 Welcome to our virtual information potluck. So we're all going to throw some information into the center and then we'll be able to have a bit of discussion and Q&A at the end. If you also wanted to have your supper on the side, that's entirely up to you. So welcome to the Kairos Prairies North information potluck. Just thought I would mention that an opportunity for folks across Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories to connect with the issues in that area and to just get to know one another a little bit better. So given that I am not in that area, my name is Shannon Neufelt and I'm part of the National Staff of Kairos. I have asked one of the many other folks who are on the call from the Prairies North region to do our land acknowledgement. So Javit, would you do the land acknowledgement please. Yeah, thanks Shannon. Good evening everyone. I'm honored to be providing a land acknowledgement today. I find that that land acknowledgments can unfortunately often be quite formulaic and lack much meaning so you know I challenge you tonight as I acknowledge the land that I am on to reflect on where you are and what it means to be on the land, you are on. I've written this land acknowledgement as a personal reflection, but I hope all of you can find some resonance in my words. So as a settler in Edmonton, Alberta, I have the privileges and responsibilities associated with living in treaty six territory. I acknowledge that the land I live, work, worship and relate on his land that indigenous peoples have lived on since time immemorial. And that was generously shared with my ancestors and with me. I acknowledge that although treaty was entered into with the expectation of relations that would be mutually beneficial. In fact, Canada has dispossessed indigenous peoples and continues to do so today. For this I acknowledge my responsibility both as an individual and as a member of the settler collective. I commit to working to change that and restore the spirit and intent of treaty relations. Thank you. Thank you so much Java. And I also want to acknowledge that today is Earth Day. So happy Earth Day everyone. And I was part of an Earth Day celebration earlier today, and I just wanted to let you know about it in case you hadn't heard. The virus is part of another initiative called for the love of creation. And that initiative started on Earth Day a year ago and celebrated today in the middle of the day with time to reflect on our favorite places the places we love that will be the inspiration for us to protect the earth. And I also spent some time in some advocacy and action. And so I thought I would just share with you that campaign in case anyone hasn't heard about it yet. And if you're interested, I'd invite you to for the love of creation, and there is their campaign page. So an opportunity, three letters to various federal ministers that talk about the need for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but also in tandem with reconciliation, and with recognition of the situation that our use of energy has put on the global south. So three different letters there that are laid out for you to be able to sign and send to the ministers and your local MPs. If you're interested in doing something on Earth Day or in Earth Week, and carried forward even longer than that. So with that in mind, we also have sort of ordered our agenda today with the various speakers who are going to share to start with some environmental initiatives and concerns. So I would like to invite Myron Rogal to tell us a little bit about communities inspired for environmental action. So I'll invite you Myron to just if you want to introduce yourself a little bit more, and to tell us about those initiatives. Myron. Thank you very much, Janet. So my name is Myron Rogal. I live here in the Diocese of Saskatoon, a 26 territory and traditional homeland of the Métis people. And I work for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon in coordinating the Office of Justice and Peace. So I just want to say before I begin that I live in a rural area, and my internet on a windy day, I kind of act stuff so hopefully you're able to make your own presentation. So communities inspired for environmental action is the local chapter of faith in the common good that supports religious communities, spiritual groups of all backgrounds to take collective action in creating more sustainable community. So this, we began as a Catholic initiative we ventured into the ecumenical realm and now we've been two years working as an interfaith body. So on March 11, perhaps like some of you on this call, we took part in the day of global climate action. So there were over 400 communities around the world that took part in this day. And our particular focus was on small modular nuclear reactors, which will become our focus for the next few months at least going forward, or SMNRs as I'll refer to them from here on in. So I just wanted to offer a quick snapshot of why we have some concerns and what might be some alternatives to what's being offered right now in different parts of Canada. So firstly, what are they so the big difference between what you might see in Ontario or the United States and the traditional reactors would be size so both size in terms of energy output and the physical dimensions of the plant itself. So these new smaller reactors, newer smaller reactors produce a maximum of 20 megawatts. The ones that are being looked at in Saskatchewan will produce a maximum of 13. So physically the parts from the entire reactor can be created offsite, transported by ship, sorry, or train, and hence the term modular. So a little bit about what what their record is so in 2019 we know that the governments of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario came together to sign a memorandum of understanding. And that was to further look at the development of these reactors so that has progressed quite quickly. And since that time, Alberta has joined in just earlier this month actually. And so the, the only small modular nuclear reactors that we are aware from the world today in operation on land are in China and North Korea, where we don't have any safety records and they haven't been made public. So the SMNRs that are situated elsewhere are located on boats or docks on ports which are mostly distant from human populations or at least relatively so. And their safety records are acceptable in terms of what you would compare them to in other industries. Yet the problem remains, what is going to happen with the waste? And so this is a tremendous challenge. And so what is being tried to be accomplished through these small modular nuclear reactors? So one goal is that they in Canada we know that anything that does not produce carbon is considered green. So many see these as or some see these I should say as a gateway to community technology. So they claim to be