 Great. Welcome, everyone. It is so wonderful to have you here this morning for the second part of our Atlantic gathering with Kairos. My name is Allison Edder. I'm a member of the Atlantic Coordinating Committee for Kairos, Canada. The very first thing I want to do this morning is turn to Ada, another member of the Coordinating Committee who will offer a land acknowledgement. Thank you, Allison. Good morning, everyone. I am privileged to to lead in this exercise as an immigrant of African descent. I want to acknowledge that I live and work in Halifax, which is a Mi'kmaq key area, the ancestral and on-site territory of the Mi'kmaq people whose ancestors have been living in this area for thousands of years. This territory is covered by the treaties of peace and friendship, which Mi'kmaq and Wallastar Kuik people first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with the surrender of lands and resources, but in fact, recognized Mi'kmaq and Wallastar Kuik title and established the rules for which was to be an ongoing relationship between nations. I want to invite all of us to wherever we are from, if we just put in the chat box where you are from and acknowledge the land in which you are joining from. And there is also, Shannon has put a link for those who are not sure exactly where. You can just look at the link and click, type your own city and the territory will appear so that you can acknowledge it. Thank you, Alison. Thank you so much. And while folks just continue to add in the chat where you're joining from today, I'm going to invite Elizabeth to offer a few words of welcome. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to those of you who were able to be with us last evening. And welcome among us, those of you who are joining us for the morning. I shared earlier that I was deeply moved by what I heard last evening so that I lay in my bed not sleeping but pondering what I heard. And I hope that today we can continue our journey of listening and have opportunity as we gather together to explore and strengthen how we live into treaties and how the treaties that we are all part of live in us. We come together this morning to listen to each other with respect and openness, opportunity to ask some of our questions. And as we do that, I want to just open with the same opening I used last night just a few simple words of invitation to be here and to be present. So I offer we are here. Here we are. Right here. Right now. Open. Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth. So that was Elizabeth Heater, another member of the Atlantic Canada Coordinating Committee. Many of you were here last night and we're just very pleased to have you back and we're thrilled to have some others join this morning. For those who weren't here last night, and for all of us, just mention a little bit about what we did last night. We were welcomed very warmly to this gathering. And then we were many of us were in the role of listeners last night. As we heard from a circle of six women sharing their responses to these questions or reflections, what does it mean to live into treaties? How do treaties live in us? And throughout that very rich discussion, as Elizabeth mentioned, we heard a lot of themes come forward and today we're hoping to take the conversation a little bit deeper. I'm going to just check with another member of the Coordinating Committee, Linda Scherzinger. Just to see if Linda wanted to add anything from last night in terms of just anything we should share with new participants joining this morning. Good morning. I would only share that it was a real privilege to be able to listen into the circle and to get a sense of what it means to many who are so aware of the importance of the guidance of these treaties. And it is our privilege now to continue that conversation and to open it up to everyone else. We heard many, many views and experiences last night and now in a few moments of small group time, I think we're honored to extend the opportunity of sharing. And, Alison, I think that's about it. Thank you. Thank you. So as Linda mentioned, what we will do is we'll be broken into very small groups just for about 10 to 15 minutes, a chance to share our own reflections, responses, and questions with one another. So you will be invited to join a breakout group of about three people. And the first thing I'll invite you to do is to introduce one another, especially if you haven't met before. And then we'll invite you to share your responses if you were here last night. And maybe we'll give an opportunity for those who were here last night to share that first. If you're joining this morning, we'd still love to hear your thoughts, what you're coming with, your reflections on the meaning of treaty, and your questions, or your curiosity, your openness. After this time, we're going to invite each group to share in the chat any question you have for our circle, kind of anything you want to add into the wider conversation. So be sure to make a note of anything that you want to bring forward. But other than that, of course, this conversation you can have among yourselves to try to just learn from one another and deepen understandings. I'm just going to check if anyone has any questions before we do that to make sure that's clear. I'll invite Shannon to go ahead and inform the groups. Certainly if there are any questions, you can use the chat to reach us or ask them at the time. Welcome back, everyone. I know it's always a bit abrupt when the groups end. But thank you for the conversation. I certainly want to thank my group. As I had mentioned, we do want to capture most especially your questions. But