 Welcome everyone to our marking of 20 years of spirited action for justice. I would like to begin before we begin to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the traditional territories of the indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. We thank them for allowing us to meet and learn together on their territories. I acknowledge the original caretakers of this land on which I am, the Huron-Wendat, Patun, Seneca, Mississaugas of the Credit Indigenous Peoples. And across this land I acknowledge the Cree, the Métis, the Dene, the Soto and Anishinaabe, the Dakota and Lakota nations, the Inuit, the Blackfoot, the Inuit and all nations that came before us and those yet to become. Honoring strength and struggle, wisdom and grief, we acknowledge and pay respects to the indigenous nations and the ancestors of this land. We affirm our relationship to each other and to the land. So welcome to the Kairos Gathering, 20 years of spirited action for justice. We are so glad you are all here. What a testament to the work and the community that has grown over the past 20 years. And I'm welcoming you to the opening plenary, but it's not actually the first session. Kairos 20 Gathering began on Sunday already with an event called We Are Unstoppable. That event had storytelling, art, music, action. We signed a petition advocating for justice in Guatemala, and you might want to sign too. That's going to drop that link in the chat. It's an event that built links across the country and around the world. We have more of that to do today. To guide us through each of the plenary sessions this week, I'll call on Ayesha Francis. Perhaps you have read about Ayesha, the new executive director at Kairos, who's been with us since May. This is your chance to meet her, so to speak, here on Zoom. Ayesha will be your host for these three plenary sessions. And so I turn it over to you now, Ayesha. Thank you, Shannon, and good morning everyone. I want to begin by welcoming you as we gather today to celebrate and commemorate 20 years of legacy for Kairos. We have some celebrations today with Barbara Dumont Hill. Barbara Dumont Hill is Algonquin Ashina Beg from the Kitigan Zibi community in Quebec. She has served Kairos in a variety of ways for almost 10 years. Barbara has facilitated well over 100 blanket exercises to many groups and organizations from high schools to federal government departments and the RCMP. She has served for several years as a spirit keeper for Carleton University, Algonquin College, and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, among other organizations. She traveled across Canada as an advisor with the Canadian Department of Justice to witness the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls national inquiry. Barbara's work has inspired her path to honor and empower Indigenous women and youth. Good morning, Barbara, we welcome you. Thank you, Ayesha. What a wonderful way to start the day. Hello, everyone. I hope you're all living your life in a good way. My name is Anishinaabe Kway, Barbara Dumont Hill, and I am a very proud Anishinaabe woman. My name is Barbara Dumont Hill, I am Turtle Plan, and I was born on the Kitigan Zibi Indian Reserve. Congratulations, Kairos, and all you amazing, amazing people. Being around you has certainly inspired me to be a better human being, and I'm always just so amazed with the people at Kairos and everything that you do on a daily basis. Right now, we're getting close to the end of the trout moon here in Algonquin Territory. We're in the trout moon, and we're on that waning side of the full moon. And you know that that trout moon represents love, hope, community, and it represents better times to come. And you know, the water is exactly the right temperature, the best temperature for that spawning of the trout, but it isn't just the water temperature that has to be right. It's the males and the females coming together at the right moment for those, for the growth of the trout and feeding many, many people. The foundation is really important. What is at the bottom of the lakes, the streams, the oceans where the trout would spawn, and that's how adaptable they are. There is trout in salt water as in our freshwater. But that foundation is so important for the growth, and that's like justice. That is like change for better times to come in our country. We have to have the right foundation. And to me, Kairos is definitely the epitome of that, creating the right foundation, not just for themselves, but for people across the world, not here in Canada, but the whole world, across the whole world. And that is being adaptable. It is powerful. It is growth that creates the change and the better times to come. So again, that trout moon, it will soon be done, but I know Kairos's work will not be done that quickly. There is still so much to do. And I think many days when people talk to me and they say there is no racism or there is no injustice, there is no, it's not as bad as it's been made out to be. But they don't know my story. And they don't know the story of thousands of other people here on this land, but also across the world. The many, the much racism, the many injustices that are done on a regular basis, and not only to human beings, but to our earth. And when we are doing injustices to our earth, we are in doing injustice to human beings, and how important it is for us to speak up on behalf of our earth. On behalf of the air, the water. Because we want better things. We want our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to have at the very minimum what we have. But it really should, they should have what our great, great, great, great grandparents had. And unless there is that good change, that cannot happen. So, So Kairos, again, I am so proud to be to be here to have been part of your, of your community for, for, for 10 years, and I hope to be part of it for 10 more. I'd like to start your day in a good way with a Thanksgiving prayer. And it's a prayer we often people, you know, we are grateful when, when we get new, when we get presents when we get a new person new shoes, you know, we think this is the be all end all. But for us, Indigenous, Indigenous people, it was about, about the earth and giving gratitude for all the gifts we were given. And so we'll start with that prayer. So I want to say to McGwych creator for bringing Kairos into our lives, and to give them the strength and courage that they need to carry on with their, with their mission across the world for better life for other for human beings and for our earth. I'm grateful for everyone who is here today to listen to learn to create the good change that needs to happen. I'm grateful today for our grandfather son who shares his life with us each day. And our grandmother moon who lights up our night sky and breaks down our seasons for us. I'm grateful for our sacred Mother Earth, who provides everything we need to live our life in a good way. For the sacred air, the breath of Mino Manado, for the sacred water, the blood of our Mother Earth that quenches our thirst brings life into the world and reminds us that women are sacred. With a wing it, the four-legged, the swimmers, the crawlers, for all the trees, the plants, the roots, the medicines that grow here on Great Turtle Island that have added beauty to our life each day and I've always shared their bounty with us. I'm grateful for all the ancestors who created a good path for us all to follow and those generations of ancestors that we all have a responsibility to leave a good path for. I'm grateful for all the people who live their life in a good way, who have respect for our Mother Earth and for all human beings, even if they are different than you. I ask Creator to touch each one of us today to bless us with wisdom and understanding that we all belong to one Creator. We all have a responsibility to respect all of our creation. So for each one of you and all of these things, I say, Chimikwetch, now let's have a good day of listening and knowing what we