a cheaper source of potential power as well for many northern or isolated communities when really there's no more expensive way of producing power. But we're also told that Saskatchewan uranium could be used in helping our local economy to help fuel these reactors. However, that uranium would have had to go through such an expensive refining process that the economics of it would not be sustainable. Which would mean we would have to import uranium from other countries where there's a higher likelihood of unethical mining practices. And then of course there's a risk of transport that we know enough about from oil already. But what are some of the negatives? So the waste reduction sites are being proposed right now in Saskatchewan are very near to indigenous communities and as well communities that are economically desperate. So in south with eastern Saskatchewan the community is as to that who's being phased out of coal is a site where there's a proposed site for one of these dumping grounds for this waste which will come out of these reactors. So it's interesting that this waste will not be dumped in downtown Saskatoon or Toronto. So there's a little bit of an inequity here and that the urban populations will be receiving much of the gain while not bearing or sharing any of the risks. So a key question to ask is why why we are looking to be getting pigs in the same category as China and South South Korea in this realm. Another key question to ask which may bring some people on board from various political stripes is the cost of cells and the cost is astronomical and could be a deterrent. So when you're looking at $300 million per piece plus $7 million per year for fuel and that fuel needs to be changed out every seven to 10 years. The reactors themselves have a life span of 30 years. So there's much to be asked about what happens to those sites afterwards. And as well as the of course the consultation with indigenous people throughout the process which is its own category that I won't speak to really tonight. Another huge red flag is the financing of these. So we know that Wall Street and Bay Street have avoided investing in these type of reactors anywhere in the western world because of their potential for low return or even loss. So the best for companies are now trying to rally around the governments, which happened to be here in Canada and in defense maybe some defense of these governments. I think what they are doing is that for many years of neglecting the climate reality they're simply grasping at straws and so they're looking for a solution. So what is the alternative so perhaps the biggest distraction is that this would take us further away from investing in renewables that have the potential of democratizing democratizing our energy grid and saving the planet as well as our gas. So the financial cost of renewables is rapidly decreasing, while the life span and efficiency continues to increase. At the same time, however, the cost of SM and ours continues to increase and at best they can be viewed as a very expensive and risky way to slightly reduce greenhouse gas. So perhaps I can share a little bit more about the actions that we're taking in the chat, but thank you for listening and allowing me to share today. Thank you very much, Myron. And we will hopefully have a little bit of time for some questions and answers at the end of all of the presentations. So, we will invite you to make note of your questions and and just to hold them until the end. Next, in our potluck of information, we are going to hear from Trevor Harriet, who will talk a little bit about ecological justice issues and decolonization and more. So, Trevor, if you are ready. Thanks, I live in Regina. I live in the traditional territory of the Neheau, Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, and Nishinaabe people in the homeland of the Metis in the city where we just managed to get rid of the statue of Johnny McDonald and we're working on changing the name of Dutney Street. And with a quote from a writer named Nyla Burton, who was writing in the online journal Vice, she says, if the people who have managed the land for 10s of thousands of years, no longer have full access to that biocultural knowledge. And the land is being exploited by people with no understanding of where they are or for that matter who they are. Disaster is inevitable. So as we know, indigenous peoples make up around 5% of the global population, and they occupy, own or manage an estimated 20 to 25% of the Earth's land surface. In that land area holds approximately 80% though of the planet's biodiversity, intersecting with about 40% of all terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes. So that's a lot of figures, but what it means is indigenous people are doing a good job of looking after the land. Okay. But here in the Prairie provinces and certainly where I live, our native grasslands are among the most endangered and least protected ecosystems on the planet. And the landscapes that are suffering the most here, and which are at the same time contributing the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions are the very places where colonization policy beginning in the 19th century cleared the land of its first nations and 19 people. 19 people. So this is no coincidence. I think all of our issues around biodiversity loss, water contamination, wetland drainage, the destruction of data prairie and asked in part plan stem from that clearing of the plains. Cultural settlement, oil and gas development continue to drive the pace of both biodiversity loss and the prairie regions disproportionate contribution to Canada's overall greenhouse gas emissions. But this is not something that just happened 140 years ago. The clearing of the plains is being maintained today with legal and governance systems that are structurally racist and intentionally exclude indigenous people from access to their traditional lands. Certainly in both Alberta and Saskatchewan conservative governments continue to sell off crown land for private interests in Saskatchewan alone. We are estimating that approximately 1.5 million acres of crown land have been sold in the last 13 years alone. Saskatchewan Southern half is already dominated by private land ownership. It's one of the most privatized landscapes in Canada. And this excludes both indigenous access and any chance of regulating sharing or managing land in ways that would preserve its natural integrity. It's carbon storing capacity and access for indigenous people wanting to pursue traditional cultural practices, hunting, fishing, medicine gathering, for example. So following the murder of Colton Bushy, instead of taking actions to foster trust and better relations between settler farmers and First Nations people, the Saskatchewan government decided this is a good time to introduce stronger trespass law. A law clearly aimed at