle and Again toward reconciliation. It was my my thought originally and since then I realized How little I know and how I really am the last person who should be up here and But when you're asked to do something you really should should not decline The other thing the final thing before I get started is beyond the next part is to I really want you to see this dress Okay And I want to say the reason I'm wearing this is to honor DeLoria Bighorn because she wanted so much to have the most beautiful setting possible for this session for you And so that we could revel in it and we made we had grand plans We talked about grand plans that went point and of course, you know budgets consideration and it probably would have been money that came and went and could be better spent otherwise, but But I'm wearing this dress because it is a piece of art And it really is is more than that because I think if all my buckskin dresses I like this because when you get close you see it's made of patches and It's it's a hundred years old and really it symbolizes to me women in a lot of ways my Indian Sisters because we took little and made much made something beautiful and continue so and delirious honor so Let me start it at the biggest the biggest privilege of my life. I think was to be able to serve The blessed beauty at least I tried in assignments This this doesn't seem like it was work at all To visit indigenous communities all throughout the Americas different assignments different times, but essentially my job was to To visit indigenous communities to encourage them to love them to shower them with love and to study the writings of the hollow with them and the messages of the Universal House of Justice Who gets that kind of privilege in their life? I mean I can't tell you you know among Memories are the Guaymi and Panama, you know being there going as far as the road went and then seeing that where they were living It was there were no roads, so they walked to the meeting place and Learning that they had started their life as Baha'is and this this huge wonderful community or this I don't know that it's so large But it's very deep Baha'i community of indigenous people started their life with understanding the covenant and how important that was to Reconciling or to understanding who they were and Reconciling with the new world that was coming in on Panama and then of course traveling in the mountains of Among the Quechua and Imara in Bolivia and meeting young people who had been persecuted for their faith And yet they were they came to Patricia and I and said Tell us tell them tell me something this one young woman said tell me something that I can hold on to When you're gone And we were so surprised because we had not either been persecuted and yet she had been steadfast and and We just told her to remember that she was a brave hearted woman for a good reason And then among the Navajo in the Southwest Where because of the involvement of the friends and that in the Baha'is in that plan The community of interest as we say those people who are involved in Baha'i core activities Whether or not they're involved, but that community of the interest is much larger than the actual Baha'i population and As the as the months and years go by the lines separating the two is becomes irrelevant And so when they're high activities everybody comes because and people will say well, I'm a Baha'i aren't I? you know when on occasion when that comes into into context and I'm thinking about a pregnant woman of 20 years old 19 actually in South Dakota where people came and told her about the faith and she fell in love with the teachings and with Baha'u'llah and the next spring was pregnant and Knew that we fasted through this month and Fasted until just before her child was born someone came and visited and she said well when son when sundown comes and No one had told her you know She knew so little but what she didn't know she followed and so she fasted through her pregnancy the baby was fine You know he was protected right but but that steadfastness was such little information And then of course visiting Esca Sony out in the east end of Canada At a potluck and and walking among you know how I used to sort of sit here And you sit there at one of these community potlucks every conversation that I overheard was about the writings of the guardian In some aspect and I and these were Indian behinds and I was just so thrilled and thinking this is such a healthy community And of course they were very very welcoming and I'll never forget when we There's they have their own radio station One family does and they broadcast to the whole community and it's almost entirely Indigenous and behind materials and when we were driving he said well, let me turn the radio on now and because there's something There might be something interesting on and of course He knew what we was doing and there was a welcoming song from the Lakota being played As we drove up and I am Lakota and so that was very meaningful to me but just a symbol of of their awareness of the world and yet They're deep interest and it wasn't conversations with me was overheard conversations about Shoghi Effendi's writings and then of course Eating fish with the Indians among along the Yukon River in Alaska where dear Fletcher Bennett drove You know flew us in and and we would land and meet with all communities And I especially have memories of the first salmon at one time and then also about people sitting in and talking about There is one message for that year and so I mean these are just who can say that isn't an incredible privilege and Probably even more so is that even though I come from a large extended family with many Have sisters and cousins and so forth. I really think my two sisters are our women Alison Healy and Avon and Alice and Louise and Elizabeth and Patricia I mean you'll probably know the names that go with these the last names that go with these But this is really my these are my my spiritual sisters and and probably closer to me in many ways Then those members of my family who who I certainly love but but it isn't the same kind of It's similar but a different feeling so that takes me back to How did I get from or what was it that that? I'm to do with this knowledge Having had this privilege of being able to visit these communities And I think I have to go back and say a little bit about who I am so my life was rescued before I was born My you know, I wasn't supposed to live in a medicine man We Chasawa Khan performed a ceremony and he said there was a purpose to this life and it was to be rescued and So that gave me me a little bit of a not spoiled but gave me extra attention for my grandparents Both of my parents are enrolled members of the Rosebud Sioux tribe I am a left-hand bowl and a Bordeaux in a standing bear and a lone dog and Those are are my closest grandparents Right now I own land on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge and Wind River reservations because Through inheritance and so I considered that you know all about three of those reservations to be mine now But I grew up my early years in a two-room Cabin on the Little White River in South Dakota and it's so beautiful there But we went to town in Buckward, Wagon pull-byte team of horses. How many of you can say that? and But it tells you how old I am to I suppose It's just fine The my best memories of course of my grandmother getting up before dawn and starting the bread that she put in the oven And my grandfather getting up and going outside and praying facing the east and raising his hands, you know and just singing and The fact that you know, there was no English spoken in that house If people could understand it and occasion, you know when visitors came English was you know, there was English dialogue But what I noticed more than that was that my grandfather spoke with the sing song lilt of the Rosebud, you know Everything comes up at the end. It's very pretty at least to my ears and my grandmother had a strong pointedness and later on I realized that it was the It was the difference between Sichangu and Oglala and you know, there's just that that difference came over to me So I think I'm actually pretty good at mimicking now and I'll have fun with that sometime all languages You know, I can sort of get that inflection because I heard so many different in my childhood I Don't know if visitors who came to see us because there were plenty of them thought we were poor. I really Don't know if my family thought that we were poor. I don't think so. I mean, I think they were concerned Because we were often hungry and I do reflecting back remember how it felt to go many days without having much to eat and also Singing puppies helping my grandmother taught me how to sing puppy Because we would sometimes have to eat, you know, we would eat the puppy and not just for ceremonies But but they were related to ceremonies, but we weren't in the ceremony and then of course the hunting in the game And every year when my grandmother started the New Year's prayer, she would you call every single piece of Meat every animal that had given its life to us and thank the Creator for that And what a memory and I would in it just seems it's missing in my life that there should be a time when I think I stop and reflect on All the gifts of my life. I don't do that often but I Go back to to those thoughts often and realize that my earliest understanding of being Me talk we all see we are all related we all part of each other It was my mother's teaching to me and I heard it from my grandparents I heard it from my uncle, but that I think it I think at a very young age to have that Understanding you know to have that said so often at the end of prayers that it goes very deep as we heard twice already this morning about that phrase But the other thing that she talked to me about was God and in our language it It is commonly said what can't talk on but it really means it's it's not a literal translation And she would explain this to me more than one time that it was too big to know it's called the great mysterious Not the great mystery, but the great mysterious and she said that is God is the great mysterious And so you know it's something you'll never fully understand, but it's something that you have to always be Aware of and any only way that you can begin to understand She would say is when you look at things and you think about them And she went rivers and trees and the ceremonies and the pipe But that sort of thing that all of those things she told us We're there for us to understand the great mysterious to understand our creator and the power that Moves us and takes care of us and that disciplines us and so forth. And so this was my earliest The ones that I can remember the earliest other than that of being treasured I remember walking, you know cross in this little cabin in front of my grandfather and He would just say my name and I would turn to see what he wanted And I realized that he didn't want anything He would just say it that it was just a celebration of this grandchild And there were a lot of grandchildren, so I mean it wasn't that wasn't like the only spoiled one or something like that But but you definitely got this sense of being cherished and through that and throughout my whole childhood Our whole family our whole community was really centered on the child It was very confusing to me when I moved to the cities and became engaged in things when people would say It's the elders, you know, we must free the elders first and and we must always respect the elders Well, certainly the respect for the elders, but what I grew up with was child centeredness And so the first people to eat were always the children and of course, you know, we were poor I mean not poor poor, but we we didn't have much food to eat and so we were hungry and When we had food The children around it up, you know, we're called first and fed and the old people will tell you that's the way it's supposed to be and It is and it is in my family at least still to this day on my reservation and the Rosewood reservation that is I so I Think what I wanted to say with all that is material existence is more than material wealth and It's a sense of being a people with the with the social constructs the relationships the things that that Make you related to one another and also our ceremonies The ceremonies