need to do to create that change for a better tomorrow for our future generations. Chimikwetch, everyone. Thank you so very much, Barbara. That was wonderful. It was absolutely beautiful and such a warm way to begin our entire sessions of gathering. So thank you so, so, so much. So let's lean into the beginnings of our 20th anniversary. The beauty of this moment is that we are all here. We are taking time to celebrate, reflect and dream. We may further be compelled to act, and I hope be moved to love. There is intention behind our three days that will give opportunity for us to be reminded of our foundation to pay attention to the moment of now, and to envision with hope, a more bountiful tomorrow. I want to take a moment right now to acknowledge and thank all of the Cairo staff. We had a lot of people who are here who will be involved over the next three days. Our staff will be participating. Our staff will be contributing. Our staff will be celebrating and just being a part of the audience. But in the background, they have done brilliant and incredible work for many years to shape and form Cairo's and to bring to life the vision of Cairo's that was embedded in it when it was founded. And they have been planning for a very long time to make this come to pass. And so in this moment, I want to take a minute to celebrate and thank our Cairo staff. We find ourselves in Cairo's a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action. The goal over the next three days is to take this moment to anchor us all with confidence, compassion, courage and conviction to be steadfast in our work and hopeful for the fruit of our labor that is to come. So welcome everyone. We are so excited for what the next three days will be. We're excited for the conversations we are going to have. We're excited for what's going to come out of those conversations because it's never enough for us to share our ideas and share our gifts with one another, but every time we come together it is a moment for us to be inspired. It is a moment for us to be encouraged. It is a moment for us to be enlightened, and it is a moment for us to be supported so that we can go out and do that work. We know the work is never easy, but it is always important. As we come together and as each one of us lives out our purpose and is looking for that fullest fulfillment of our lives, I pray that each and every one of us will get something really concrete and tangible from this gathering. There will be opportunities for networking, so I hope that you'll meet a few new folks as well. And I welcome you all to this Cairo's 20th anniversary event. Thank you for coming to celebrate with us. At this time, I would like to introduce Adriana. Let me just get her. I'm in the wrong spot here, but Adriana on contrasts. She is the artist, a freelance artist who offers graphic recording, design, cultural programming and communications. Cairo's is pleased to have Adriana back for another week after she did beautiful recordings at Global Partners Gathering last year. Adriana is going to explain a little bit about the graphic recording process now. Adriana, welcome. Thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you. I'm calling you from the Anzidid territories of the Mosque and Squamish and Slewa to the First Nations, here by the Coastal Sea, and I'm originally from Colombia. I'm very pleased to be here to be part of this celebration, to listen to the stories that we'll be sharing today. Throughout our time together today and during the upcoming plenaries, I'll be listening to the dialogue and creating a visual record of our time together. I'd like to think of it as a way of capturing some of the energy in the space, planting some seeds and memories for the work that's going to come in the future. So in a moment, I'm going to switch over my camera to the work that I'm doing. So throughout the session, you'll be able to see it unfolding. And because there are so many of us on the call, it'll be little, but if you want to see it larger on the top right corner of the square where my face is right now, there are three dots that you can click on. And you'll see that an option shows up for pinning the image, and that will allow you to be able to see it larger and pin and pin throughout the call to be able to see it. And I will see each other later for a very brief walk through the image as well. Thank you so much. Thank you, Adriana. Okay, let's jump into the plenary for this morning. I'd like to introduce Emily Duggan, who will be our panel moderator. Emily, Emily is a minister in the United Church of Canada, serving a two point charge in Catalone and Louis Berg Cape Breton. She first became involved with Cairo's in 2010, as a member of the movement building circle where she served as a representative of the UCC for five years. In 2019, she participated in the Cairo's Atlanta gathering, and is honored to take part in celebrating 20 years of Cairo's. Good morning, Emily, and welcome. I hand it over to you. Thank you very much. I want to begin by saying that I am joining you all from the unceded territory of the MiGMA people here in Unamagi. And I wanted to welcome everyone and thank you for joining us. It is a true honor to be here with all of you today. The theme of our first plenary session is where we have come from. The panelists and responders represent global partners, indigenous perspectives, and the coalitions that predate Cairo's three very important perspectives coming into Cairo's. They will offer their reflections on the early stages of the movement, which shaped Cairo's today and will also help guide us into the future. I'm so excited to be here among all of you. I can't remember exactly when I was first introduced to Cairo's. I formally became involved in 2010, as mentioned. But I know that whenever the name Cairo's was mentioned in connection with a justice issue or an important social justice issue happening. I had the sense that it meant something important and that this was something I wanted to get behind. In my undergrad, I proudly displayed my tap into it sticker on my water bottle from that campaign. And as I became more involved with the United Church justice work, I felt the significance of the Cairo's movement through, especially through the Cairo's is not going away campaign. And so I'm delighted to be able to enter into this time of reflection and sharing about where we all began. So I want to introduce our first panelist now. My name is Yanez, who is a founding member of an and current president of ASEAN Ecologica, one of the most well known and respected climate justice organizations in Latin America, and also oil watch and oil and oil activities resistance network. So I'm delighted to be here with you today. Thank you very much, Emily. I am going to speak in Spanish. So I don't know if I leave the people to change the channel. Maybe a few seconds. Well, first of all, I would like to thank Cairo's. And all our friends and partners here have given me the opportunity to be a part of these very important conversations. These are not only important because of our, our exchange of ideas that that we will see today. But it is also important because it is the anniversary of an organization such as Cairo's for action ecologica and for other organizations around the world plays a very important role of solidarity and of working together. I would like first to say hello to all of you that are here, all the people that work for Cairo's. And we have been able to work together for 20 years. It is a very interesting situation because from Ecuador with organization action ecologica, we see that the organizations of the north don't always am are not empathetic enough for don't come completely understand the situation in the south. But fortunately with Cairo's, it's the complete opposite. There has always been a very, very intimate relationship. And in all the past that we have taken together. I would like to congratulate you, Cairo's for these 20 years of hard work. It is important that we remember