asserting settler rights to keep indigenous people off all lands that are privately owned or managed. A law that First People's Law Center has argued is very likely unconstitutional. Excluding indigenous people, keeping them off the land and far from the decisions made about how land is to be disposed of, managed and used is a recipe for more ecological disasters to come. I think Kairos has an opportunity to lead people of faith in Canada in supporting indigenous efforts to regain access to their lands and their rights to participate fully in the decisions around how land is used and its resources are shared. To help Canadians see that the natural heritage of this country and its well-being needs to be reconnected to indigenous ways of knowing and of governing the gifts of creation found in our forests, prairies, wetlands, tundra, and ocean. In honour of Earth Day, I'd like to just close by reading a little excerpt from Margaret Bullet Jonas on a book that she published called Love Every Leaf. It's about how we can pray in a time of ecological destruction. She says, how else can we pray about ecocide, about the death that humanity is unleashing upon Mother Earth and upon ourselves? How else can we break through our inertia and despair so that we don't shut down and go numb? I've taken to praying outdoors, she says. I go outside, I feel the good earth beneath my feet and the wind on my face, and I sing to the trees to oak and beach, hemlock and pines, making up the words as music as I go along. I sing my grief to the trees that are going down, my grief for so much more for what we lost and are losing and for what we're likely to lose. I sing my outrage about these beautiful old trees being cut to the roots, their bodies chipped to bits and hauled away to sell. I sing my fury about the predicament we are in as a species. I sing my protest of the political and corporate powers that be that drive forward relentlessly with business as usual, raising forests, drilling for more oil and fracked gas, digging for more coal, expanding pipeline construction and opening up public lands and waters to endless exploitation as if Earth were their private business and they were conducting a liquidation sale. I sing out my shame to the trees, my repentance and apology for the part I have played in the Earth's destruction and for the part my ancestors played when they stole land and chopped down the original forests of the native peoples who lived here. I sing my praise for the beauty of trees and my resolve not to let a day go by, but I don't celebrate the precious living world of which we are so blessed to live apart. Thank you. Thanks, Trevor. And we all talked about that five minutes is not very much time, but I hope you're hearing in people's voices, a bit of what they are passionate about and what you can follow up with them on later in another context or later this evening. And in a slightly different direction, although connected is Sean Sanford Beck, who is going to talk about ecological spirituality and more. Sean. Thanks, Shannon. And thanks to everybody for gathering together tonight. It's really exciting to sort of be reconnecting with Kyros network and Kyros identified and Kyros curious folks being part of the Saskatoon Kyros collective a number of years ago it was a big part of my life. We moved away from the city and moved off grid and sort of in some ways lost some connections with the activist side of life but I'm glad to be to be getting back into that and Kyros is a great way to do it. Really, I was very glad to hear Trevor talk a little bit especially at the end in terms of the need for the need for prayer and just how we're sort of in some ways as we engage with all of these different types of issues were were reminded and called and and in some ways driven to prayer and spirituality. That's a, you know, for many of us who are activists that can be something that sometimes we, we sort of forget about a little bit but anybody who's done activism work for a while knows that to keep to keep strong and to keep the fight going for the roots in the heart and in the spirit. So, I just wanted to say a few words about ecological ecological spirituality. There's many different types of spiritualities that have grown up around social justice movements, and that have fed into social justice movements and grown also grown out of social justice movements that when we move from social justice into eco justice and climate justice and eco feminist forms of engagement there's, there's also an ecological spirituality that sort of informs that there's many different types of spiritualities. For some it can be very traditional Christian or for some indigenous folks very traditional, you know, returning to the traditions of the people that's the spirituality. For others it's it's the new forms of creation care and creation prayer that that come out of maybe some of our evangelical partners. Also different forms of Franciscan spirituality that uphold a lot of a lot of Catholic engagement with ecological questions, but I wanted to tell you a little bit about a new type of well it's not new it's very old but in some ways and a new wish type of spirituality that I've been a part of for a while now. I love it there's when kids are in there. So I wanted to tell you just a little bit about Christian animism. So this is a sort of an idea and a movement that's been growing in different parts of the world there's actually I put some links on in the chat there but there's something called a Christian animist network that's actually growing and so Christian animism. Well, I wrote a book about it a little while ago, few years back, and once this book got published I got this, I got this email from a radical, independent Anabaptist in the UK named Noel Mools and he said, you just wrote about Christian animism he says I'm, I'm writing that book to and so we just started to collaborate and, and he's, he's been getting a fairly big internet based movement going of people exploring this idea of. So the basic sense of Christian animism is that we inhabit a world filled and teaming with a multitude of persons, only some of whom are human. And of course we've been, you know, for those of us with our ears open we've been hearing about this type of spirituality from our indigenous skin for a long time. In terms of trying to understand ourselves and experience ourselves in relation to, to the plant persons to the tree persons to the four legged to the winged people. And for those of us who aren't from an indigenous background, sometimes we've struggled to, to really get the language and the sense of where, how to engage with that perspective and so the work that folks are doing around Christian animism in particular provides us a way to, to, for those of us who aren't indigenous provide begins to provide us with the language where we can enter into a real dialogue with