it could be any comment that you really want to share with the group. The easiest way to do it is going to be the chat. So feel free. It's a fine if two people write the same question. That's totally fine. Just if there's something that came out of your group that you're curious about or wondering about wanting to explore more, I'm going to invite you to put that right in the chat box and we'll just take a couple of minutes to do that. That's also going to give a chance for our circle members to have a look at those comments. I might read some of them out loud, but for now, I'll just give a moment for folks to write. Isabel, a question about New Brunswick case. Beautiful. Personal interactions. Thank you. A question about youth. Question about what makes the peace and friendship treaties unique. That actually, that question was in our group too. I appreciate that. Another question about the situation in New Brunswick. Perhaps someone in the circle will pick up on that. Looking for knowledge to discuss that with neighbors and friends. What does it look like for a settler to live within indigenous sovereign territory and treaty? Beautiful questions. Yes, absolutely. This did come up last night. The situation in fishing communities and I'm seeing that's being raised again. We will leave the chat open for a few moments. I think before we open the circle, we're going to invite members, just a few members of the Atlantic Canada Coordinating Committee, some settler members, to share a few of their own reflections on our topic or on what you heard last night. Again, thank you so much for these beautiful questions. I'm going to turn to Diane Kleinman-Hage. Just for two or three minutes, if there was anything you wanted to share, reflect back on what you heard last night. Yeah, it was such a beautiful time of sharing. I have pages of notes, so I'll try and keep it sustained. Meg Mohan, your statement about, I'm homeless in my homeland. There are no long houses here. It reminded me of the Métis Cree author, Jesse Thistle. He did a definition on indigenous homelessness and he talked about the loss of place and land and culture as an expression of homelessness in indigenous life. Also, your idea of two world views coming together in the treaties. It's not enough for me as a non-indigenous person to read the treaties and expect to understand them. I can never have a full understanding without having that conversation and relationship with the indigenous peoples with which that treaty was made. I think that was a really important teaching for me that I can't do this alone and we shouldn't do this alone because this treaty was not made alone. Keanna, I felt your anger and your sadness and your frustration. In Juliana, you expressed this too. You said that to work and live in this hostile land is exhausting. I was thinking that if non-indigenous people do the work of understanding and living in treaty, that maybe that could alleviate some of that frustration and the anger. Just seeing, again, settler responsibility in the words that you're saying and how we continue to cause pain through denial and not living through the treaties. Brittany, I heard your theme of education throughout you talking and I think that's amazing. Your comment about being conscious of the treaties and bringing them into your daily life and how to live them out intentionally and also to lean toward curiosity and away from fear of what we don't know. I think that was a really important teaching too because it is scary to tread into water that we don't understand and sometimes if we're just curious it can be so much easier. Elisa, you spoke of the responsibility of passing down treaty and teachings to the next generations and I realized at that time that I have that responsibility too. It's not just Indigenous people's responsibility to pass down the treaty knowledge. I don't know why that was like a light switch turning on. It's like, really? I didn't think of that before. And also it's not just head knowledge. It's about the treaty rights being able to be lived out and so what does that look like in life and how can I, with whatever power and privilege I bring to a conversation, how can I make that a little bit easier for the living out? Isabel, you asked the question, what would life be like if we lived out the treaties? And yeah, I got a lot of dreaming about that happening last night but if we work together and stood up to political powers that be and said jointly, Indigenous, non-Indigenous, that we won't allow these injustices anymore. We have a lot of power if we're allied and continue to work together and then Elisa, you also asked why we have to assert our rights and that's the last thing. That's what I'll leave it on. Why do we have to assert our rights? The word assert, I thought about that a lot. There are so many things that I take for granted and I was thinking about how the only time I have never had consistent access to clean water was when I lived in an Indigenous community and why should you have to fight every time you try and do something? And I know you're all strong, capable women but it's got to be exhausting. You shouldn't have to do that. So I'm just thinking back to Isabel saying if we worked all together to not allow these injustices, what kind of work can we do? So those are some of my reflections from last night and I'll leave it at that. Thanks. Thank you so much, Diane. Linda Scherzinger, would you like to add some thoughts about either what you heard or what it means to live the treaties? Yes. I'm sorry, I can't recall exactly who said what but various words and thoughts and feelings did come clearly