our sister Gloria Chicaisa. She was a sister that we worked with for many years. We miss her, we miss her here and there, and somehow my voice is her vice saying hello to all our brothers and sisters in our country in the countries of the north. She is the one that should be here speaking at this time. I would like to remember three very important moments of our work with Cairo's. They're not just an anecdote, but they show how we have been able to create change, create change in the organization, but also in this dream that we have of creating a better world, better world for us for the people for the for the children for the animals and for the we were remembering with the co-workers of Action Ecologica in the year 2003, 19 years ago with Cairo's. We published a small book. It was a very important book, and it was called No More Luding and Destruction, and we the people of the South are ecological creditors. This book came out in 2003, and it was very important at that time. It was important because Action Ecologica and Cairo's were working together to talk about the environmental debt in the world. It was very symbolic. It was very symbolic that Cairo coming from Canada was coming with together with us to work on this idea. But we were also recognizing that the industrialized countries of the North in this case, Canada, was a country that owed something to other countries such as Ecuador or countries of the South. It's been 19 years, and it was a very important time. I would like to remind you as well of our friend John Dylan. It wouldn't have been possible to walk together without the help of John. I am sure that you all miss him very much and think about him every day. There was another very important moment when Cairo's invited Action Ecologica and a person from the local jungle in Ecuador to come and to meet Alberta and the Tarsans. I remember that one of the events that happened in Canada, they added the slogan of keep the oil in the soil. They added and the Tarsans and the land. This is how Oil Watch incorporated in their requests the need. If we want to think of a better world, not only to leave the oil in the soil in the South, but in the North as well. And at this point, we were referring to the Tarsans. At that time, we met the campaign of Cairo's carbon Sabbath. And there was a document about re-energizing the carbon Sabbath, and we were talking about projects of Cairo's. It was a very important time. At that time, we could see that the proposals of the South, the projects of the South were being supported by projects of the North. They aligned in this project. At that time, and in the years to come, we were very worried. We were worried in Canada on how you were suffering with a government that was very right-wing and that was also taking away many, many rights of civil society. I know that you were suffering many problems with the government, with the Harper government. This is something that we had to support you through. The governments, the right-wing governments, not only happened in the South, but they were also causing many problems in the North. I remember clearly the situation that Cairo's was living at the time. Many years went by and many gatherings as well. In the last 10 years, maybe one of the most important contributions that we were able to do together was with regards to women and extractivism. And I remember in July of 2019, Gloria had a very delicate health and she was invited once more by Cairo's to give a voice in the meeting for the Committee on Human Rights in Canada. Many times she was scared. She was scared even to cough while she was speaking. She was sharing the situation of women in Ecuador and in Latin America with this beautiful work that they were being affected by extractivism, the women. She was able, for example, to see, she was able to see the blanket exercises that took place. And that is how she was able to work with other people from Cairo's and started to think about the possibility of carrying out exercises such as this one in Ecuador. And that's how later on we were able to carry these out when Gloria was still around. All these exchanges were also complemented with visits of brothers and sisters from Cairo's in Ecuador. They visited areas that were affected by mining and by oil and they went to different areas of the jungle to see this. These exchanges between the North and the South and this strategy of exchange has been really powerful. It's been able, it's been able to help us to close, take a close look at what's happening in our countries. We have walked with Cairo's hand in hand. It's not just international cooperation. Exclusively, Cairo's for us has been a sister organization in which we have been able to walk shoulder to shoulder and we have been able to do it for a better world. I am sure that this will continue for 20 more years. As the name says Cairo's Cairo's will always be there and we will always work together at the at the right moments when organizations from North and the South will need it. Congratulations to Cairo's and thank you for everything. And for the memory of our brother, John and our sister Gloria, Accion Ecologica. They are here. They are present. Thank you so much. Thank you, Yvonne, for sharing and offering such a passionate testament to your experience with with Cairo's. I'd like to now introduce our next panelist Priscilla Solomon. She is an Ojibwe member of the Anishinaabeg Nation and a sister of St. Joseph of Sioux St. Marie. She has worked in the Faith and Justice Office of her congregation since 1998. The current focus of her work is reconciliation between people of settler origins and indigenous people. She has been connected in various ways with Cairo's since it began. And I would like to now welcome Priscilla as our next panelist. I'm Bojo Indishnikas Ogimakwe, Indoda Makwa. My spirit name is Ogimakwe and I am from the Bear Clan and my mother is of the Deer Clan. I'm honored and pleased to be a part of this anniversary celebration and grateful for the invitation to reconnect with people that I haven't been in touch with for a while. And it's just good to see these faces again, to see your faces. So my thoughts about my experience in Cairo's and Cairo's itself on this anniversary celebration. It's been a journey. That was the first thought that I had was we've been on a 20-year journey and it's a journey with very significant moments and events. With a lot of Cairo's moments, big ones and little ones. And I share from the perspective of an indigenous person and how indigenous people have been involved in Cairo's and how Cairo's has been involved with indigenous people. I was thinking to it's not just a journey, it's a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is really a journey of faith and we have been people of faith journeying together over these past 20 years. And people of faith journeying even before that in the coalitions. So in an ecumenical way. So as people of faith and a pilgrimage. I was in France in 2011 and I had the opportunity to be on a pilgrimage there. And one of the things that was pointed out was the shell symbol that's on various buildings and places all along the pilgrimage. And pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land or whatever shrine they were traveling to. Would look for this shell symbol. And where the shell symbol was, where they found it, they knew that they were on the right path. And they knew that they would have support, they would have friendship, they would have food, they would have what they would have their needs met. So in many ways that's what this journey with Cairo's has been. There have been many signs and many symbols that tell us we're on the right path. The path that's led by the Spirit, God Spirit. And the path that is one of faith and hope and trust. And certainly that's been called forth from all of us. So in doing that we're living out Christ's call to welcome the stranger. So as I thought about this, looking back into the past, I thought about Cairo's starting off