indigenous folks around what it means to be part of a living, a living earth and in right relationship with all types of other persons who are more than human. I'm just going to read you a tiny little bit of this and, and then I commend those some of those links to you if anybody wants to follow up. And actually I can't believe I talked that long I know it happens I'm a preacher so I'm not going to read to you. I'm going to turn it over Shannon's giving me the white, the white flag. So I'll turn it over to others but if anybody wants to talk about Christian animism at another time, feel free to get a hold of me. Thank you. Thanks, Sean. And we also know that we could go to the book to find out some more about it. I'm going to switch that spotlight in a moment. And we are going to hear next from Kathy Cameron and to hear a little bit about the Cairo Regina group. Welcome Kathy, you'll need to unmute. Yes, zoom. Hi everybody. Now I've just lost my. I've lost my I'll have to read off my paper I guess. I'm not going to be as riveting as the other speakers because I'm giving you basically a report so just bear with me. We've been active since September of 2020 we were just kind of getting going and COVID hit, but we did move fairly quickly to our virtual meetings and we've managed to be fairly active so we have a membership of about 30 with about 8 to 10 regular attendees at meetings. We meet monthly. And our convener is Dan beverage. We have, we've been focused on a couple of main areas of concern and then more recently one more so the first area is climate justice and several members participated in the Cairo's Canada fall forum, the five part reduction to for the love of creation last November. And then we hosted organized and hosted a faithful climate conversation launch in February, using the creation climate and new tool and we had good attendance and really good feedback. And a couple of local churches have gone forward with that and now are organized and hosting their own conversations. And next week in April 27 will be participating with an Ontario group in a train the trainer event facilitated by for the love of creation. The workshop will help participants to better use the resources provided by FLC. We're also looking at the FLC advocacy campaign, looking at trying to do advocacy with the FLC goals but work at the local level as well. So we're planning to have a local workshop around how best to do advocacy we've got some local people we're going to connect with. And then the goal is to begin some specific campaigns in the fall. Another area is Regina coalition for public transit, one of our members is very involved in this and has been for some time, and the connection to specifically climate is quite evident so cars for john is looking for ways to support this initiative, which has the goal of increased availability accessibility and use of public transport. Indigenous rights is another concern that that that we've taken up Sandra blank and soft as our convener for that group. And we mostly work with Kairis pray north. So, there were a couple of initiatives done in the fall in November we had a two parts embracing indigenous rights bringing life to the UN declaration for rights of indigenous peoples. Regina members were involved in the planning committee and in the event, and that went very well. And we did a follow up in March called bill C 15 step forward or step back. Over two evenings as well one was a webinar and then the second evening was an opportunity for folks to have some sharing time and a couple of us from Regina were involved in that event as well. Recently, we have a member Larry new fell to brought forward. He's become part of a basic income initiative. And we have some interest in trying to support that even though it doesn't really fit under any of the five main goals of, or pillars of Kyros, although I'm thinking maybe it might fit under prophetic So, Carlos for john is discerning how best to support groups working on this initiative in Regina with the hope to build a local network that impacts local faith communities. And we are exploring a possible education event. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much Kathy. It's great for us to hear all of the good work that is happening with Regina Kyros, and it was a very engaging report, even if it wasn't all your personal passions. Next, another bit of an organizational insight, we'll hear from Amanda Dodge about the work that midnight Central Committee, Saskatchewan does. And I'm going to see what happens if I just replace the spotlight there we go I'm learning something. My face just got a lot bigger. So hi everyone I'm Amanda. I'm a fourth generation settler British origin who was raised on treaty for and spent most of my adult life on treaty six territory. I'm the program director here with MCC Saskatchewan and it's great to see a couple of my colleagues from MCC here, Randy and mark. I'm also a worldwide ministry of Anabaptist churches that does relief development and peace building some Anabaptist more radical than others Sean, although I won't own what how radical we are. Let's do a really quick overview of our programs, the local programs we do here in the province. We have an indigenous neighbors program which creates opportunities for settlers and indigenous peoples to build respectful relationships with one another and as education around race relations and meaningful reconciliation. We have a migration and resettlement program, which works with sponsorship groups to bring dozens of refugees to Saskatchewan every year and supports the resettlement process. They have a peace building program, which partners with local restorative justice organizations and also does training around the effects of trauma and works to address harm and promote healing. We have an education and advocacy program, which facilitates and presents a range of educational workshops that explore the root causes of vulnerability and highlights peace and justice work, as well as promoting awareness and engagement opportunities and MCC advocacy campaigns around human rights. And lastly, we have a community development program, which provides youth programming for youth in the Meadowgreen area who are predominantly indigenous and new and newcomer origin. And so that's a quick overview of our five predominant programs here at MCC Saskatchewan. These strengths lie in many ways. Two that I'd highlight are one, connecting peoples, our work creates opportunities for people to build relationships across divides, and secondly around dismantling oppression through anti oppressive education that meets people where they're at along the theological and knowledge spectrums. So I wanted to highlight a few of our projects that relate to peace and justice. Let's start with our reconciliation themed projects. We have a really cool podcast. It's called reconcile everyday