were only symbols remember but they were the ways that we we centered our whole community beyond our family Around the spiritual Context to spiritual reality rather than a political one in the sense of Well, there was there was the sense of of territory to hunt and that sort of thing I suppose but my mother Really was one who could remember The stories of her grandmother because she was her care my grandmother her grandmother's primary care day-to-day caretaker and Her grandmother would talk about the times, you know that now is the time we should be going to the The little bitcoins to gather the timber they didn't call them a little bitcoins But they should you know, we should be we that's a different word I didn't mean that to the big horn mountains to gather the timber for the teepee poles And now is the time when the team so let's ready the you know the roots the Now is the time when we should be doing this or that and she would remember as her childhood The the seasons and where the tribe went for different things at different times. Well My mother I just have to tell my grand-great-grandfather had two wives and one of them It was a sister and then he married he married a woman and he I had to also Marry the sister or he chose to because that was the kind thing to do because she needed to be married and to have a Husband well, it was the sister who was she became blind and so at four years old She was put in my mother's care and my mother's job was to guide her around So she would write on her shoulders and turn her head and tell her You know what was what if she had to step down or go a certain way And then she also was in charge of making sure that if she's built super that she got her food And that she's got you know, she helped clean up and and helped her out in that way So she spent a lot of time with her and Really, you know, I think the basis of this is that she also was very much aware of what held us together I Never once from my mother or my grandmother in the stories heard about hatred or anger Toward the non-Indians and when I reflected back on that even in high school I was surprised and when I was a younger woman a young adult in my 20s and 30s and there was all this, you know that they Activist activity everybody was angry and shouting and Condemning and I kind of wanted to be strong like that But I didn't I didn't have anything to base it on So when I heard that my grandfather had refused to work any longer in the mission schools because of the way that Children were treated. I latched on to that because it was something of Anger, you know that he came away, but what there was was a lot of pain And I think that that it continues today. I think it's actually the pain and not anything else that Isn't that is still needing to be dealt with in some way. I think there's there's a lot of pain these days It's often through drugs and alcohol in the past was you know from simply I think the men didn't have anything left to do after the reservations were established There was very little work for men in the traditional roles the women fared better And I think it's showing now, you know over time that has shown up And it's it's gradually beginning to catch up, but I was really aware of it even as a young woman so I Have another grandfather. I want to talk about his name is chief Luther standing there This is my my father's grandfather actually so these are of the same This generation of my mother's grandmother and my father's grandfather and my chief Luther standing there wrote a book called He wrote several, but the important one was land of the spotted eagle And in this book he tried to explain exactly what I'm trying to explain now who we were and what were our values it's it's He put a lot of effort into it and actually this book is used in a lot of college courses now as it is a As a foundational understanding of at least the northern plains or specifically the soup, but I feel sort of like I'm the bridge between That period my grandparents great my grandparents parents and grandparents and the future So I I kind of feel like I'm you know I'm reaching out like this just touching back to to my grandmother and saying what you know What do I remember? What did she say? What what was real? You know it what what did she give to us? What did she do? What was her life like? What am I to treasure and know and understand from that and then thinking? Okay, here. I am standing in my mid 60s and reaching down to my niece I don't have any grandchildren myself yet, but I have them through family way Reaching to my nieces and their children and reaching and thinking I need to stretch this way and then give it that way And stretch this way and give it that way and and but be sure of where I stand because where I stand Is this woman who had this privilege of serving Bahá'u'lláh through visiting some of his loved ones? And so what did I mean? What did I? What did I learn from that? When my grandfather rode on a train going to Carlisle Indian School He's saying he was six years old and he sang a death song the whole way in order to be To keep himself brave to meet his death and what it turned out I think because he prayed so hard he really turned out to be someone who helped the people in Different ways and not that it was asked for but because he took he had a lawsuit against the government To be able to live off the reservation wherever he wanted. He actually won citizenship For all the Indian people and not that they wanted it at that time, but since then I think it's become kind of helpful And so I'm mentioning this construct because because These are the things I think that tell you what if you look at what was behind those actions and then we look now at At the what the Bahá'í faith has given us I'm the only one so far in my family my close family who is the Bahá'í But it doesn't matter because everybody else is working hard too for that future and some at some point They're going to come come together, but you know the Indians have been given so many special Considerations the first is in the tablets of the divine plan in which Abdu Baha said you must attach great importance To these Indians and ends that that paragraph with should they become educated and properly guided there can be no doubt That they will become so enlightened as to illumine the world well and Then in the Rizwan message for the four-year plan the House of Justice sent a special paragraph just to just to the indigenous people of North America Who gets that? You know So many efforts down through the time to to help us out to place us But I really think that attaching great importance was equally important for the people who did that as It was for the people who received it And that's because it it made them it forced them in a sense not forced in the mean way But forced them to expand their understanding that just because people were Indian and downtrodden didn't mean that they weren't Loved of God and equal and I think that's really the biggest lesson It wasn't that Indian people had special characteristics that were going to do anything It was like even even these people if they become enlightened Will become so will illumine the world because really what enlightens people What causes illumination after all is unity? Right and anybody can achieve that and we're told in in Bahá'u'llah's writings that even a single soul Can it can? Illuminate a whole world. I think that's is it a whole nation or a whole world I'm it's it's falling away because I know I'm out of time already But right now, you know, I think that that one of the things that that's tempting what I've learned over this time Is that when people? cultures groups families individuals I Said that backwards individuals families groups, you know the communities when they circle round the writings of Bahá'u'lláh and Don't focus on other things primarily Strength comes among the Guay me who you learned first about the covenant When I look now at the Navajo the community of the interest what was it was different is that they instead of having just cultural events? It's easy there because it's huge and large and there is culture all around They focused on studying the writings of God Holding devotional gatherings and having children's classes and then focused on their youth Can't tell you there are a dozen or more who are going to the best universities in the United States now and Achieving good grades and I can't say that there's there's not a connection I believe there is and so as the Universal House of Justice I'm going to cut cut a couple of my paragraphs off here, and maybe we can talk more later in the questions that the When the Universal House of Justice this spring at Rizwan told us that What what lightened their hearts the most was not the numerical winning of these goals But the but the change in culture of course I you know I'm I thought went how you know how joyous news that was that we pleased them and then I thought culture You know this is really what it has to be because in the end what the the culture of the American Indian people is Changing as much as anything else and this final paragraph that means everything to me It is who I am as a Lakota woman who is who my great-grandmother was and who I pray my great-grandchildren will be This is the is this Standard the virtues and attributes pertaining unto God are all evident and manifest and Have been mentioned and described in all the heavenly books To me that means the pipe as well Among them are trustworthiness truthfulness purity of heart while communing with God forbearance resignation to whatever the Almighty hath decreed contentment with the things his will hath provided patience may thankfulness in the midst of tribulation That rang true to my understanding of who my grandmother was my grandfather as well Thankfulness in the midst of tribulation and complete reliance in all circumstances upon him These rank according to the estimate of God among the highest and most laudable of all acts All other acts are and will ever remain secondary and subordinate unto them This spirit that animated the human heart is the knowledge of God and It's truest adorning is a recognition of the truth that He doeth whatsoever. He will hath and ordained it that which he pleaseth Its raiment is the fear of God and its perfection steadfastness in his faith Thus God instructed whosoever seeketh him He rarely loveth the one that harm that turneth toward him There is none other God but him the forgiving the most bountiful All praise be to God the Lord of all worlds When I read that selection my understanding inserts the name of God that the Lakota use or did use until well until fairly recently the great mysterious And I think about the new culture And reconciliation in that way of how as we evolve our culture we will preserve of it It also will be evolved. It will wrap itself into what God hath ordained Pilamaya Thank you so much for sharing that very personal Journey which I think exemplifies and illustrates for us Reconciliation in two ways one the reconciliation that is the expression of the spirit and our spiritual beliefs and understandings and how they take form in this contingent world through the stories of your Parents and grandparents and and family as well as the reconciliation in the new culture that you speak about Of the coming together of peoples of cultures themselves Reconciling themselves to a new reality that's emerging before us. So thank you for sharing that Before I introduce the next speaker. I just want to acknowledge we have some distinguished Individuals and guests with us today and and one I wanted to acknowledge. I'm I'm not sure if he's here, but we have amongst us chief Mike Leach One of the chiefs of the statley of nation and I want to acknowledge his presence here Our next speaker is chief Douglas white chief white is The chief of the Sonimo first nation on Vancouver Island one of the largest first nations in British Columbia He's also one of the Elected heads of the first nations summit Which is the organization that represents all of the first nations in British Columbia Engaged in the treaty process and in that capacity. He is also one of the Members of the first nations leadership council essentially the political leaders of all first nations in British Columbia in Engaging in high-level issues with with governments in the crown but in addition