with 11 different coalitions as you know. And one of which was the Aboriginal Rights Coalition. And I recall when when Cairo's has first established there was a real concern on the part of the staff to ensure that none of the members of those 11 coalitions felt left out or felt like their ministry was being left out. And so there was a real effort at the very beginning to make sure that the work that those different groups were doing was incorporated into Cairo's. But it couldn't go on with that many different organizations within the one so there were priorities established and there were about six priorities with with the communications when established as well. Over the years over these 20 years there've been a there's been a lot of restructuring. And it we still have a five different priorities that gather the work of Cairo's. So the priorities may have been renamed or restructured, but the ministry of Cairo's remains. And in that in that journey in that pilgrimage we've been looking for the signposts. So I thought about what are the signposts in the indigenous ministry. And one of them was that right at the very beginning in 2001 or 2002. I was invited by the newly established Cairo staff and to the people that were on staff then were Jennifer Henry and and Sarah Stratton. And they invited me to come to the Cairo's office and do a presentation on indigenous spirituality, because they had no experience of it, and they had no knowledge of it, but they knew that. And that arch was a part of Cairo's and that they wanted to learn more. So, certainly since then much has changed from that lack of awareness from the recognition of a need for awareness to where we are today in these 20 years later. The when the Aboriginal rights when the when Cairo's was established the Aboriginal rights office was in Ottawa, and it remained there. And always as I journeyed through with Cairo's in this time, I, there was a period of time when I felt like the Aboriginal rights was left out, left out of the picture, everything was happening in Toronto, and in some ways that was necessary for the restructuring and the organization that's being centered there. But I realized later that it wasn't as totally left out as it appeared to me. In the restructuring, the Aboriginal rights coalition became the Cairo's indigenous right circle in one of those restructuring. That circle became an important circle in the journey of Cairo's. In 2000, in between 2001 and 2011, I was involved with Cairo's through the CRC. I was a Canadian religious conference the Ontario Cairo's group. And during that time, Ed Bianchi came to Toronto to one of the CRC Cairo's meetings and presented the blanket exercise that raised awareness among the religious members present religious congregations of the need for kind of looking at our history and recognizing that there is not just the one story of how Canada has developed. There's also a whole indigenous perspective to which Barbara made reference this morning, our stories. So that awareness was raised. I also recognized that during that time in 2005, 2006, there was a campaign titled Water, the Sacred Gift, and that's an indigenous perspective. So it wasn't totally absent from Cairo's. And in 2010 and 2011, there was another campaign on the land, our life, indigenous rights, and our common future. So for me, the signs are there that Cairo has been engaged with indigenous peoples, and that engagement has grown over the years. So one of, for me, one of the most significant moments in the relationship was in 2011. I had just been asked by the CRC Ontario group to be the indigenous representative on the Cairo's indigenous rights circle. And following the pattern of ARC, the circle met in various locations across the country, but always in an indigenous community or near an indigenous community. And it was Ontario's time to host it. So I agreed to host it in North Bay. And that meeting in North Bay became for me a turning point in the relationship. The Cairo staff came to the meeting. They had prepared the campaign for the year, and they had prepared a five-year plan. And they came not only as staff and two board members, Paul Garrett and Henriette Thompson, came with Ed, and I don't remember who the other staff members were, but there were some invited guests from some of the other circles as well, because they were wondering how does this Cairo's indigenous rights circle function. It functioned in a somewhat different way from the other circles it seemed. So they all came to the, to North Bay for that meeting. And during the meeting, Cairo's presented the five-year plan and the campaign for the year. But there was real dissatisfaction among the indigenous members of the Cairo's indigenous rights circle. Some unease. So we began a conversation, a discussion at the meeting. And during the discussion, Ray Jones expressed a concern that it felt like the Cairo's indigenous rights circle members were simply being asked to rubber stamp a plan that the staff had prepared. And it wasn't what the indigenous members wanted. We did not want to just rubber stamp somebody else's plan. One of the indigenous members in the circle said very, very strongly. I think it was Harley. He said, we don't want campaigns and programs. We want a relationship. And I think that was the first time that that was really clearly articulated in Cairo's that the indigenous members in Cairo's went a relationship with Cairo's. And after a lot of discussion and conversation, I realized that we were what we were trying to say was needed Cairo's to work with indigenous people, not for us. And that was a real shift in consciousness. That's what the group was expressing. So the it was a Cairo's moment because the staff and the board members present really heard that message and recognized that the change was needed. The the meeting put us on a new path. The small committee was established or created to strategize on how to educate the board and the staff about developing a new kind of partnership relationship with the with the indigenous people. And again, I think it was Paul Gehr's and Henriette for the board members on that committee and Harley Eagle and myself were the indigenous members. Ed Bianchi was staff and Jennifer Henry came at different times as part of staff to do that that work. And we went we met for several months, trying to clarify what was this need and what was the new kind of relationship that we wanted to see developed. And one of the results was that the Cairo's indigenous right circle was invited to present at an annual meeting, what our concerns were and what our approach was. We were our circle members were invited to sit with the other four circle members at at tables to converse with them. And one of the things that happened was that certainly there was an interest in what we were trying to say. But there was also there were also a couple of situations where there was a conversation raised awareness about an unconscious racism that existed among some of the Cairo's members. At the beginning of Cairo's there was no real general awareness of internalized racism or of systemic racism that was being acknowledged in Canada. I think this initiative, this relationship that we were building within Cairo's was helping us to become more aware of that, and certainly to work to overcome it. So a lot of significant changes have happened since that that meeting. That's why I think it was a key moment in Cairo's. The Cairo's itself was very, very engaged in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and doing education, blanket exercises during the education days in each of the locations. It's almost impossible to say how much was accomplished during that period of time in raising awareness within, not only within Cairo's, but within the churches about the need for engagement with Indigenous people and the need for reconciliation. I think another piece that came out of that was the development within Cairo's, and I think Jennifer Henry probably had a lot to do with this, but