to me last night and have been staying with me and I know will stay with me for a long time. The first thing that struck me was several references to language, the importance of and the threat to one's own language. It is our own, we don't realize it until it is threatened but it's our own language in which we feel and think and express our most intimate selves. I must admit that when I heard language being talked about it reminded me of a privilege that I had several years ago when I lived in Cape Breton. I hosted a visit of two Guatemalan indigenous Mayan village teachers visiting the Wagma Cook School and I heard those teachers from two very different countries and experiences share together their common struggle to be able to keep their own language. That moment of being present to that sharing and that struggle has really stayed with me. The second thing that of course the reference to language brought to mind is Rita Jo's powerful poem, I Lost My Talk. It's not just powerful but it's so full of pain. It is one of many examples of what has disrupted the natural passing on from person to person, from generation to generation of who one is and to give that confidence and sense of selfhood and purpose in life. Another word that struck me was the word internalize. Now we settlers don't even realize how we have internalized our privilege, privilege in so many arenas but we haven't really learned sufficiently and internalized the meaning of the treaties that should have been and continue to be guides of who we are, who our indigenous neighbors are and how we are to live in mutually respectful and beneficial relationships. And a little bit like Diane, I was also called to think about what if things had been different from the beginning, how much healthier, richer, more positive and hopeful all of our lives would have been and would be today if we had consistently taken those treaties to heart and within our social interactions and lived in such ways such as the wampum living that was referred to last night when we are each living in our own ways of being, not disrupting or imposing one way on another but being willing to listen, to learn from and to take responsibility for how we are to live in relation with each other and with the natural world within which we all live. And I guess finally I heard the importance and opportunity of pausing from time to time to check on how are we doing at living together according to the guidance of the responsibilities in the treaties. So thank you for this opportunity to share. Thank you so much Linda. Really appreciate those thoughts. I'm just checking the time so I have been invited to share a few thoughts too but I think I'll be very brief because we do have like we do have a lot to cover this morning. I really appreciated a few people had talked about the sense of responsibilities and relationships and our responsibilities to one another, our communities and the land and that really resonated deeply with me and I think in many settler communities and some folks may have mentioned this there is a sense of disconnect from ancestors and from culture and identity and maybe that's related to a sense of internalized colonization and it's been so important to me to kind of understand deeper and deeper my own place in the world and history and it's not all it's not all a positive history learning about my own ancestors but I so I feel like it can be painful to learn what some of my ancestors did but there's still a beauty in that connection and the ability to heal and do something different so I'm in a certain spot in my life I'm I'm praying it with my first child so I just wanted to share that I am caring very seriously this responsibility to pass on hope and an understanding of the treaties and a commitment to to the land that that we live on so a really warm thanks to everyone I there's some beautiful comments in the chat here before we open the circle I just wanted to mention them again Diane has posted a Rita Jo's poem I lost my talk which is very meaningful words Isabel has shared two YouTube videos one is about treaties and one is about lobster and moose issues and I know some of you may want to view those later on thank you so much we've mentioned many of the questions that have been shared we have a question here there's a few more have been added question about education and really using the school system to to have more education that certainly came up last night as a guest or an immigrant could I genuinely make the indigenous homeland my home beautiful question the territory is unceded it's a question from Mohawk territory but very appropriate here the territory is unceded but the treaty relationship has been governed by the Indian Act so that is a question there's a I think there's a curiosity there and there's also a question here about understanding the concepts and impacts of colonialism as a as a historical process to to to acquire territory and limit access to resources certainly I think that was touched on last night there's a lot here and we know our circle may not be able to cover everything but there's certainly an invitation to to touch on some of the topics I will say we'll end a little bit earlier than last night simply because we want to spend a few minutes off just talking about the next steps and and and offering some opportunities to get involved further but we do we do certainly have time for a beautiful conversation I believe for those who are not part of the core circle I'm going to invite you to put your microphone on mute if you haven't already and maybe even turn off your camera we want to make sure that the internet is very