to that chief white is a remarkable individual a lawyer an artist a sculptor a scholar a speaker and he exemplifies a And is the leading symbol of a new generation of Aboriginal leaders across Canada who are bringing the highest levels of insight wisdom knowledge integrity and Skills of in manifold ways to their work and I can say from my personal work which does Involve chief white in many ways that I hear from all sides whether it's other first nations leaders whether it's with government ministers Whoever it is members of the communities on the ground that they all speak of chief white as exemplifying a new possibility a new style of leadership and Some new and creative thinking and visions for the future So we are so grateful that he's joined us here this morning now. Welcome chief white Oh, see him this year Ain't the pack colossal tin tannis na name. Oh Ain't the pack cliche tani hopa chassid I didn't a squalor one corner sir. He had said See a musty moch had said God. Good morning my dear friends and relatives My name is quoll awesome tin from this the name of first nation My name is also clay shin from the hopa chassid first nation My English name is Douglas white the third and I'm the chief of this the name of first nation Which is located just across the Salish Sea from where we are today on the eastern shore of Vancouver Island The name of people also in the summer came over to this side of the water To fish for salmon at our summer fishing village near Fort Lainley As Roshan mentioned, I'm also elected to the first nation summit task group political executive. I just want you to know how much I Have a good feeling in my heart this morning to be asked to come here to Share a few thoughts with you this morning on this important issue. I Want to thank so much my uncle to tan chain point for his prayer this morning and For the words that you shared with everyone here. I want everyone to know that everything that I am Whatever strength I have whatever I know about love whatever I know about being a good person comes from my uncle and Comes from my family and my people the prayer that he he Put forward the chant asking for the ancestors to be with us Recognizing our relationship with the Creator recognizing our relationship with the past Recognizing our duties to the future is something It illuminates the way that we begin each day in our lives Our approach to every single day that we begin in prayerful reverence to the Creator and creation And I want to give recognition this morning too before I begin to the fact that we're in the territory of our musk womb relations It means so much to be able to give that recognition and respect As much as it means to me so much to be asked To come up here this morning to share a few words The feeling that it gives me in my heart When I know the history that we've had in this country over the last hundred and 30 40 50 years And when I know that the place that my people have had In relation to the crown in relation to society in general For the majority of that time It really means a lot to be asked To share my voice and to share my thoughts and to put forward a Small part of who I am for your consideration to engage with you in a real and a meaningful way It means so much And I offer up a similar recognition to the fact that we're in the territory of the musk womb people That they're in a sacred relationship with this place This territory is tied up in who they are as a people that everyone shares here in Vancouver and so Coming to that Reconciliation of that understanding of the importance of place the importance of the people who are in that sacred relationship Of course is one of the main focuses of the work That I've spending my life upon that my father spent his life upon that my grandfather has spent his life upon It's the work. It has become the work of our people over many many generations now To try to find ways to create Meaningful and real Relationships and reconciliation based and premised upon a foundation of love and respect so I want to I Want to give thanks to the North American Executive Committee of the Association for Baha'i studies And just say how much I'm humbled and honored to be here for that invitation Because I really do believe that such invitations are the foundation for Real reconciliation in the future That it's the opportunity to sit down together and to talk and to share to enter into meaningful dialogue and discourse To get to know each other in deeper and real ways to spend times like my uncle shared about his mother and The friend from Washington State To take the time to sit down and talk to share each other's views and beliefs and values To get them in the mix of a real conversation and out of that build a Foundation for a real relationship of respect and love to build that one family and I just really want to thank my uncle for sharing that that's It really meant a lot to me to hear about that conversation from the 1960s because I'm going to be part of what I'm going to be talking about Is about the the progression of the relationship and time From my father's time to my grandfather's time, and I want to say that It's really remarkable how much everyone that stood up here this morning so far has spoken about their grandparents You know as indigenous people I think that you know we we really are and we really do come from and we really do our sense of identity and who we are as individuals is Informed by our grandparents and our parents and I'm going to be doing the same. I'm going to be sharing with you a couple of Stories and experiences in my own life about my grandparents With the hope that those stories will share with you something about the unique worldview of the Coast Salish people Our own particular cosmology and understanding of creation To put forward that different worldview to understand the complexities That are in the middle of the conversation of building real reconciliation That we need to come to a place to understand That the differences in worldviews Are critical That we need to spend the time to sit together and talk to understand them To articulate them to appreciate them and to give them recognition and respect if we're going to be able to build that reconciliation So I'm very thankful Uncle for your opening words. It really helped me come up here and to be able to do what I'm doing today And I wanted to give recognition also to your Your public and and private club that you belong to I believe you said it was for old men. So I don't think I qualify yet and And it made me realize that I went gosh, I think I've got my own public private club And it also only has two members and the other member is dr. Roshan Dinesh And very much very much like you the only other member of our club is a doctor and He also asked me to come here today. And so here I am That's just remarkable So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about my grandparents and the worldview and cosmology that I've been passed down From them to think about what is the relationship? What does it mean to be human as a co-sailish person with our own unique view point and then talk a little bit about how Now that makes the work difficult or challenging in terms of reconciling and building real relationships between the co-sailish people and the rest of Canada I'm also gonna try to say a little bit about how So much of my own work and so much of the work of many of our leaders is focused on the political and legal dimensions of reconciliation and How as important as those two dimensions are that it's a mistake to focus only on those dimensions And so I was so happy to see that this morning's panel Asks us to engage and consider in the aspects of the spiritual reconciliation that's required The social reconciliation that's required and the cultural reconciliation that's that's required to build in enduring and And meaningful reconciliation for the future So I want to Talk to you a little bit about what does it mean to be human in the co-sailish world? This the what does it mean to be a beautiful human being in this world? What is the nature of humanity and what is the relationship of humanity to the rest of creation? Who are we as humans in relation to the Creator and creation and what is the essential nature of humanity? And I think that there's no other place to start than with the foundational reality that for the co-sailish people the world is animated with energy spirit and soul and When I say the world, I mean all of creation And this includes what we generally refer to as inanimate objects water the earth the air All of these in our view are alive in the spiritual dimension of existence they're ancient They're alive and we are in a meaningful and real relationship with them And it's this reality that informs all of our interactions with creation so To give a little bit more about this. I'm going to share a story a little bit about about my grandparents I was raised in part by my father's parents My grandparents colossal what and take up Their English names are dr. Ellen white and the late chief Doug white the first My grandmother colossal what had the good fortune of being from the United States side of the co-sailish world and Yet she was raised in Canada on her family's island in the midst of the Gulf Islands Just to the east of where we are Because she was born in the United States. She wasn't considered a Canadian Indian under the federal Indian Act in Canada and Therefore she along with many of her cousins that lived there on on rice Island Which is now called Norway Island off the coast of Cooper Island her and her cousins weren't allowed to go to Residential school the big residential school that was there on Cooper Island and she recalls with really Deep irony being a young girl Haining on to the windowsill at the residential school on Cooper Island And wishing with all of her heart that she could go to that school Well, she could not and neither could her cousins so their grandmother Said to them all if you can't go to their school then you're gonna go to my school and This was a beautiful moment in our family's history Since their grandmother was a traditional healer and had many different kinds of Specialized knowledge to pass on to her grandchildren and for me. This is meant that I grew up gathering medicinal plants in the mountains and fields with my grandmother and witness the intricacy and the nuance of Her engagement with creation and The creator in this activity of gathering up The plants that she required to help people and this like every other activity of course in the Coast Salish lives has a clear spiritual dimension She prayed in the days leading up to the harvest Many days before getting ready Praying to the creator about what she was going to be doing in the days ahead She prayed early in the morning The day that we were going to go out when the Sun was coming up and as we approached The place where the plants were she prayed yet again to the Creator begging for permission and humbly asking for the Creator's grace and the opportunity to use the plants to help someone in her work To heal someone and at this time She also engaged directly with the plants and the earth supporting the plants and the overall space itself Talking to them all lovingly acknowledging how precious each was and Engaging with their energies as she called it Addressing them formally and asking for their help as well as the help of the Creator So I just want I want to say really plainly that The this activity was not simply or merely an economic Gathering activity. This wasn't just about resource extraction. What I was witnessing and what I was a part of was a community of Complex and deep interconnections Between my grandmother and myself between the Creator Between the plants between the earth between that place all of us together Formed a community of deep Interconnections tied together by the Creator as a loving family Where each is concerned about the well-being of the other and where each is willing to sacrifice and service to the other and Where each is compelled to hold the other up and to support each other by the loving relationship provided by the Creator So that's the first story I wanted to share with you was that simple experience of me growing up with my grandmother going to gather medicine For her to help heal people that it illuminated it for me the the nature of Who