the board did too, and the staff did, but the development of a sense of allyship. That's working with, not for, and that sense of allyship is much, much stronger today than it was 15 years ago. Or even 10 years ago. I think another difference that I see is that the number of Indigenous faces, the number of Indigenous people that Cairo has engaged as partners in individual events, particularly in the development of the blanket exercise and the leadership in the blanket exercise, that all of those kind of Cairo's moments of inviting one or another Indigenous person enabled people to become aware of the need to shift the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada and peoples of settler origins. To shift us into a better awareness of the need for reconciliation and of paths that we can take to move forward in reconciliation. So, certainly, the work that reconciliation is still very much needed today, and Cairo still has a very strong role in that work. The development of the blanket exercise from before Cairo's right through the history of Cairo's and the significance of the blanket exercise in the Cairo's organization is testament to the desire to change the relationship and to bring about a new reality in this country. So, thank you very much. There were other things that I can't recall at the moment that I was going to say, but thank you. Thank you so much Priscilla for sharing your story and highlighting the importance of that piece of relationship building and where it has brought us through the years to today. I'd like to introduce our next panelist at this time, Lee Cormie. He has been a researcher, teacher, writer, and sometime activist concerning liberation theologies, social justice movements, and church social teachings since the 1970s, connecting with grassroots activism. He is an associate professor emeritus of the Faculty of Theology University of St. Michael's College and the Toronto School of Theology. So, welcome, Lee. First, my deep appreciation for the invitation to participate with you all in remembering this rich past and imagining our future together. I have a confession to make from the beginning and it's only been the need for it has been intensified by my predecessors this morning. And by Barbara in particular and her wonderful prayer of opening, and by Yvonne and her recollection about connection and growing solidarity between Canadian groups, coalitions and kairos, and Ecuadorian groups and organizations. Sheila and her remembering the history of Indigenous people and their involvements in the coalitions and coming forward in kairos and systems that so much has been accomplished. So what happens every time I have an opportunity like this I'm stimulated of course has someone to do with age maybe. Memories to go back far into the past, and then come alive once again in the present. So, I'm limited in my time but I have a lot more to say by way of recounting incidents and events and people and places. I do want to remember in particular, as Yvonne did, John Dylan. And I want to add also John Mahales, both of whom died way before their time, and had already made immense contributions to the journey along the path of the spirit that we're talking about. So these memories echo. And I want to honor them and carry as many of them forward with me as I can in this presentation, but of course I can't. I can't do all of them. So let me just suggest some key moments and defining features of this story as I have experienced it. I'm working with the creation of the coalitions in the 1970s and early 80s. And with the risk of challenging Priscilla, my count of the coalitions is 13 by different definitions maybe some be included and some don't. In any case, they erupted in the 1970s and extra time of extraordinary and fertility creativity fertility. Let me just list them as I have reconstructed the list. The Canada China program, 10 days for global justice. The National Coalition for Economic Justice originally get fly in a church inter-church action for development relief and justice. Originally the inter-church fund for international development plural. The inter-church project on population. Originally originally project north. It has force on churches and corporate responsibility for project closures. The Canada Asia working group, the inter-church committee on human rights in Latin America, the inter-church committee for refugees, the inter-church coalition for Africa. An extraordinary proliferation of initiatives and issues and constituencies and critical discourse is how do we understand the issues that are being addressed. And of creativity and experimentation in organizational format. How do we come together or how do we marshal support for this. And allies and going forward. There were countless successes in the history of these groups. I wish to affirm. In the spirit of facility testimony to the Aboriginal rights. Reflection about the actual. I wish we had more time to talk about the successes. I think. Progressive people, people on the left generally don't talk enough about success. Meanwhile, of course, is the world was changing in other ways. There were huge developments in science and technology. And all kinds of processes and globalization on the way linking world ever more intensely on ever more fronts. In a way we each experienced the world. Leaping ahead again, unfortunately, but meanwhile the same period and starting in the 70s certainly in the 80s at the latest. There was a backlash against these these initiatives and these kinds of movements and organizations. That's written Reagan in the United States Maloney in Canada and fast forwarding to Harper. He's only represented mentioned. There was a project of globalization called globalization or neoliberal globalization talked about the terms by many in Latin America or neoliberal slash neol conservative globalization. Anyway, there was an opposition to these groups and with another agenda for the future of the world. At the same time, the tensions and conflicts in the churches were growing as well. In 1991, for example, in my judgment, the president is a time of glory. The period beginning with the 60s was experienced by the church as a pyros. A special time when major social change towards creative justice was a historical possibility. In his judgment, he said, then 1991, this policy is over. Retrenchment is the order of the day. Fast forward again. So from the early 90s in the sense of a wintertime of social justice activity to the mid and late 1990s when there were so stirring and data resurgent to social movements around the world. Really quite extraordinary. And the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative emerges in this time as a response. Worldwide transition underway. Needed to address in global terms. Both of our ideas are understanding, but also learning. Let me quote from the telephone statement. I wanted to cite the the Jubilee vision statement which was forged in launching the Jubilee initiative and published its beautiful statement. I urge you to find a PDF version of it. It's inspiring and beautiful in many ways. In conclusion of it Christians have not always announced the reign of God without distortion without colonial misinterpretations of others beliefs, especially those of indigenous people without participation in social structures that did not benefit all peoples and the earth. Christian theologies have often justified a vision of infinite. You need to mention growth and development. So destructive to the wider community of life on Earth. We ask ourselves, what would make the Jubilee a true celebration for all the similar Jubilee is a symbol of the new millennium, especially the impoverished the outcast the slaves the disinherited. Celebrations of Jubilee or marking of the year 2000, we should not address yesterday's wrong, seek new approaches to overcoming today's problems and celebrate faith is a commitment to social justice and you cannot possibly know. The ones that do not address do not address those issues, a