strong so that we can hear our circle as much as we can and I think we'll probably turn the chat so that oh yes so that you can certainly contact Shannon our tech host if you need anything but we'll focus our attention on listening and I'm going to turn it over to the circle at this time with thanks I wanted to share in my language gratitude as we open our circle to jump into now to this coming to now be with them that they're going to be module 100 be with them that they're going to be located already that's too early Thank you for all the good life that's been gifted to all of us by our love of our ancestors, love of the land, our sacred mother, all the relations continually remain open just to nurture and care for us, shelter, feed us and all. It's important for us to be able to be, we are, uphold our identity, especially on our own lands. That's one of the things that we continue to sit here in circles. Okay, I'm hearing that being heard too much. Am I breaking up? I'll pass this on to Lisa. She will even make my own. And she will eat Duxian. And she wacky and let away a wagon. You know, and she will eat the house. Is he bad gene yet? We joke him and we joke him and we'll leave. And I asked the creator to be with us today and to help guide our words and what we need to say. I guess I just reflecting on again, really what what we spoke about last night what really hit me I guess at a very emotional level was the angst of our young people of the toll that it does take on your spirit and your body. And, you know, that's hard. That's a heavy thing to carry when you're young and you're supposed to be vibrant and full of life. You'll feel like that when you get to be my age, but not, you shouldn't be feeling like that right now. Well, I shouldn't say you shouldn't be, but I think it makes me sad that you are feeling that way right now. Because deep down in and this is a quote from last night is deep down we all need peace and I thought that was so that, you know, it's such a simple statement but it's so profound, because we all do need peace in our lives. Our spirits need that I mean we need to learn and grow and be challenged but we all need to have peace around us to be well. Yes, we need clean water we need, you know, clean air we need food we need. We need to have fun but we all need peace. And I think that, you know, that's something that our spirit really craves and I think that our people understood that our people understood that balance and and that we needed that that was something that we needed to hold dear for our future generations. And I think you know this nation to nation agreement with the treaties was was with that in mind. It wasn't just for them at that time, but I believe they were thinking about you young people, they were thinking about us. When they made those agreements, because they knew, you know, things weren't going to get easier for us. They wanted it to be easier for us. You know, they, they honestly, they, you know, we're sovereign nations, they believed in their heart they didn't. I don't think they believe that they were inferior to the European settlers form of governance. You know, we had our own ways here we had our own ways to be in the world we had our own spirituality we had our own way of dealing with law. We had our own ways of being and because it was so very different from the Western European ways. They could not see. They could not see our ways. And I think, you know, that's misunderstanding created a lot of problems. And thank goodness, like I said, our ancestors had the foresight to know that they, especially with the peace and friendship treaties that you know, no surrendering of land. And the other component of that treaty was to refrain from war with the crown. So that was in the treaty itself and live in peace with settlers. You know, I think I, you know, as far as you know, our people have have really tried to to live that. And like I said last night, the only time I think times when we're kind of forced out of that is when our rights are not being respected and honored. And usually it has to do with fishing or hunting or fouling or, you know, when we tried to feed and to try to make a living for our families, we should not be denied that. But that kind of forces us out of that peaceful place because like I said last night is the you know we're always having to assert our rights. And we should not have to do that. That weight should not be on us every time and that's why it is difficult. I'll tell you, you know, a lot of people. I mean I love my indigeneity and I do love walking this road. But it's a tough road. It is a tough road for us. You know, it has not been an easy path for me like to think about all of the, I mean, racism that you have to deal with because of people who don't understand and and people who are either fearful or jealous or just, you know, don't want to accept who you are. And that's a rough road to walk every day, every time you go out to the grocery store, every time you go somewhere in public, like it's just, you know, it's a rough road. But I think that, you know, together, the more people get educated, and we talked about that last night, it's key. It's the key to this issue right now. And I think that, you know, we have to push it forward. And I think as allies, it has to be pushed forward in our circles, but out there too, like to our people we put into power to politicians, so that they know to honor the agreements. And I think that's pretty much really what I wanted to emphasize today and say that I was truly honored to be in the circle with, with all of you last night. And, and glad that I've kind of had a chance