we are as people in the world in relation to the Creator and creation that we're in a very Deep interconnected relationship with all of creation that all of creation has energy and spirit and must be respected and addressed in that way that if this wasn't done that if we didn't behave in this way if we didn't have this disposition To creation that if we didn't understand the loving relationship that we were in with our territory with our relations the plants Those places in our world if we simply went and took Plants thinking that they would be able to help and heal us Without giving recognition and respect To that underlying and fundamental relationship that the Creator has put us in with them That it would be damaging to the people that we were trying to help That it would be damaging to us That it would be damaging to those plants into that place in the world. That's so precious to us So what does all of this say about human nature from the perspective of a Coast Salish person? I just wanted everyone to Understand that from my perspective that isolating Humanity from the rest of creation Is no simple matter. I don't really know if it can be done properly in terms of Coast Salish World view and the way that we approach and think of what does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be in this world? And I just think that it's the will of the Creator that we live as we do as humans in a loving and interdependent relationship With our territories and all of the divine cosmos established by the Creator that were Part of a holistic kind of relationship where we're engaged with Creation in a loving way. I wanted to share too something about my grandfather That's the real kind of focus on some of the world view and cosmology and our way of understanding and relating to creation I want to as well talk about my grandfather a bit take up Who raised me to be acutely aware of my obligations to myself and to my family and to my community During endless evenings out on Fishing with him out on the waters of slanaymok He would talk to me about what it means to be a slanaymok person and how I should live my life in Service to my family and my people He told me what I should cherish What I should protect What I should value He impressed upon me the importance of creating a real and meaningful reconciliation with Canada He was the chief of the slanaymok in the early 1960s and at this time a Number of a couple of members of our nation were Charged under a provincial statute for hunting out of season for deer July 7th 1963 Clifford White and David Bob were up hunting in the mountains of slanaymok And they were charged by a conservation officer for doing so They went into court and they did a really simple thing They stood up in front of the magistrate and they said we have a treaty right To do what we were doing Stood up and talked about that history What they got in return was a crown position That there is no such thing as a treaty between the slanaymok people in the crown That's what they got from the prosecutor what they got from the judge From the magistrate was a conviction and was a lecture on being pig-ish The magistrate said to Clifford White its pure Pig-ishness on your part to come into my courtroom and talk about treaties When you could have simply gotten a license from the Provincial government to go hunting well My grandfather and the community members of the time Both of my grandfathers people from slanaymok Frank Halder from the nishga guy Williams from the native Indian Brotherhood all of these people came together to Hold up and support that basic act of standing up and saying and Asserting that we are in a relationship with the crown from 1854 We came to a reconciliation that recognized That we are legitimate people that this is our territory and that our way of life needs to be protected That our Aboriginal title and resources need to be recognized and That we have a right to fish and to hunt and so They brought forward that Court action it's known as white and Bob Tom Berger one of the great jurists in Canada who was the appeal Council for my nation Called it the first shot fired by the Aboriginal peoples of Canada in their campaign to reclaim Aboriginal and treaty rights While this is in 1965 it was finally affirmed in the Supreme Court of Canada that yes, there is a treaty There is a reconciliation between Canada and the slanaymok and that means that the province doesn't have anything to say about hunting for the slanaymok people 1965 that's 45 years ago now or longer and Yet here I am Instead of chief Doug White the first now we have chief Doug White the third I'm just yesterday. I spent the day with the chief negotiators from across the province Came together to meet in a forum where the subject of the discussion was How do we is the indigenous peoples of British Columbia find a way to have the crown Leave behind their 19th century approach To engaging with us one that's premised on the denial of our rights one that's premised on the extinguishment Of who we are as a people How do we shift them from this How do we get here in 2010 where we're still in a position Where all of the apparatus of the crown wants to take this position From so long ago How do we get them shifted over to a different way of engaging talking with us one based on recognition and respect so clearly You know, I wanted to talk about How important it is To have a comprehensive approach to building meaningful reconciliation That yes the courts are important But the courts are not going to provide the reconciliation that we should all be aimed at Yes, politics are important, but treaties even though They're recognized as sacred agreements by the courts themselves one of the only kinds of agreements that exist in Canadian or English law that are recognized as being sacred Treaties themselves are not sufficient to build the kind of relationship that I think and I think everyone Here would share that we want for the future for our children That we really do have to get to the healing that my uncle spoke of I've seen in my own community so much in my grandmother's work How important that is for us internally as indigenous peoples to hold ourselves up and to make sure that we're strong spiritually and culturally so that we can Properly engage with the crown That's an important element of work that we're always focused on trying to achieve and then on the other hand We've got this great gap of Understanding with the crown and amongst ourselves about where we're trying to go in terms of building meaningful reconciliation How do we go from a place where we have coast Salish? Who hold on to and who hold up a conception of engagement with the creator and creation that's premised on Being in a loving real relationship with their territories To one where on the other hand we have a crown who's focused utterly on resource extraction revenue sharing Who's focused on the economic material aspects of the relationship It's a difficult challenge and I know how much in my when I look at the example of my grandfather my grandmother's life And the work that they did they did a lot of work in the politics and the legal But they also did a lot of work in the social and the cultural The grandmother spent a lot of time in Schools throughout Nanaimo and elsewhere including UBC sharing with Everyone herself and her people sharing knowledge and understanding about who we are as the name of in Coast Salish And I want everyone to know I'm got a lot of hope. I've seen the results of that kind of work that her and others Chief Michael Leach and others have done like him all of the Aboriginal leaders that have come before me have taken time to try and help make people understand and In my own work as the chief of Stendemoch I have seen young Canadians grow up to become businessmen To become important people in the community that have a different a fundamentally different approach and attitude Towards us So I just want to thank you so much for the opportunity the recognition to To come up here and stand up here and to engage in a conversation with you It really means a lot to me. I just want to reflect and echo so much of what my uncle said about the The beauty of the Baha'i faith I've learned so much from my wife Anissa About the Baha'i faith and so much of it really resonates with me in a deep way It makes me feel makes my spirit feel Like there's a path for all of us on this beautiful planet to be that one family Hi, it's a Cassia musty mocha. It's a Thank you chief white Should confess that last night at dinner. I was sternly warned that the most offensive insult in Coast Salish culture is to Try to get somebody to stop speaking So I may be out of the club. I don't know I I guess I'll find out later But unlike the old cool guys club the doctor is not in charge in my club. It's always the chief. Let me tell you But seriously, thank you for Providing a particular vision of oneness and the meaning of oneness from a particular Set of teachings and learnings in worldview and that's an extremely valuable Contribution as Baha'is reflect on their own understandings of that fundamental teaching of being conscious of the oneness of humanity and how that expresses itself in action I was also reminded During your presentation of how Amitabha Haruhi Hanum would describe her own As you know, she traveled to indigenous communities all over the world and she described Herself what she would say when she arrived in a community and was greeted By the community and would meet with the leaders in the community members and she would say she said she would always do two things The first thing she would do is apologize She would say she was sorry for what? her peoples Meaning the cultures from which she had come the wrongs and suffering that they had perpetrated on those peoples and Then she would say and she would thank them For the great learning knowledge culture Which they have produced over thousands of years that benefits all humanity and As you spoke about the processes of reconciliation I think that lesson an example from Amitabha Haruh Speaks to a certain truth that we all need to study and reflect upon Before I introduce our last speaker. I just want to acknowledge another Individual in the audience with us today dr. Evelyn Voyager from King Kong inlet another very esteemed friend Our last speaker is dr. Lee Brown Dr. Lee Brown is the director of the UBC Institute of Aboriginal Health Was the coordinator of the indigenous doctoral program at UBC? Completed his own doctoral studies in education at UBC Co-author of many works including the sacred tree a renowned education curriculum He is a most accomplished most renowned Individual scholar healer holder of teachings and We were talking last night. I asked dr. Brown. How long he had been a Baha'i? 35 years and Well, I've only known him for a few years. I have to comment on what an audacious and creative Teacher of the Baha'i faith he is and I don't use that word audacious lightly I Recall he was invited to the University of Victoria to give a talk I can't remember the exact title it was on indigenous teachings and prophecies and as is always the case the room was packed With hundreds of students and professors there because they know of the scholarship and learning and standing of Lee Brown Well unbeknownst to them He unleashed an hour long discussion of the Qatabi Agdas of Bahá'u'llah's prophecies of their relationship to indigenous prophecies and they had no clue what hit them It was remarkable. It was audacious and What it brings to the surface is the fundamental challenge. We all have speaking of reconciliation of Striving to see the faith through the frames of reference and Modalities and learnings that Bahá'u'llah encourages us to view it through as opposed to Viewing it through our preconceived notions and assumptions and what dr. Brown does in his work is he brings that striving to the surface consciously so we can all see it and That is what we sometimes forget to do We just assume our conception of the faith is the faith and we carry on on our day We need to bring that striving that daily striving to the surface and that's what his scholarship and his learning exemplifies last but not least The president of the cool old guys club Dr. Lee Brown. Thank you everyone. That's a hard act to follow. I Would like to begin today by acknowledging this one unceded