conversations. I put the link in the chat. Through season one, we heard exclusively from constituent settler voices about reconciliation and their engagement in season two, which wrapped this year we heard exclusively from indigenous partners, and they were powerful conversations about grappling with what meaningful reconciliation is and hearing a range of views about that, as well as concrete and personal examples of engagement and reconciliation, which are great inspiration and modeling. There are study guides available for both of these seasons. So it's a great thing to do as an individual but also corporately in groups, churches and organizations. Another project to highlight is called reconciliation ambassadors. This was inspired by the circles of reconciliation model, and it's brought together 12 participants, half or indigenous half or non indigenous, we're coming together learning and debriefing together, and having some hard conversations, as well as developing new friendships. And our first session was this spring, and we plan to do it again in the future. Thirdly, a rural reconciliation project that specifically brought sermons, a series of sermons on reconciliation themes to rural churches. We had follow up sessions on Monday evenings which expanded understandings of realities and equipped people to engage in reconciliation in their communities. I would also name that MCC Saskatchewan, we are proud members of both reconciliation Saskatoon, and the Prairie Rivers reconciliation committee which is a rural reconciliation initiative. And it was great for me to work with Amy a couple years ago on our educational gathering through that committee are reps on these committees are particularly involved in coordinating educational activities. We have a session now from reconciliation in particular to more general addressing discrimination. We have a new workshop called training active bystanders, and this is a new practical skills based workshop where participants learn how to intervene when they're witnessing it explores the inhibitors, the motivators and the effective ways to engage in active bystandership. So that's called training active bystanders and we started doing those workshops and had some great feedback about the practical peace building skills that it, it equips folks with. Lastly on name restorative justice or justice related advocacy in our restorative justice work with partners we've done predominantly capacity building around funding and governance and promoting volunteer opportunities among our constituency. But we've also been able to be involved in some advocacy to federal and provincial governments for changes to the criminal justice system and particularly prisons. Lastly, we've recently been active with this with Saskatchewan's anti racism network. It's just a subcommittee in particular, which is primarily working to build relationships with decision makers in the criminal justice system and providing educational and assessment resources to help them develop a more anti racist culture and address systemic racism in their ranks. Occasionally this group is also doing advocacy directly to policymakers. So those are the highlights that I wanted to share and if you're interested in learning more or partnering with us or hosting any of these presentations or workshops don't hesitate to be in touch. Thanks Amanda. You managed to pack a lot into your five minutes there. So much great work. So next we're going to continue with a bit of a reconciliation theme over the next two speakers and so I'll call on Java to talk about treaties from, sorry, fiscal relations from a treaty perspective. Thanks Shannon and yeah you have a little bit. A little bit of a presentation here that I will go through just some reflections on on Treaty six and relations between settlers and indigenous people so my name is Javid summers very happy to be here. Well I'm going to be talking about treaty six and that's my context that certainly I think my reflections are applicable to to all of the numbered treaties, and that should mean most of us here tonight I think. It's a topic I've been thinking a lot about and and continue to in both an academic and professional context. Hopefully, you'll be able to take something away from from my reflections here tonight. So, just a bit about myself and where I'm coming from with these reflections so I'm a settler born and raised in Canada I was raised in a variety of Christian traditions. I moved to the first Presbyterian church here in Edmonton since 2013. And I've worked for indigenous services Canada since 2014. And as I started my career with that department, I quickly realized that I needed to learn more about colonialism as a contemporary reality and so I headed across the river to the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta to do graduate work there and I completed my masters there in 2019. So the first reflection I want to share tonight is that you know colonial systems are the problem, and we as settlers need to take responsibility for that. I think settlers have been trained to think about indigenous peoples as a problem to be fixed. So my attitude serves the colonial system very well. And it was the mindset I had when I began my studies at the Faculty of Native Studies. I certainly had the idea that I needed to learn how to how to fix the problems at First Nations, and I was ignoring I think the problem of Canada. And what I came to understand is that well indigenous communities might have problems as all communities might. In fact, the problem settlers need to focus on is dismantling the colonial systems we have set up and continue to perpetuate and challenge all of us tonight to think about that both how to dismantle colonial systems, but also how we set up and perpetuate colonialism as settlers. And I think all settlers have this responsibility not just those of us that work for the big bad federal government. I would also suggest that although many of us are ignorant of colonialism and maybe, maybe not so much of those of us here tonight but generally as settlers I think there is a lot of ignorance and, you know, it's not an excuse the settler ignorance serves colonialism well as well and if we don't know we need to learn. My next reflection is on Treaty 6 and really, you know, coming to understand that returning to the spirit and intent of treaty is a critical piece on the prairies of dismantling colonial systems. You know, I think colonialism and treaties are incompatible or at least they should be. So, you know, as I as I furthered my studies I really honed in on Treaty 6 and what that means and I came up with this sort of conclusion regarding the relationships. Treaty 6 was intended to create so Treaty 6 created ongoing dynamic relationships between Canada and adherent First Nations that were intended to ensure mutually beneficial relations in a shared space. And of course