little more than a gong rooming or a symbol clashing biblical traditional spires of vision to us ourselves are social structures and our earth. There's so much to say about the organizational initiatives and creativity of the Jubilee initiative, which there's not space to do here, but it would be lovely to hear about it. And the lines of the structural change in the restructuring that the service talking about in terms of in the average of rights coalition in particular. So by on the end of the Jubilee initiative. occurred, and the launching the restructuring launching of Kyra's happy. Now, unfortunately, there's no time to talk about this here. Let me ask forward to the to the current situation. So now 20 years later after the birth of Kyra's it's clear that the scope of human agency, or after the scope of some humans is expanding to truly God like scale. And he's really historian. You, you've already coined the term homo deus. God like human to signify the emergence of this new kind of, which we say melded God human being on the face of the earth. Science and technological advances fueling dreams of a new heaven on earth from anti COVID vaccines to nanotech biotech infotech cognitive tech enhanced transhumanities, which are arguably already emerging in many places in the world. Many people, many scientists and tech not technologists envision in the in the near future in a few next three decades, the emergence of post human successor species. Many people might recognize the emergence of the building of lines between science fiction and reality in Canadian after after William Shatner, Captain Kirk or spy Star Trek. His journey from being an actor and acting the science fiction stories to a passenger on a ship that goes to the edge of space. Extraordinary transition from fiction to reality and really incredibly short time and opening up frontiers that are hard to imagine. The final word in the midst of all of this in the last 20 years and certainly today on the way around with extraordinary religious resurgence. It's not that any tradition has the answers to the questions of earlier periods are the questions today, but but the kinds of questions are have been asked before the kinds of issues have been wrestled with before the kinds of resolutions of some of those issues can inspire us today. So, there is a biblical symbol that captures this sensibility. It was important to us in the Jubilee initiative, a symbol of apocalypse. And let me say one source for rethinking this notion of office. John Mohawk a Seneca born to the turtle clan on the cataract city reservation and what's now Western New York State. He was a primary author of a basic call to consciousness. The classic collective work of the homeless on the Grand Council from the mid 1970s on the meaning of traditionalism as a guide to political activism. The apocalypse was not really a myth of the far distant end of the cosmos at the end of time, but some astronomers now talk about as the big crunch. Rather he insisted referring to a particular hoping that the civilization of death and we do. And this story should not be thought of as the fancy, but as a collective memory, the archaeological and geological records show that past civilizations did exist in the desert southwest present US, a did decline and disappear. And the people being reappear. The story is true. So in conclusion, let me say, that's all saying. Some indigenous peoples, especially to see more clearly that the story of resurrection, the birth we move is unfolding again, again in our time. And this time on planetary, perhaps even cosmic scales. And this brings us to the diverse and related communities and movements to our men and rich legacies continue to grow and the capacities to nurture insight, solidarity, hope and faith, which sustains us all against such great. Amen. And thank you very much. Thank you so much for sharing your reflections with us today. So we'll now move to to hearing from our responders as they share their thoughts from what they've heard of our panelists and and lift up any of the important things they want to highlight from this. The first responder we will hear from is Georgine. Kenjane did you tame and I apologize if I pronounced your name incorrectly. She is an economist, she received a master of philosophy in economic science. She is trained on project management, monitoring and evaluation, conflict resolution, gender and human rights, lobby and advocacy. And she is now working as program coordinator with the African Gender and Extractive Alliance woman based in Johannesburg, South Africa. So welcome, Georgine. Thank you very much, Emily. Pleasure and satisfaction being with you as we are all celebrating Kyros 20 years of great work. I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate the staff of Kyros. And we'll also think about John DeLon and also John Mihev and also thinking of Jim Davis with whom we worked for a very long time. So I have listened with great interest and that was really very inspiring. The message and the passionate experience of Johnny, the speaker brought forth during this conversation and also sharing the experience they had at the work they did together with Kyros. What caught my attention, basically, is the fact that we started and that was really very important. They started by pointing out that Kyros, even if it is a moment, a very important moment, Kyros laid a foundation and that was a very strong foundation in the world. We really needed that foundation at least to start addressing these issues of injustices that was prevailing in the world. And what is really very important is that if that foundation wasn't strong, the wind will blow and scatter everything. But if Kyros has resisted 20 years and will and still contemplating more years to come is because the foundation was really very strong. And I was really very much touched with the clear vision and also the vision of change that was at place and basically the world they want to see. What is really very much interesting was also how Kyros wanted basically to achieve that goal and to see that change. They went through, they explore what we will call here and what Yvonne, I also had opportunity to work with, was also sharing with us. Like they looked at the women in extractivism and we know that women in extractivism issues were not brought forward. And when we were speaking about violence against women in the world, that issues wasn't raised. We were seeing the issues of violations on the women's rights basically at the public fierce and when we are also talking about the number of parliamentarians we may have in countries. But Kyros went deep in to look at what we are really talking about injustice and also the ecological debt and also the destruction of ecology or our environment we are suffering today because of that. But they raised their voice with the partner and I was happy when Lee was talking about the allyship together. So Kyros was not speaking on behalf of the marginalized community. Kyros was speaking with the community and bringing their issues forward. From my experience as well, I was coming and we are still coming from the background where and 20 years back with good intention some of our partners in the north were speaking about our issues. But we were never there. We were never given opportunity to say what we are living how we are affected by the injustices we are living and how we are feeling or what could be our vision in changing the world. But Kyros was one of the organization who gave strength, direction and supported communities to bring their issues forward and to speak by themselves. So this was clearly brought forward with our three panelists, like they were invited participants or communities were invited and were speaking on their own behalf. And this was very important because most of our decision making leaders sometimes they are speaking from a very professional room where they do not have understanding of what is happening on the ground. And we also know that NGOs may represent