traditional territory of the Musqueam Nation unceded Traditional territory in what you are setting and give thanks to our good relative and knowledge keeper Shane point for initiating the many generous hand session this morning and like to and You know when I moved to the Musqueam territory, I called the The Musqueam Nation and I talked with Shane. I said I've come here to do a PhD. Is it okay? I'm asking you for permission to be in your territory Which I think every person living in a tribal territory should do And not only did they say it was okay. They said we're gonna help you We're gonna help you. You can be president of the old guys club I'd like to acknowledge all the elders and the chiefs and dignitaries that are here today and Thank thank you for allowing me these this opportunity to share these thoughts We'll also like to thank chief Douglas white for wonderful stories and Jacqueline left hand bowl and Adlerie big horn and Roshan for Joining us with in the panel today I'm not gonna do too much of a personal introduction, but I do want to say that I Was am amazed by when people introduced me because I'm a recovering alcoholic and former drug abuser that was born into an alcoholic home with an alcoholic father that was in practicing alcoholic and drug addict and I'm not gonna talk too much about this, but it affected me at an early age and What happened was that I begin to go into the downward spiral of alcoholism and malnutrition and by age 11 I had lost ability to walk It was no longer going to school. I was 11 12 years old I weighed 35 or 40 pounds if you know what that looks like it doesn't look good was in extreme malnutrition and When you're in extreme malnutrition the first thing the body gives up is the capacity to have children Doctors told me I would never have children and And I started to ask myself this question, you know, what would it take to be healthy? What would it take for my family to be healthy? What would it take for my nation to be healthy? What would it take for the world to return to health? And I entered a path of healing for myself, which was to become a singer in the native tradition I Had the opportunity to begin a session last night by singing and and I couldn't resist putting a picture of myself and my children In my PowerPoint and I want to say that I believe that I sing my children into existence. I Sing my children into existence I've been blessed with wonderful children I hear people complaining about their children I just can't comprehend it because my children are the blessing of my life They have my greatest teachers my daughter on on your right here is it my daughter Julie's a medical doctor doing a surgical residency at the University of Saskatoon my middle daughter is a nurse and the daughter on your far left is a 16 year old going concerned that That is worrying you might know us a crown she had just become the Princess of the camel's powwow in this picture last year I'll try to remember what Hooper said last night and talked to take not take the applause too seriously The couple weeks ago, I was working on a grant for the the Institute of Health that I work in and I Was in my office at eight o'clock in morning I thought of a good sentence to start this talk with the day and sorry decided Well, I better write that sentence down before I forget and six hours later. I was still writing and I have never read a paper before I always speak from the heart But I'm going to do some reading here today because I want to write down what what came at that time So I'd like to begin the day with these questions What would holistic reconciliation look like what would it require? How can we walk through the four holistic doorways of the medicine wheel together in a way that will allow us to discover the one doorway of unity and well-being What healing what acknowledge it must occur for reconciliation to even begin Reconciliation I believe can only grow in the garden of absolute equality Between people that have gained a true respect for each other This necessitates a shift in our consciousness a Rethinking of our being perhaps the very nature of our being and to gain a more accurate perception of the nature of native human being that That she's done white and Jacqueline would talk about the the way that we actually are We cannot achieve reconciliation on false views false views pity or stereotyping Reconciliation based on I'm sorry is a turnoff Reconciliation based on the strength of people's coming together as a beginning We can be if we choose those people's coming together through strength that have Contributions to offer each other in a movement towards an ever-advancing civilization People who are in fact each other's completion in the sense of bringing diverse gifts developed by the four peoples together for the benefit and blessing of all We're each other's completion after having been separated for a long time. We are relatives that have been separated Together we're going to share Some of what must be acknowledged today in each of the four quadrants of the medicine wheel The what the medicine wheel holistic model of being mind heart body and spirit for holistic reconciliation to occur You know last night when I was listening to Hooper I was waiting as I wait with every speaker I ever listened to I wait to see if they mentioned the emotion So many speakers I've heard especially at the University talk about mind body and spirit, but they leave the heart out and Hooper, you know, he got to the heart last night. Wow. It's the highlight of my day What must change Reconciliation must start from the beginning of contact and I want to say that I'm going to share some heavy information But I don't mean to make anybody feel bad, but this is what we are reconciling But I want to begin by saying that all that came here to this land We're welcomed in the beginning and we're offered a home from the first time of their step on this Turtle Island All were offered food that gave them strength All were offered medicines that gave them health All were offered land to have a place of family All were offered government In which they could have freedom Through a more perfect union more perfect than what? More perfect than the constitution of the era called Confederacy I wondered about that in third grade more perfect than what? And all were offered sports To be able to play and have fun Shane says we should have fun And all team sports come from north and central america Including cricket Football basketball, you may think james naysmith and other basketball, but indians were playing basketball a long time ago What do we need to look at in the mental doorway? One of the things that needs to happen in order I believe in order for reconciliation to occur is that naive intelligence must be recognized And this is not this is very difficult Because canadian states are based on the theories of Descartes and John Locke John Locke who believed that native people were too emotional to be considered intelligent and therefore less than human John Locke stated in his treaty seal government 1696 There was a duty of christianity to suppress the emotions of american indians so they could be and this is a direct quote Almost as good as an englishman How good would that be anyway? These These theories Were embodied in the residential schools here in canada on the first page of the document that created the modern day residential schools in canada In the third paragraph a man named man named davin wrote That the primary purpose of residential schools would be to suppress the emotions of native people Colonization is about suppressing emotion These theories were embodied In a theory of John Locke that promulgated the theory of terra nullis John Locke wrote the land is empty There are no human beings here He considered us not human Locke's theories led to acts of extermination Against native peoples the first act of extermination a written act of extermination was against the piquots The last written act of extermination of native peoples was in the constitution of the state of california Locke's theories and the concept that of native people were not human led to the bounty system In eastern canada in the united states not long ago the bounty on a native adult male was 100 pounds sterling and 50 pounds sterling on a woman or child Not long ago You could have received 150 pounds sterling For taking the lives of my children Not long ago, and that's why the acknowledgement of of A native intelligence is very difficult Because it violates the foundational justification for the existence of canada And this is a difficult step to take All of the Iroquois tribes as far as I know of the eastern united states except for the Cherokees were hunted to extinction I can mention the names of some tribes. You've probably never heard of them The only reason we were not hunted to extinction Is because we were a great number In the physical doorway the native body must be affirmed in all its strength and beauty along with the physical and environmental achievements of native people Native people today come in many different colors and use Some of us have blonde hair and blue eyes Some have afro afros and black skin Some appear asian We have taken you all in If you're from Iran or Uganda or France or china Your blood is in our veins We are you We are the evidence that our grandparents and great-grandparents believe that all human beings are human beings Even when surrounded by those who thought they were less than human They knew that all were worthy of love and marriage And we married them Today in our many colored youths. We are the physical manifestation of all my relations We must be acutely aware that nativeness is not race. It's a way of being it's a set of values embedded in a spiritually based culture spiritually based cultures To achieve reconciliation we must rise to embrace a cultural view rather than a racial view The problem is not that we are racist, but that we are racial in our thinking Races a box. It's a limitation upon being Culture is a horizon a potential If we can become culture in our view We we each can achieve dr. Martin Luther king's ammunition to view each other in the content of our character I got to know a guy at a counseling conference in 1981 On the third day of the conference. He said what are you by the way? I said i'm an american indian. Oh, he said I thought you were so intelligent I said well, i'm just as intelligent as i was five minutes ago He said yeah, but and then he stopped himself. No. No, I didn't mean that I said i know exactly what you mean We hear it in every class in every school and every day Every place that we go We must be aware that north of america when clamas landed was a cultured garden Full of food and absent of sickness From the cultured forests and gardens of beans corn squash Squash potatoes and more of the east coast To the cultured great plains created by the northern and southern plains tribes created By the northern and southern plains tribes to develop a buffalo herd of 60 million buffalo To the Advanced artistic and structured and knowledgeable societies of the west coast north america was a physical domain developed and created by native people with sustainability It was not the wild west It was not terra nullis The land was not empty Among the largest buildings in the world when columbus landed here were the architectural achievements of the pueblos Among the largest pyramids in the world were the pyramids of mexico Wounded to the same stars as the pyramids in egypt to the to an advanced mathematical system Amongst the largest cities that went on earth when columbus landed was mexico city then called tiote tiwakan And for that matter so was vancouver That's one of the first north american malls Long before columbus indian kids were saying let's go to the mall There it is Two very important aspects of native native physicality that briefly mentioned to above that but they're very important Were the absence of illness in north america. That's why illnesses hit us so hard. This is an amazing thing We had a medical system that had eliminated illness and that medical system still exists and it is Restraintening and I think one day it would be restricting for the blessing and benefit of all human beings because I believe we were bringing health to humanity And the development of eight out of ten foods that are