we're a long way from that vision today, sadly. So in my thesis and the Shannon introduced it, you know, my thesis was focused on fiscal relationships, which is the area I work in the relationships between Canada and First Nations having to do with funding. But since then I've begun to think about how this vision can be applied at lower levels, such as individuals families religious groups and I think some of this thinking is probably a bit more relevant here tonight in some of the work we're passionate about. And I'd like to leave you, you know, with encouragement to imagine what it might mean to have relations between settlers and indigenous peoples that are mutually beneficial. That are dynamic that exist in shared space that isn't just geographic, although of course geographic but in other ways as well. And, you know, as Sean and Trevor I think sort of talked about, I think we should also reimagine relations as inclusive of land, water and non human beings again as settlers not something we think about often or have been taught but but an important thing to think of treaty relations. And I just would leave you with these questions you know if we were to reimagine relations in this way, how would it impact the way you live the way you relate to others, the way you worship, the way you work, vote, spend money, invest money and so on. So, thanks very much. Thanks, Java for that. Everyone is giving us so much to think about and some little windows into each person as well. Now, next I want to introduce two people, and this was a bit of a journey to meet them and several others who I met along the way are also on this call. Next, we're going to hear from some folks about an initiative called treaty land sharing network. And so thank you to everyone who helped make the connections so that Amy and Mary could be here so I don't know how you're going to present together but Amy, I should have asked how to say your last name. Is that close? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, it's easy. Okay. Yeah. And Mary, my smiley, the happy one. Yep. Okay. So go ahead. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having us. Thank you, Shannon for the introductions. My name is Amy CC poises. I'm originally from the beardies in Oklahoma, this creanation and treaty six territory. I currently reside in Saskatoon, which is in treaty six territory. It's the traditional territory of the Nehiwok and homeland of the Mitchif. I'm the director of public education with the office of the treaty commissioner, and through my role partnered and joined the strategic planning committee with the treaty land sharing network. What we know is that our treaties are the foundational building blocks of Canada and are to be nation to nation agreements that allow based on that spirit and intent of treaty that Javed had mentioned is based on you know mutual benefit mutual respect mutual recognition. And so the work that the treaty land sharing network does supports that spirit and intent. And so I'm going to read to you, the vision of the treaty land sharing network. And it is that indigenous people throughout treaty territories can safely exercise their rights and relationships with land. The mission. The treaty land sharing network is a group of farmers ranchers and other land holders who have come together to begin the crucial work of honoring treaties, and the spirit of sharing the land. We provide safe places for indigenous people to access land and exercise their right. We are committed to implementing the treaty relationship, engaging and ongoing learning together as we practice being treaty people and establishing a different way forward for real to ensure our values are is that indigenous people hold both inherent and treaty rights to move freely throughout their traditional territories, and to use and store the plants and animals in these lands. Access to land is critical for the cultural survivor survival and livelihood of indigenous people as treaty people settlers have a responsibility to share the land we currently stored and to work to actively remove barriers to safe access. It's critical for settlers to engage in ongoing learning together to deepen our practice of the treaty relationship, even when this work requires us to set aside our own ways of doing things, challenge our perceptions and feel uncomfortable. And so I'm going to hand it over to Mary and just going to talk a little bit about some of the highlights that the network has been doing over the past year. Thanks Amy. So I, I and my husband, some of you know Ian McCurry and Mary smiley we farm at blood versus that one which happens to be very close to the border between treaty six and treaty four on highway 11. And we are really thrilled to be part of the treaty land sharing network. And the piece I'm going to share with you is how this how this works in practice. So we are ranchers and farmers and we have put together a network of ranchers and farmers who are interested in practicing treaty by sharing our land as treaty intended. And so that effort has resulted in a partnership with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and Amy, and we have thanks to I got a prop. Thanks to funding from the United Church of Canada. We have these fabulous signs, which farmers and ranchers can post to make it easy for indigenous land users to recognize that this is a place that they are more than welcome to come to just their indigenous rights. So gathering plants, medicines, ceremonial rock, carrying out ceremonies hunting, all that was intended. And so one of the one of the ways I like to speak about this is that this is an elegant, simple, simple, elegant design that belies the complexities underneath. But I wanted to tell you one little story. So thanks to Amy, and the work of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, we were able to host a ceremony, a pipe ceremony and a feast here in my backyard in Bladworth. And the fellow who worked with us said, you know, Mary, you know, you should let the people in Bladworth know this is going on. Unfortunately, my hairdresser had to cancel that week, so she was going to be my mechanism. But I ended up having my neighbor from across the highway come over to pick some raspberries. So I said, Janet, you won't believe what's going on here this weekend. We're having a pipe ceremony and a feast and we're going to be doing some land sharing. And she said, Mary, you know, nobody owns the land. Great. That's great, Janet. So I just want to say that what I think is so brilliant about this is that it creates the opportunity for me to have a conversation with my neighbors about something we all really care about, but we don't know how to practice and we don't know how to get started. So I'm really intrigued with everything I've learned from all of you tonight. And, you know, in particular, Amanda, that you're talking about the conversations we need to have with our neighbors and I know that for the love of creation resource is also talking about how do we have those neighbor to neighbor conversations. Well, the treaty land sharing network is one of the ways that I think, like I don't live in a hotbed of sort of progressive rural Saskatchewan here. I mean, we're in the midst of some pretty terrible, terrible colonial practices that I think this one maybe gives us gives us an opportunity to to change. It was put together as a counterpoint to the Colton Boucher Gerald Stanley mess. And I have high hopes that it at least gives us something to get started with. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mary and Amy to introducing for introducing us to that great initiative. So folks, going to take the spotlights off and we, and all see each other here if those some of those who are listening may want to put your cameras on. And another piece of this event tonight besides hearing from all these fabulous folks and getting to ask a question or two in just a moment is to invite you all to be come more involved in Kyros prairies north. This is a justice movement with social and ecological justice that is based on participation all across the country. And so, for anyone who is in Saskatchewan Alberta or the northwest territories and interested in these topics. You are invited to become part of the coordinating committee for this region for these two provinces and a territory. And so you're all invited. There has been an invitation up on the website for a number of weeks now, and several people have stepped forward, some of them spoke this evening, not all of them, but I thought I would just quickly name them. If you might have that in your head, would you like to work with these folks to coordinate a piece of the justice movement in this region. And those that have stepped forward already are Javid and Amanda. And Sean, who is coming as part of his work at St Andrews College. And also, Kevin, Kevin, do you want to turn on your mic and just say hello. Hi everyone. Do you want me to say anything more. You can maybe say where you are. Yeah, I'm a pastor at Lenderman and I church in Edmonton, and I was helpful in organizing the Kairos prayers north gathering in 2019 in Edmonton that took place at King's University. And we got, we did the, we did a video presentation and a panel discussion on. What's that video called from Saskatchewan. Reserve 107 reserve 107. Yeah, and so I was kind of curious of its connections with the other speakers tonight. But so yeah, I've been a little bit involved but I kind of do it off the side of my desk as a pastor. Thanks very much Kevin. And so these are some of the folks who have agreed to be part of the coordinating committee if anyone else is interested, you can contact me. If anyone else is interested in me that's been emailing you about this event and I can put my email back in the chat as well. But enough about that for, for now, I want to open up the floor and see if there's anyone else who wants to offer something or to ask a question and I see that Marcella has put up her hand so I'm going to start with you. I'm going to add to Amy and Mary's presentation. The treaty land sharing network. Initiated by the National Farmers Union Saskatchewan section. But we have across Canada. Treaty, something program anyway, across Canada and so I'm going to add to that. I'm going to add to that as well. The treaty land sharing network is just for Saskatchewan that says far as I know, so I just wanted, because of the Colton thing, I wanted to say that not all farmers put the position that the Stanley farmers did. So, I was calling on you for your question or comment. I'd like to just comment by letting everybody know something that is happening. Probably most likely an ecological justice type of issue that is happening here in Alberta, primarily in southern Alberta. There are thousands of mountain top removal coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, especially in the Crohn's Nest Pass area there are mines and explorations and leases happening throughout the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, all the way up into the Hinton area. There are a number. My primary engagement in all of this has been through McKillop United Church here in Lethbridge. They have a, they've dedicated a part on their website that has a whole bunch of information about the, we actually had to demonstrate a demonstration, a protest march that we had today. And it ties in very much to some of the political policies that the current government of Alberta has going right now. First they rescinded the policy that allowed for the resurgence of coal mining. And it is actually foreign companies from Australia who have come and started to do the mining. And in my area, I'm not sure what who the owners of the proprietors of the mines are in the northern part of Alberta along the Rocky Mountains. It is of concern, I think to everybody that from this watershed all the way into Manitoba, because that's the way our water will drain out. And the number one concern that we have besides the fact that it is removal of often tops is the contaminants, primarily selenium. That contamination is going to flow down the river. And Alberta has water sharing agreements with Saskatchewan, which eventually is going to flow into it will go as far as the Hudson's Bay. And we have a very active letter writing and we've done a number of webinars with a lot of like minded organizations who've had some very distinguished speakers. We have the Yellowstone to Yukon Foundation, the Yellowstone to Yukon group. There is the Kainai, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Kainai tribe here has a group of First Nations women who have petitioned as interveners all the way to the federal level. And by June, it because of the way of the approvals for resource extraction goes, it has for all intents purposes cleared provincial regulations it is now over into the federal authorities which will be making a decision in June. So go to the website, you'll find a whole bunch of information there. If you have the name of the website or the link that you're able to share with us. That'll help everyone out. Thanks for sharing Wendy. Folks, I realized we have come to the hour we have already had a few people needed to slip away. I want to thank you so much for your attendance here. I did put on the agenda that I circulated to the speakers that we would have an optional lobby time this is maybe modeled after what happens in my church at the end of a service is that it becomes a bit of a free for all. If people want to have some conversation and as you would at the end of an in person meeting, I will stay on for the next maybe we'll see how the conversation goes up to half an hour or so. And if it or and if you have questions of others who stay on we can have a little