to reflect on this topic, which I probably don't think about enough really. And I was happy to force myself into figuring out what that meant in our language. And Luggedewagen is a treaty or the Great Peace Treaty. And I was digging again after I got off the zoom call and even in there in that definition is kinship, and the word kinship. To me, it really speaks about family too, you know, because we, you know, I think I read in somebody's comment, you know, could I ever become like a person of this land. You know, I think that that's, there's possible, you know, it's possible. But I think there has to be a big transformation of how we, we get to that point of kinship of, you know, looking out for one another, having each other's best interest, you know, making sure we protect the waters and the waters are always there going to be there for us and for our future generations. That's a huge responsibility. And you know, that's that's one of our hardest things right now is you know, our grandmothers are going out to on the water and protecting our waters. And because they want to poison them. And you know that that cannot be allowed like we have to protect our waters we have to be there. And you know that there's certain things we cannot live without. And that's water and air and food. But I mean we have to, we have to protect those dearly and that is part of our obligation, our responsibility to each other. Anyway, she will even and thanks again for for all of the wisdom around the table. So I go next. Okay. Really, really moving what you just said Lisa and talking about our governance systems and, you know, I'm a youth. I studied, I took a program that was focused on indigenous policy and creation of indigenous policies. So that was a roughly nine month course. And I didn't know what to get out of that I didn't know at the beginning what I was going to get out of that. But towards the end, especially in the six months. I learned a lot about how to deconstruct these policies as well. And these policies that the Canadian government put on our people to, you know, almost keep us where we are, rather than letting us know who we are, you know, keeping us. How can I say that the policies in the Indian Act are work really hinder indigenous people, but we don't need those policies we don't need the Indian Act. We have our own rights and we know our obligations we already know this. And it's just the Canadian government pushing that on us. And it's just like through policies that's RCMP that's in the healthcare system that's everything about the Canadian system has really affected our people and that's that's something that the government needs to acknowledge as well. In other words, they can apologize, but you know it's about actions to it's about letting us have our sovereignty, have our peace, you know, letting us live, letting us survive, you know, there's there shouldn't be any indigenous people homeless in Canada, in this, in this part of the world that we shouldn't be homeless. No one should be homeless. But, you know, for me, I'm on a off reserve homeless initiative committee. And, you know, I see how much money the government gives these kind of organizations and it's, it's a slap in the face, you know you can't survive with that money that's, that's a temporary solution. And for our indigenous people we have long term solutions, but the Canadian government just wants to keep putting patches and patches and patches on things. And when I think about the treaties. I really like what brings us together. And my dad's will list of me and me ma, my mom is Irish and Scottish. So I have, like I said, pretty mixed background and growing up my grandfather, he always taught me about the land, the water, and he would teach me about my rights and I didn't realize like that's what he did when I was a child but he was helping me reaffirm my rights and you know, you go fishing, you go hunting, you don't need the government, don't worry about them. Just do it. And that's the kind of attitude he had towards, you know, the system that he was in. My grandmother was the same way she spoke her language she didn't, she didn't care who was around she would speak her language and you know, I never got to learn the language but I got to listen to the language and I got to listen to their stories. And a big part of a big part of what I do now is kind of preserving those oral history stories or teachings and preserving them digitally so future generations can have access to those. I know I would have appreciated the work that I did as a child, you know, or even like you know I really wish that there was more resources for our youth to go and use. That ties in with, you know, the policies that are in place, you know, keeping us away from all that, you know, we are trying to anyway, I'm sorry, I don't let the, I don't let the government stop me from, you know, and I don't let the government their laws and policies stop me for what I'm going to do with my life and my roles and responsibilities and I stand firmly with that. And I've always been like that when I've always been like this since I was a child, and I always ask difficult questions, you know. And that's a very important part and people might think they're difficult or they might think my views are radical, but they're not. I speak from the heart. And I think a lot of indigenous people do speak from the heart and, like I said last night, you can learn a lot and heal a lot with indigenous wisdom. And I'll end it on there while you're not sure who's next so I might just go. Hello, good morning everybody. The privilege we've been in the space last night to be here