eaten today Including the irish potato and the Italian tomato Both of which come from here Was in the faculty allowance the other day with a professor who was really enjoying his pepper and I said well you can thank Native people for that He said what do you mean? I said pepper comes from north america He said i'm sure we had pepper in europe. I said no you had spices And you got those from asia There were no there were no peppers in europe no tomatoes no potatoes no corn no beans no squash No pumpkins until europeans came here We developed food for the world The acceptance of these two developments is foundational To the acceptance of native science Our science was our food and our medicine The benefits of which have improved each of our lives right now today These achievements must be acknowledged As some of the aboriginal contributions to the foundation of a world civilization for true reconciliation to occur If you enjoy the diverse Cuisine available to you here in vancouver. Not only do you have the the era qual my people's beans and pumpkins and squash You have the incredible food of of this environment that the northwest seafood Salmon that I enjoyed last night If you like that if you appreciate the governments that we have If you have a favorite sport team Well, you can thank native people for that So all these things come from our culture I know these great achievements might seem almost unbelievable after 500 years of denial and pedagogical knowledge nullification knowledge nullification And i'm aware and even more aware that the weakened state of the indigenous people in north and south america But in my darkest moments, I I take hope from the words of the peacemaker who predicted this time when a time when all would seem lost The time in which our grandparents lived But he also predicted the time when native nations would become stronger than before There are 3,000 native communities in north america and each of them right now are working to become stronger than before In the spiritual doorway the quantum physics of aboriginal spirituality and understanding must be acknowledged And hopefully one day comprehended by all The prophets of this land must be acknowledged as true ones from god including the peacemaker who founded the era called confederacy and civilization I've long pondered myself and that's what I talked about that night in the university of victoria the relationship between the law of peace Of the era called confederacy and the most great piece of bahá'u'lláh between the long house And the universal house In these relationships are the evidence of the true prophethood and civilization of north america And most importantly the emotional doorway We must acknowledge contrary to the teachings that Descartes and Locke that native emotions are okay It's okay to feel I had a teacher and a teacher training one time asked me You know I had a 14 year old native man and threw a chair and run out of the classroom got angry. What should I do? I said after 400 years of residential school should stand up and applaud that any native child has any emotion in this land Prayer phrasing the words of two of my great teachers dr. Daniel Jordan and dr. Don streets Founders of the nissamal of education Emotion structures values the values mentioned by chief Doug white Therefore not only are native emotions. Okay. They are the foundation of native values The values of relationship respect harmony balance Generosity cooperation non interference The value of learning through observation I didn't know how cultural I was until I tried to take a dance class last year I went to the class the teacher said get a partner, but I wanted to learn through observation After five minutes. He said, how come you don't have a partner? Why didn't I know how to explain my entire value base to her? So Presumably I just walked out and that's what happens to a lot of native people They walk out when the values are not understood and they are not understood These aboriginal values developed by countless generations contain the appropriate use of energy that enabled us as human beings to survive on mother earth To achieve reconciliation. We must don't only acknowledge aboriginal values of this land We must find a way to integrate these values of all those who have come here Using that dr. King again dr. Martin Luther King once said it's one thing to integrate It's one thing to desegregate a school It's a completely different thing to integrate it A community would be truly integrated and society would be integrated If everyone's values Were it present in the society that would be truly unity and diversity Since our value contain our emotions our emotions contain our energies of life It's necessary if everyone is to have the fullness of their potential That they be allowed the full expression of their values and in the current canadian context. This is simply not happening Aboriginal values are not in the schools not in the courts not understood by teachers not understood by social workers not understood by the rcmp Our values are not in a single canadian institution We're trying to be a multicultural society with a monocultured value system This is a recipe for failure When will our children be allowed to be themselves in their own land? You know one time I was doing a training for the rcmp thought I'm gonna be myself And where I'm from a good handshake is really gentle you hardly touch the other person's hand That shows that you're a knowledgeable and respectful person Of course in the dominant canadian society a good handshake is firm shows you're honest My culture that's an extreme insult So I'm gonna shake hands with these rcmp officers like I like I want to the third guy just about broke my hand I heard my hand crack He said man, what's wrong with you? You're a wimp or something? This guy's a police officer in our community I don't know how to shake hands and this is the challenge for us as canadiens The great challenge and I said behais How do we integrate values? How do we shake hands? Neither handshake is wrong neither is right But what do we do? Go to slide 18. I'm skipping that paragraph Indeed the single most greatest challenge we face according to sperry in his in his book the science of moral priority Is to achieve the integration of diverse values into a unified system that can contain unity and harmony Sperry argues that values are the number one problem facing the world At the center of the medicine will volition In may of night Man in may of 2009 I had the opportunity to be one of the keynote speakers for the first annual world indigenous gathering and little bit sponsored by chief Darrell bob and chief michael leach at the beginning of this gathering I noticed flying in the wind on the uh on the uh podium The four flags for the four peoples The the red yellow black and white flags that represent the prayers for the four peoples And I thought to myself We have held on to these flags After all that we have been through We have not lost and you go to any native gathering across north america this summer and you will find prayers for you have been made Whoever you are and wherever in the world you're from We've held on to the prayers. We've held on to the pipe We held on to the drum and we held on to the lodge The lodge of purification. We held on to teachings given at the beginning of the world And most importantly we held on to the knowledge of relationship The knowledge that we are all related and there's no place where one person's family tree ends and another begins Of all the nations and peoples of the earth we have held on to a 500 year storm Our grandparents and great grandparents held on Even when surrounded by the forces of extinction and termination Through 400 years of residential school through the attempts to invalidate our history and our languages and our very presence on the land They held on they endured They held on to these teachings so that the Reconciliation through relationship and the possibilities of unity contained in the four flags in the four day four doorways Would be available for our benefit and blessing For all that is for all who have come to this land In this day at this time We are the living embodiment of our ancestors hopes and dreams that their teachings would live to see this day of reconciliation and These values and emotions are even more important when you consider what hooper dunbar had mentioned last night about the bob and the age of the heart The bob stated that the most essential quality for spiritual development of human beings is the purification of their heart If this is true how blessed we are to have communities of heart in this land They've not only survived, which is a miracle of god itself But who have survived with heart Who have never let go of the teachings of the heart Who have held on to emotion and feeling Who see the world through the eye of the heart who speak from the heart Who give with the heart and who live the teachings of the heart every day What precious gems these communities are for the entire world? Bahá'u'lláh said My first counsel is this possess a pure kindly and radiant heart How blessed we are to have these precious communities still unnoticed unrecognized by those who are seeking silver and gold Led the big girls power and wealth But who failed to perceive this continent's greatest resource its people of heart And if you wish to embrace this reconciliation If we wish to embrace this reconciliation, we must open our hearts purify our hearts hear our wounds and proceed in kindness For both the colonized and the colonizer A letting go of the hurt and guilt is necessary to embrace reconciliation And there's an intrinsic in the escapal relationship between reconciliation justice potential and heart Dr. Jordan and dr. Street said in the society is justice if every person in that society Has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential And to me this is the ultimate ideal of reconciliation The ultimate ideal of reconciliation is to allow everyone to achieve their potential Reconciliation is a stepping stone towards justice and justice is a catapult towards potential My children are not allowed the fullness of their potential in a country that still has an Indian apartheid act And I know that most native folks would defend the Indian Act today and I would too Because when you're down to not much Anything you have you try to hold on to But I predict that the Indian Act will one day shatter like the shell around a little bird coming to birth When we are ready to one day again take flight towards our potential and and that day in the work And in that day the words of the peacemaker stronger than before Will echo from every mountain in prairie And I believe that Aboriginal potential will be actualized That will be greater than our greatest possible to envision it at this moment Go to 24 I'm going to skip a little paragraph In summary the age of Reconciliation begins and ends with the heart That's what 25 My friends perhaps perhaps this is that day foretold long ago by the glorious and wise ones of this turtle island north america The day which is the day of renewal the day of rebirth the day foreseen by black oak The day in which we realize that the only path out of the desolation despair of colonization Is a path of justice that leads towards the horizon potential For all the children of all the peoples of the earth Who will be born into this coming age of heart What a wonderful thing to be alive now To see the the springtime and the blossoming of black elk's vision and the blossoming of humanity The day in which we realize that true reconciliation is a holistic Process that activates our minds at the highest level of truth Our hearts at their most pure ability to love and behold Our spirits at their highest level of unity and cooperation And our bodies in the use of their most respectful and sacred energies So in closing I want to ask this question again What will it take for us to achieve true holistic reconciliation? To realize that all human beings are human beings that all are worthy of love and respect and all contain wisdom To realize that true reconciliation To achieve true reconciliation we must become as relatives to each other And to realize That the true potential of our children and grandchildren can only be actualized Through the advent of divine justice and reconciliation