bit more conversation, but thank you all for coming and this is the end of our formal part of our potluck. So feel free at this point if you want to just unmute yourself say hello to someone or goodbye to someone. Do you have a question for someone who's still here. Hi Shannon. Hello. I got lots of news. I filed a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency. There's a private bus system called Rider Express. I'm a wheelchair user. It's not wheelchair accessible. And the CTA ruled in my favor. Excellent. And they've given them a whole bunch of things to meet that I wouldn't have even dreamt of. That's good for that. But the other thing I wanted to mention was about Indigenous people. When Sue went she had hip surgery. I don't know if I've said this story before. She went to sale the Saskatchewan aides for independent living. And it was a requisition that was given to her by the hospital. To fulfill. So she gave it to the sale and they got all the things. She had a wheelchair, she needed a wheelchair, et cetera. She showed them her health card. It has an R on it. Registered Indian. They took all the stuff back. The Saskatchewan is the only place in Canada that has that. So anyway, she went to Prairie Heart Mobility. Bless their hearts. They were the only good ones. They deal with Ottawa. But what Ottawa sends them is the cheapest. The poorest quality. The least affordable. Let's garbage. So Dan with Prairie Heart Mobility usually sucks it up. But Dan doesn't charge full price. Or something, but anyway, she ended up purchasing her own. What's wrong with that picture? We took their land. We took their land and now we're taking the rest of. To this day, colonialism is so well. Established in Saskatchewan, it's pathetic. We're glad you're here, Terry. Help us be part of. To be with everyone to be dismantling. Yeah, so we've got a meeting next week with the mayor. This is about the third one about. Well, buffalo meadows and buffalo pool. And we want to change that's Trevor was saying. From Dune Avenue. But she doesn't want to call it Buffalo. The mayor says she says it should be called to Tonka. Which is another word for Buffalo, but that's all right. And like there's a street in Regina that was called. South Railway and it was changed. In the seventies, there were no. Nothing was really said about any of it. They changed the name to Saskatchewan Drive. You know, and if they can do that. Realize there's 20, 25, 100 addresses. There are going to be affected. But would you put a Hitler Avenue in a Jewish neighborhood? That's all I have to say. Thanks. You're nothing if not persistent, Terry. So you go, you go. Thank you, Kathy. Thanks, Terry. Thanks for sharing. I never understood that in Saskatchewan, the. The federal presence for healthcare for our indigenous peoples. It's always been a puzzle to me. I don't really understand it. I think that's probably what was happening with that gal. That you were talking about Terry. Yeah. They, as soon as they see the R, they say, oh, that's federal. That's federal. They, we don't, we don't have to deal with you. And it's, it's creates a lot of problems. And did you say Saskatchewan is the only place that has that? I sure did. Wow. And folks should know that there is something called Jordan's principle. That. Because it, it was based on a child, Jordan. Who died. Never having been able to go home with home care because the governments couldn't decide who, who would pay for it. Should it be provincial? Should it be federal? And so the, the principle is. That the patient gets the care first. And they argue about the bills later. So Jordan's principle, if you, your friends, your community come up against that where they're not. They're not agreeing to give care because someone else should pay for it. But I think it's important to know that, that they, the decisions have been upheld in the courts that the patients should receive care. And the governments can argue about the bills later. But then I thought that was only for you. I don't know if I know the details, but. Yeah. That'd be something to look up. It would be, it would be a hard thing to argue though. Any of it's a hard thing to argue. I think I think you, you know, you probably could apply it and take it to court. Anyway, yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Cecil, you wanted to jump in the conversation. Yes, it's kind of back to the treaty land sharing. And somebody mentioned that it started within the national farmers union. So I was wondering if there's any initiatives happening, for instance, in Alberta or not, or how that could get started. Valerie. Are you, are you going to ever speak to that? I can speak to that. Apologies for my interruption earlier. I didn't realize my. Mike was off. I don't know how much of the diaper change is married. Yeah. It wasn't actually started within the national farmers union, although a lot of the members are members of the national farmers. And I'm actually keeping a list of. Albertans who have asked that exact same question. And I'm sort of waiting for a threshold to all kind of connect them and say, you know, Make it happen. Connect. Cause I'm thinking of a couple of areas. Pardon. I was just going to say, I can leave my phone number and email in the chat if you'd like to talk about it more sometime. But I think mostly we just need, you know, a core group of people who are interested in getting something off the ground. I'm thinking there's a couple of areas that would be probably. Most. Sort of needful of that. And that would be sort of up in the. Northeast of Alberta around satellite, St. Paul. And there was recently two matey matey men were killed by a white man. And. And then probably. In the Eastern slopes where there is already some good work happening because of the mining. Issue. But that could maybe be extended in, because there's so much ranching there. And positive environmental concern too. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, yes. If I could. Valerie Zink. Okay. And that's what we're about here is making these connections. So folks exchange what you information you want to exchange. And. No, of course, that you can also come back to me if you didn't get all your exchanges made in time or think of something later. As I can dig up. Folks. Email addresses. That's part of the reason that we make everybody register rather than just handing out links is that way we can contact you. And we can pass on information at the end. We'll glean from the chat in a fault for a follow-up email. I'm going to say good night. It's been great to see everybody, some familiar faces and some new faces and. I look forward to something like this again sometime. So. See you soon, Amanda. Mark and Myron. Very soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If folks have a meeting tomorrow morning. Next week. Good night all. Thank you very much for hosting this.