again. I didn't really know what to expect. But, you know, doing this as hard as conversations might be it feels like for me at least like this is good medicine for me, gathering within circles. I've always really enjoyed connecting to the people within a circle and listening to their stories and their experiences because there's just there's so much we can learn from other people's experiences and I find that so valuable. And there are a few things that even people are saying today that are just kind of bringing about some questions and some thoughts that I have. But one thing where Kiana and Juliana spoke about burnout last night. Nice. We're covering from a burnout this summer, like burnout is very, very prevalent. And I would say especially within our youth and even our elders, I just feel like they're, they're so much responsibility that are on our shoulders and that's very prevalent when we talk about responsibilities, how one sided the responsibilities have been and also how Lisa spoke about, you know, this this path isn't an easy one to walk. And again, I find I have an interesting perspective on this because I grew up most of my life, thinking that I was, you know, just white, I didn't think I was indigenous I didn't know for a very long time. And that switch when I was stepping into culture and when I started decolonizing and throwing myself into these spaces even though I didn't feel fully ready, like even though I felt scared to do so. So the journey of beginning, and I would say within this past year and a half, I cannot tell you how privileged I've been growing up, like from then, versus now being integrated into my culture, there have been so many things that have happened in this year and a half, that I cannot, like I cannot fathom that like parents have to prepare their children for all these micro aggressions for the racism that's going to come along for the way that our people are being treated and it's not even being talked about like me coming in I wasn't prepared for any of that. And I'm still trying to figure out how to take care of myself within these spaces now because it's very difficult work. It's very difficult work and it's really hard experiences and, you know, not only is there the intergenerational trauma that's coming from like our grandparents and our great grandparents and like their ancestors but our youth and our elders are experiencing their own traumas within what's happening to our and it's still happening every day. I could not get over like just in one year, like every few weeks, there was just something else that just kept coming up like, especially with like our, you know, like our trees being violated or rights being violated as being violated as human beings not even just as indigenous people was human beings. There's just so much trauma. I was very surprised and I wasn't ready for that. And I have to think about how stronger people are. Even from the beginning just how strong like our ancestors have been, especially like thinking in context of like seven generations like that's that's how we think in our culture we think about the seven generations ahead of us. And it's, it's clear that like you know the other side with like the government. You know they don't think that far ahead they don't think seven generations ahead for their children and for their people and how even out of context for humans like there's no perspective of how we're going to preserve mother nature or the animals or the way that we're going to continue to have clean water and to continue to have food so we can eat in the future like. Oh my goodness I just think that's crazy. I really did want to talk about that, that burnout that we all feel because we, we've been like, like shoved all the responsibility. And it's become a burden in some ways to hold all that responsibility and wanting to help our communities it's fulfilling it's very fulfilling, like, I haven't felt anything like being in this type of community before my life I've felt sense of community before stepping into my culture, and it's been beautiful, but it's so hard to see the people that you love being in pain and suffering from preventable things, like, like all this pain could be preventable if there was just more effort and more wanting to understand if compassion was more like it was cultivated. It just blows my mind that you know all these things are preventable if people just wanted to try. Goodness there's so many things that I want to talk about today. Juliana was talking about you know digital access and wanting resources and wishing that we would have had that when we were a little younger within our youth. And I share that wanting, I still want it because you know it's not always easy to access elders we don't have as many elders as you know so many years ago we don't have as easy access to our knowledge as you know we did before colonization. And that in itself is, it's kept up by layers of trauma. Because when I wanted access to my culture when I started learning that I was indigenous and wanted to know what that meant I had no one to turn to, I couldn't turn to my indigenous father because you know he was a product of the 60s scoop. And I think one of the things that we realized down our line was most likely the product of residential schools, which, you know just cut off ties to our knowledge in regards to our culture. So then that left me disconnected and not knowing. I think we had digital access okay I wish I could just Google or like final list of all these knowledge keepers and elders that I can go to if I have questions and like, and to connect but I feel like that's a reality that's slowly