All my relations So the prayer that uh, that was that really summarizes what is being shared this morning Is a prayer of abdubba haas O thou almighty lord Strengthen all mankind That they may do according to the instructions and teachings recorded in these writings So that wars and stripes may be eliminated from the world of man That the roots of enmity may be destroyed And the foundations of love and affection be established That the hearts may be filled with love And the souls be attracted That wisdom may advance and the faces become brightened and illumined That there be no more wars and stripes And that the reconciliation and peace appear That the unity of the world of man May pitch its tent on the apex of the horizon So that the peoples and parties become as one nation That different continents become as one continent And the whole earth as one land That the sex of antagonizing and dogmatic religions be unified That the world of creation be adorned And the people of the earth abide in unity and peace These were the instructions of our beloved master Last night I was thinking this learning this reconciliation this healing This is we achieve part of this through the through this vehicle We can't know everything about each other right we can't We have to use this and this last night our brother Lee Opened the the devotions and he sang what's called an honor song Where I come from when you hear that honor song Everyone rises Because it's a sign of respect. It's honoring the creator There was a number of us that stood I did become aware That most people did not stand And I thought about that and I thought well, of course most of you don't know that that is what is respectful But you know if you see a group of native people standing during an honor song What might you do? It's it's not hard and if you stood Would that be a mistake would that contribute something of our of our faith? It's a matter of learning. It's like the the whole community woman who is standing at the graduation And she was beginning to talk about The prayer that she was going to say and she was thanking the people as Shane did to be invited and she went And the whole place stood up But you understand going like this means I raise my hands to you. I'm thanking you. It doesn't mean you all stand up So this is how we do this is through observation We can go in any community and learn so much But we learn it not through this This is not really that helpful when you're going to to learn. It's this and this So I honor and thank you and I and I ask roshan to carry on And we'll we'll finish up this morning. And I hope I hope you're deriving What our purpose was I hope you're feeling Uplifted and and hopeful for our future Roshan now yes want to Move into a few minutes of of dialogue and and discussion but before that I want to thank again, dr. Brown For really providing for us a very comprehensive perspective On the nature of reconciliation And what it means both in terms of our inner selves And then connecting it to the outer realities of the history of peoples and cultures interacting And that alone Is a reflection of the fundamental Integration that is the challenge of each of our lives and communities individually And of course thank all of our panelists for their their contributions this morning I wanted to a number of questions have come forward I wanted to begin With where I think Jacqueline Left off and and the question that's come forward As you began to speak about the res one message and some of the statements of the house of justice is there is a fact Of history I'll speak in canadian context for a minute that religious communities Do not have clean hands to put it bluntly in terms of relations With aboriginal peoples and communities lee meant dr. Brown mentioned the residential schools here in canada where Various church groups played a role in horrendous Abuses and circumstances that only now Are we beginning to become fully aware of as a society collectively? and begin to address and so the question posed which came forward at the end of your presentation, but I open it up to all panelists is is what role Do you see and how do you see the bahá'í community playing? an effective Positive role in Advancing these processes of reconciliation And maybe I'll pose the question first to Jacqueline and then open it up to the other two panelists The bahá'í community itself. I think is not expert And never I don't think should pretend to be expert I think that the teachings of course are perfect And as we are learning to understand application of those teachings Then we set a model And that we influence the communities around us. And so I think that it's actually Very similar to in a sense when I was listening to lee speaking I was thinking The the absence of justice is the pain is the Is mostly what he was, you know in one sense It was the absence of justice and so as we began to understand what two justices And that can only come from understanding And exhibiting our Application of you know, what mr. Dunbar was saying last night turning toward god rather than dwelling in the darkness So, you know, I'm not saying it well, but I think that we have two parts One is to model it and the other is to engage in public discourse to share What we do well that the fact that we're learning not that we know it yet, but that We know what's right because it's in the writings. We know that if all people are equal then obviously justice would follow I mean in this one case. I think that The other piece of that is where there are many indian bahá'ís or Where there are many bahá'ís together that they already Influence the very atmosphere they influence the very society they have this Spiritual impact and I think both things. I mean I it's all part of one. It's not two things So, um, I don't think it's a simple it is a very simple straight path But how we do it on a day-to-day basis is not Really, I don't think anybody knows precisely how we do it. We we learn as we go and that's what we're doing right now That's my perspective and as I said at the beginning. I don't know anything. I'm just trying to figure it out myself Thank you for the for the question roshan. I think that I would just simply comment on and and say a couple of things one Opportunities such as this In terms of the bahá'í faith inviting other perspectives to come and and sit down and talk is a really important activity To give that recognition in respect to other voices other world views People of other faiths is such a essential and important task to building That one family in the future And I've been it's just been a beautiful part of my life in the last number of years To have had an isa as my wife Who's bahá'í and to get to learn and to know about the bahá'í community, which is truly an astonishing one in so many ways My life history is the opposite of anisas Where I come from a deeply A deep rootedness in place Where I grew up on a reserve in a place where My people have lived for thousands of years And So we have a very Deep sense of community there It's always a you know, it's like everyone knows that we're related to each other and go You know a hundred miles down the island and we're still related to everybody So we're really Located in a in a certain way and Anisa Came we met in law school. She came and was an exchange student from a australian law school And I came to learn about her the the nature of her life And I found it very uprooted From her persian family and the experiences that she's had there as coming from The persian bahá'í community of diaspora Likewise from her kriya and matee side And I found it to be utterly different from my experience being displaced in the world from iran to Other parts of the the middle east to africa to canada to the solemn islands to australia But I want you to know one of the things that i've just been utterly moved by is Even with all of that historical diaspora and that experience of being displaced That the bahá'í community has an astonishing Um sense of community Throughout the world. It's really Meant something to me to get to learn that and that experience that that actual Living life as one family that when anis and I travel around the world that we know people with real connections to each other Whether we're in vancouver or back east or in australia Or up north Anisa has connections real meaningful connections to other people in those places through the bahá'í community and that is something else And I just wanted to also just say You know how amazing it was to be at the naru celebrations in the nimo earlier this year when anis and I arrived And we were asked to participate by temerra martella and others in that event And how just beautiful it was to walk into a room and to be recognized and respected in that way honored in that way to participate So even though you know the history that you refer to roshan in canada Of faiths and the indigenous peoples of this world has not always been a good one In my own experience growing up By my grandmother uh ellen white qualossal what she's always taken the view That all of the different faiths in the world are aimed at the same thing. They're all trying to find The proper relationship with the creator with god And so she embraces catholicism. She sings in the choir. She embraces the united church. She embraces the bahá'í faith She embraces all of them And um, that's something that's really resonated between me and my lived experience and and the bahá'í faith So I just wanted to add that just To to that question. Thank you What a sad thing it would be I've often thought The bahá'í faith Like the other religions that come to this land became another oppressor of native people another herd of another place of hurt for native people And I I think that there there's a danger of that I think it could be and I think you know some hurt has already occurred But I really liked what hooper said last night that we have to focus on uh Our own personal radiance And we have to realize what the peacemaker said when he brought the the government to the Iroquois people He said though though we only have one power to transform people and that's teachings and as chief Doug White says The bahá'ís have been given up incredibly powerful teachings But but we have to acknowledge these These things that I was mentioning in my talk For the hurt not to occur with the bahá'ís as well And to realize that there are communities of Very advanced knowledgeable people very deep and spiritual people That that are here in this land And that the reaction with them must be respectful and and it is a struggle because As Deloria said when you're going to a community just like myself when I go into a different tribal community If I don't know their customs I Uh have to learn them and I have to apologize for my ignorance And um So I quickly found out when I moved to the This territory here that some of the customs here are Are a little bit different than what I learned earlier in life and um And so we're all in the same boat But the important thing is to is to be respectful and to look at the teachings and to work at our own personal Healing and develop our own personal radiance Uh thank you for those answers I should note that chief white you may have identified the foundation of reconciliation between iranians and indigenous peoples because Just as all indigenous peoples are related. So are all iranians Cousins or fifth cousins So uh, so we've taken a major step forward here today Um the the second question that's come forward. I think lee you dr. Brown you already started Pick answering it But the question that was asked was we we just asked a question about the community The question that was asked is An individual has asked What should an individual do to be an agent? of reconciliation so any volunteers to start on That challenging question you go ahead I think it goes back to what shane said When he spoke this morning as We need to become friends We need to get to know each other and and we don't know each other really and um You know dr. Jordan said that for us to truly know each other is for us to truly understand our values and um, we don't know each other's values and and um You can read that on shane's behalf And so I think that we we need to take the time to really become friends and and get to know each other and To be in each other's homes You know in Vernon, british