some participants, some communities, but they are not the communities they are not living what communities are living and affected. And this is really very much appreciated and we will continue to stress on that. And Lee pointed it out that even if there are some issues were affecting us and we are coming from a Christian, sorry, effect perspective. Some of us are Christians, and some of us have their own spirituality. The issue of oneness is very much embedded in those spiritualities. And what is also very important was to acknowledge what we are doing wrong and how we can correct it. So we are facing racism, exploitation in the world, but I'm seeing, I'm working with Kairos from the north, not operating as others in the north, not thinking as others in the north, but thinking like us walking with us to bring the change we want to see. And it's also very good. And some of the things Priscilla brought in was really very important, the work of reconciliation. And that work of reconciliation is not only within Kairos, it was also out of Kairos. I worked in the community where I had with the support of Kairos, I had to work with young students and also university, those who are at the universities to work with communities, and you know, to get what we are calling the tools for reconciliation. How can we get rid of violence and open conflict? Because solution of problems is not always, we don't also have to fight when we have issues. Problems gave us opportunity to seek to reconcile and to build and that opportunity was giving to us through the work of Kairos and many young people, many young people and Christian and faith communities in Africa got what they needed through the work of Kairos. I think this is what I got from the brilliant presentation and I will continue to specify and to thank the new staff and team in Kairos to continue in the same direction because a lot is still in our hand. You know COP 20 something is around and things are happening in their own way, but we have our voice and the voice of the majority. We are not the marginalized, but we are the one who will bring the change. Thank you very much, Emily. Thank you, Georgine and especially for that word of encouragement as we as we move forward. I'd like to move on to our second responder Joe Gunn. He grew up in Toronto where he received his BA in political science, followed by an MA from the University of Regina. For seven years Joe worked in Central American refugee camps and then development projects in Nicaragua. Returning to Canada he served for a decade as chair of the Interchurch Committee on Human Rights in Latin America. And has been involved in many coalitions that have that were part of the formation of Kairos and so we'd like to invite Joe to speak now. So anyway, thanks everyone I'm joining you from the unceded and stranded territory of the Algonquin people here in Ottawa. It's a pleasure to be here. I have only a few minutes so I'm going to make five points, which are really in a privileged position to do after listening to such great speakers. And these points can almost be summarized by the people that have spoken before. I think that Yvonne, which is gracias Yvonne por lo que usted nos señaló, not only the great Yvonne for what you said and been mentioned as well by Georgina but also the fact that one of the key things that the establishment of Kairos did was when Kairos was established it was not just bringing any number of coalitions together. It was also looking at what was the particular moment what was the social analysis was what was the ecological analysis what was the ecclesial analysis, and we realized that there was no coalition specifically directed to doing work on environmental analysis. And so the work that Yvonne brought to our mind about the carbon Sabbath work and learning from the global south about how we could be in solidarity greater solidarity with what Georgina called extractivism in the global south. This was this was really key and this was done as we established Kairos 20 years ago. And that story should be written up. It would be a fascinating story to see that, but nonetheless fascinating would be to highlight Priscilla's remarkable story to us. I was one of these fellows who came to work in Ottawa in the, in the mid 90s and became chair of what was called the Aboriginal Rights Coalition. And one of the reasons why Kairos was established when I started work with the Aboriginal Rights Coalition as on the board. It was $25,000 in debt, and in danger of closing. And some of the coalitions were doing very well thank you very much and some weren't. Now if you were to look at Kairos today and the amount of staff and work and participation and so on that happens in. Aboriginal just indigenous justice work today. You see a huge difference from those days. We lived through the time of the Royal Commission and Aboriginal people as it was called their report was called gathering strength, but most of us referred to it as gathering dust. And I think there's a wonderful story that Priscilla alerted us to the shift that Kairos was able to really push among the churches the shift to really take on indigenous rights in a serious and helpful. And a new way, the, the establishment of the Kairos blanket exercise. It happened before Kairos existed but it really developed it didn't, it didn't remain as as a tool from the. We developed it after the, the period of the Royal Commission but it's really so much different and it's course it's indigenous led. So this is a story that could be that could be written up and shared I think in great great detail and and point to many, many. Lessons for us. Georgina also mentioned the, the question of extractivism. When did it, when did our churches and when did our ecumenical organization Kairos really take this seriously. What a terrific story it would be to look at that today. I can remember being on the Kairos board. When we were having a great debate about which delegation we would send to which part of Africa to study extractivism. And you might guess that the, the Roman Catholic people who had developed, you know, had development projects for years and years and places like the Congo and French speaking parts of Africa were suggesting partners there and our Protestant church organizations were also part of the board were suggesting all kinds of other countries where extractivism was rampant. And this conversation and debate we're on about where should we go and where could we have impact. And I made the fateful suggestion that we might look at Northern Alberta, before we send a delegation overseas, and we may have rude the day because of the response of the, the Harper government and the whole campaign that that caused Kyro some grief and funding and so on. But all those developments are really, really worthwhile. Georgina raised the issue of not only did Kyros look at extractivism but a gendered analysis of how extractivism was impacting people. And this of course was was not done before Kyros was was was constructed. I want to end with just one final comment. There's so much more to be able to be said. Lee's point of, you know, there's a there's a chapter in a book I produced journeys to justice called where Jennifer Henry reports eloquently on how the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee initiative created the possibility for us to dream of a Kyros because we worked on the debt cancellation campaigns for three years together and 30 people would gather around the table in Toronto, and that even the staff like the two Johns went down to Montreal and talk to colleagues in Quebec. It really set a frame, a new frame for the possibility of Kyros and so the amazing work that Lee was involved in others and three or four volumes of theological reflections at that time are things that you can go back and read as well as Jennifer's to say about that. But to end let me say that the theme of today's conversation is, where have we come from. And I think the answer very generally to that is we've come