columbia where my children live they each have two birthday parties Because there's a number of children they go to school with in town that would never come to our house Under any circumstances whatsoever Their parents would never let them Visit us So my children have a birthday party in town. They have a birthday party on the reserve You know and and um, we need to go in each other's homes We need to get to know each other You know, I just want to add during the civil rights movement in the united states in the um Well, especially in the 60s when it got really hot and blood was running in the streets Uh There were people who when buildings are being burned in detroit some of the the um stores were left untouched and then later When we we I was on a national board of the largest and oldest women's organization and the world actually that in the united states too And we're the whole purpose of ours. Our organization is social justice and one of the things we did was survey People in the country who had engaged in civil rights Then and subsequently in almost 95 percent of the cases that was precisely what lea just said is because they knew somebody personally And they had you know, whether they they made a mistake and uh, you know in in social Mores or whatever along the way was irrelevant What really mattered was that they had actually known someone and so to know it's to love And I think then, you know, when we individually Think about what our job is, you know As a society as a group of people that you know, you are the stars and they haven't of understanding But that comes down to the individual as well. And so we won't have any power unless our own Inner, you know our own inner conditions Our own our own behavior and character matches that Then any effort will be powerless. And so really I guess it's starting Starting there and then moving outward, but I you know, I couldn't agree more that Knowing people is is essential Even if you know, even if you know a little bit about the faith even if you know a little bit about them You'll have an impact. I would add as well simply the fact that Make sure as an individual As a parent that you raise up your children in the best and strongest possible way I was going to share with you. There was not enough time, but I wanted to share One of the stories that my grandmother tells one of our traditional stories and it illuminates the importance of raising strong children Making sure that we make every effort to raise up beautiful human beings That's a real important task in our lives and each individual lives as as you all know, and I think that's one of the most profound opportunities that we have As individuals in the world is to make sure that our children grow up knowing who they are Having a strong value system And and being good human beings I would just simply add that We had thank you. We had an answer also come From the floor to this question. Shane point brought it up. He writes teachings Without application are in fact empty knowledge Action is the essence of reconciliation So we've we've heard about purity of heart sincerity of motive acquisition of knowledge of one another and then translating it into action as the the elements of the individual agency for reconciliation I'm just one more question. I know it's been a very full morning, but one more question That has been raised and come up and it was touched on in in dr. Brown's presentation And then in all three presentations, we heard stories of of history of personal histories personal journeys But the question that has come forward is Is the role of history in achieving and advancing reconciliation And part of the underpinning of the question that I see is it is not uncommon to hear stated Which is quite contrary to The presentations this morning that reconciliation means Just putting the past behind us Things happened Okay, let's just get on with doing something new This is a very common Response in the public imagination It's a very common Way of talking that we hear I think quite frequently And so the question is is goes to what is the role of acknowledging understanding Becoming aware of that history in achieving reconciliation and then going back to the comments We opened with this morning the relationship between history and healing and reconciliation so any takers volunteers Jacqueline the um You know, I think I think I think I don't know You know, I've said that a few times right But my thought is that history is is really important in that it tells you where we were And you know, I personally love history. It was my you know when I went to college It was my minor and I probably since then has become my major. I love any historical book and and especially about Well, it provides a context But we don't that history itself is so incomplete because it's only what people take, you know When it's beyond just a few very short years and I was thinking about the massacre at wounded knee And how important is it to know that? Well, it probably is important because it tells us something about what caused You know where the pain was and in the and the injustice but What I didn't know in most of my life Even though I'm from that area was that at the same time that the massacre at wounded knee happened There were many many letters people Pioneers settlers in the territory who wrote to the president of the government Saying that it was an atrocity and it was shameful that it had happened And that they had lived side by side by these people who had been killed And even though the people had been hungry. They had not stolen from them And and history common history doesn't tell us that part and so I'm I'm also leery when I read history that that we don't know everything or we don't know at all and But still I think I think context is helpful. I think that But it isn't everything I think that we have to get past the you know past the dwelling on what didn't happen Or that what what happened that was unjust At some point and say and really focus all that energy into turning toward the light And so, you know, what what else is is noble in in the history may be a piece of that, but I'm not sure So that's just this is my first thoughts We we began this morning with a chant from my uncle That invoked and asked for our ancestors to be with us today this morning And It's their voice their experience That has been left out of the official histories of canada for so long And in terms of coming to a just and strong reconciliation today Between indigenous peoples and canada Giving a voice to those ancestors is an absolute essential component We cannot move forward without giving recognition to the sacrifices that they've made to the work that they did To their sufferings and to their their beauty And one of the stories I told in my presentation I had to do with the the great um power that the state takes for itself in terms of telling official histories The profoundly powerful apparatus that it has to enforce that view of history That denies the voice And that denies the contribution of my people and those ancestors that are here with us today In terms of authorship of that history authority over that history when the The judge in the courtroom the magistrate and the prosecutor could stand there and refute That there ever was a reconciliation between the snanemoch and the crown illuminates very clearly the the importance of history in in settling the matters between us and building strong relationships and so I think I've always Thought that history is an absolutely critical component of what we're doing That our focus on the past and where we've been is essential Giving recognition and respect to where we come from Has to be at the foundation of of where we're going You know one day I was working in my uh art studio and my daughter Julie came home from school when she was in third grade She said dad guess what? I said what my girl She said You're wrong I said what do you mean I'm wrong? She said you said we were placed in this land by the great spirit creator of all good things at the beginning of this time I said yes no I learned a day in school that we walked over here from asia only 2000 years ago I said my girl that's that's just what the teacher says We believe that no dad the teacher said and that's what they teach in the province of british cambia They don't 10 years later. I found myself at a meeting of nady parents With the principal of the high school in vernon He asked each nady parent what they'd like to see in the school and I said, you know, I'm not from here I'm from somewhere else, but my children are members of the okanagan band and I was would really like to see the okanagan version Of how okanagan people came about taught in the school This is the okanagan territory And the principal looked at me and said Dr. Brown, I don't think we're ready for that I said well, how can I help you get ready? What do you need? It's about whose story gets to be told and whose stories believed When I was at the michael leach's house chief michael leach This a couple months ago on that at the annual gathering this year and there was a visiting shaman from mongolia And when they introduced him as being a tribal person from mongolia, I said hey You're from here Because I had already been told he was an anthropologist A mongolian anthropologist. I thought this is gotta be cool I said what he says what do you mean? I said well a long time ago the bearing straight was frozen over and we walked over there Oh, no, no, he said Some of our people walked over here I said well, how do you know was there a sign like was a one-way street or what? I mean why would anthropologists assume people only walked one way? I believe I believe people did walk over here from Siberia and and when they did there were native people here to meet them You know, and I believe that we went that way and some of our people are over there today And I think I think when genetics as it develops a lot of people are going to be surprised And who's from where and and and who's what but There's just such an incredible misunderstanding the fact is That if you come to a naive community with any degree of respect at all You're going to be head and shoulders ahead of what most people have come with Oh, there's such a lack of knowledge about us This actually happened a couple months ago at the university one of the asian people I work with approached me and said hey, I seen an Indian On Broadway the government gave him a new truck I said well, how do you know that? Well, he had a new truck Well, how do you know he didn't work in bystruck? Well, you guys don't work to you But the government gives you everything don't they? That's what this man believed I said brother, don't you see me working with you here every day. I come in at night o'clock. I go home at five He said yeah, but you're an exception you want to work This is what's out there. I mean this is not extreme. This is the ignorance that is there We need to educate ourselves about each other and The um Yeah, that's that's I forgot my last story Thank you, you know one of the One of the as the old man's club kicking in the one of the One of the themes that in this very rich morning that we've had as I was reflecting on these questions and these comments Is what we have heard Said in numerous different ways from different learned perspectives and insights Our reflections on the significance importance and processes of knowing of loving and of doing And the relationship between those three Things now those three Aspects knowledge love and will are of course in the Baha'i teachings The essential aspects of our spiritual nature itself They are you know, we say in our prayers every day. It's almost noon. I bear witness Oh my god that thou has created me to know thee And to worship thee love I testify at this moment to my powerlessness and to their might to my poverty and to thy wealth That's testifying the action every day Baha'is all over the world beseech God to give us strength to integrate Develop nurture those three Capacities and what we've heard this morning are most brilliant and personal and stories and reflections On the dynamics of meeting that spiritual challenge individually collectively as a community as communities coming together So I would ask you all to once again, thank our three panelists for the tremendous morning that they've shared with us