from traditions of people and traditions of faith communities who are unafraid to change. As people of faith were not museum curators were adventure guides, or should be. So it's not just a question of responding and remembering our past and knowing all the details of these wonderful stories. It's really a question of saying, this is a good way to live out our lives of faith. Post pandemic things are going to be different residential school legacies, the churches and our work is going to be different. Kyros is now in what the former mayor of Calgary called a wet clay moment. We have a chance to mold something new. Once again, such as we had 20 years ago. How are we going to live up to that. David frimer, the wonderful Lutheran leader who was part of the original, the coalitions and then part of the Kyros initial Kyros board talks about public multi faithism, a new ecumenical movement, the need to look at a new theological movement for Canada, and to in this moment of disestablishment of the traditional Christian churches to move actually towards a brand new interfaith way of working in the future, a new way of believing, thinking and acting differently to remove our kind of populist or triumphalist tendencies and to be open. There's one last story I'll share. Two months ago, we had a lovely 1000 people participated with the three commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking at how we could push issues forward in Canada. And one of the commissioners was asked, how do you keep faith alive? How do you keep hope alive? And she said the point of this is to realize that this work changes all of us. So I want to thank everybody who's participating in this, in this call in this zoom meeting, because this work has changed all of us in many ways. And those experiences are worth sharing and holding dear. Thank you. Thank you so much for for those concluding words. I think that that wrapped up this this time that we've had together really, really well. I know that so many of you could continue to share your stories and I would love to hear more. It's really inspiring to listen to each voice that has been offered today. And I know I feel very enriched by hearing these connections and a sense of grounding in the work that has been done. And I think that grounding is what holds us and what what gives us strength as we move forward. So thank you, everyone. And it was an honor to be with you and to share in this time today. So I'd like to pass things back over to Aisha for the next the next portion. Thank you so very much. What a wonderful introduction to this 20th anniversary. I am going to invite Adriana to come back to the stage and share with us what she has been creating during this time. Thanks so much. I'm going to, I'm going to share my screen. I began with this image of working together over 20 years and maybe even before, maybe the, the stories and the, the connections that made possible for Kairos to begin as an organization. And the image radiates from the middle but it also, I see it as coming from all the edges from all around the world to that center image of the connection that that brings us all here today to this celebration. On the left side with the feather, just a reminder of some of the words that Barbara shared with us around the importance of love, hope and community of coming together at the right time, the Kairos time. And the work that drives or the force that drives this work around the desire for justice and dignity for all beings around the world. So moving beyond centering humans into understanding our interconnection as members of this large ecosystem and this planet. And also, the reminder that this is an ongoing journey, that it is something that will continue beyond, beyond, and it dribbles out. And also the invitation of both recognizing and celebrating the successes. Recognizing the challenges and renewing the commitment to justice. And Georgine invited us to think about the strong foundation that has allowed this work to be there and celebrate that because it is what will allow what comes after. And I am going to have to also the words around living faith and afraid of change knowing that change is part of the transformation and change is part of what keeps us what keeps work relevant. And also uplifting Priscilla's words around the importance of self reflection of of not being afraid of speaking about the things that need to change within organizations within working relationships and within structures by by being able to address those those things that are not fully working and knowing that renewal needs to happen is what keeps things moving forward. And, and I've lifting some of you on it won't, it won't works for me. It is always been essential as an immigrant to do not lose sight of the connection between North and South, and that is something that I have left a lot of other work that Kairos does the respect and bringing forward the voices of people from around the world that Georgine also made reference to and and realizing that as a global community we are interconnected and so what happens here or the impact of the actions of countries that have been being developed in what is called, I think a bit wrongly the developing world, those connections and recognizing the impact. It's essential in in in also that fight for justice. This drawing is still kind of in the works, I'll be adding more details and fixing up some of the writing, but, but I hope is very useful in in in what is to come and I'm super excited to to join tomorrow to to be part of the next conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you very much Adriana that is wonderful. And so what a what a morning. This has been absolutely incredible and I think that what we are seeing what we heard today was a lot about the foundation, the framework and the fruit of Kairos to this moment, you know, we had a wonderful journey of understanding where Kairos came from and how it was established and why this work is so important and all of those people who have been a part of Kairos and so there are so many people to thank and to congratulate for the work and for where we are now celebrating 20 years. I wanted to thank all of the panelists who spoke today and the responders, and the moderator thank you so much for what you brought today and for launching our 20th anniversary celebrations and gathering. And I look forward for us to consider and I look forward to day two, and day three where we get to talk about now, what is happening now because the reality is that we are living in a very different world, we are going through a few different challenges as we respond to that what are we facing now and how are we responding to the work in this moment. And then on day three the opportunity for us to envision, how do we continue this work as some of our panelists suggested this morning there's some really phenomenal ways of doing the work, but then also a need for us to consider what is new, and what is innovative, and what is different about how we approach the work. Thank you to all of you who have joined us today. I believe truly that Kairos is the realization of our shared values and commitment. And that is an incredibly, incredibly powerful mechanism or causative agent for change and we see that we see that it's happened and we see that it will continue to happen. Kairos is committed. And we invite you to remain committed in our collective work for human rights and ecological justice, and one of the ways that that can happen is by participating with us in the way of being a monthly donor. The team will share more information about this through all of the different channels of communication that will be coming out. So, if you are interested, please be a part of the work that we're doing in all of the possible ways that you can be. And so we thank you for being here. We are so incredibly honored to be celebrating this 20th anniversary moment with all of you. And thank you again for joining us. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.