coming but we didn't have only younger. I'm hoping for the younger generations that we will. I know I spoke yesterday, very briefly that I built a program called project air and the purpose of that program is to do exactly like what mean Julie talking about. I wanted to collect accessible knowledge about our culture through elders and knowledge keepers interviewing and just having conversations and listening to teachings and I really wanted this for indigenous you know more recently I've been like, coming more aware of how important it is to have allies as well, and finding knowledge for allyship and how we can live together, how we can live together within our treaties, and within, you know, hopefully reciprocal relationship for the future. Talk on one more thing for pass it on that kind of goes with that. I saw a question in the chat about education and and schooling. I find what I'm doing right now I'm, I'm collecting education and I'm collecting knowledge. I would like to have an educational database. As right now, it's, it's so slow to get things to get the government to do things. And in my perspective, does the government really want to teach anything about our culture if, you know, let's face it like they committed genocide on our people, and they've been hiding our history for so long they continue to hide our history today. I mean, we're going through different areas where residential schools and we're looking for the mass graves of our children. And there's, there's still just there's so much hesitation on the government's part. I don't have trust, or I don't rely on the government thinking that they're going to educate our students to like the capacity where they need to be knowledgeable to even enact and like practice our treaties. So that's all information that they have, or that they have knowledge on its own capacity but it's been restricted for generations that's why we're here. And I think about Project AIR. I've had conversations with Juliana to the point where, you know, I think that Project AIR is a sovereign way for me to collect education and knowledge for people. And I think for now, like that's what we have to do so we don't have a reliance on the government. It would be lovely if the government could have curriculum about our history and about our people. It would be amazing because again, education at such a young age just it, it'll make things easier, and it'll probably open up that compassion that empathy for people at a very young age. But I'm not reliant on it. But yeah, I'll stop there, guys. Well, I'm not sure what to say today. I'm going to do a little show and tell. I really have a lot of gratitude towards Megan Mohan for because if it wasn't for her, I don't think our community would even have taken the step in this direction was for the moose hunts and the workshops that we have been taking on for the past two years to start, you know, incorporating that knowledge into our community. Sorry guys. And I know how we, how you mentioned Brittany you know sometimes it feels like it's hard when you're just one person and you know like that made me think of like the with the moose hunts you know I feel like I've gained so much knowledge even just it's helped me really grasp a stronger sense of identity as a Mi'kmaq woman. And you know like with moose hunts it's not it's never just the one person. I don't think it's actually even possible for you know one person unless you're like an extremely experienced hunter to be able to do that by yourself. And so you know even just like the way that we all gather together you know it's very, it feels very organic it feels very you know familial you know everyone's together everyone's laughing everyone's feeding everyone has a job no one is more important than the other. Everyone is contributing in a way that you know when you go home at the end of the day you say like wow we did this. And over for one of our moose hunts that we went on this year, as soon as we downed our moose and we're walking over to it I looked down, and I found this here I don't know if you could see it that well. And it's an arrow head. And I found it about 50 feet away from where we downed our moose. And it always it elicits like an emotional reaction in me because it's, you know, like physical proof that you know we're providing for ourselves and our family in the exact same way and the exact same places as our ancestors did you know that's, that's literally like you know us living our treaties right there. So, and another thing that I really enjoy about this process is you know I always think of it is the children, you know when we came home last last year we were a little late for the workshop. I think it was supposed to end at about five and we showed up at six with the moose. But when we showed up. All the kids are there you know everyone brought their kids because you know it's it's it's organic it's it's at home you know it's it's something to do with community. And as soon as we pulled in, you know we're all tired but all the kids came running out we felt like celebrities there said you got the most you got the most and it was just such an awesome feeling you know and that's, an example of really, you know, like living into a treaty, you know, those little kids like having that experience I never had that experience as a kid, and you know, that's the work that we do today is really you know changing lives for the future. So that's, that's all I have to contribute for today. So thank you guys for providing this week. Thank you. Oh, so many thoughts swirling around in my head. And I was thinking about what Lisa was saying and the pain that it hurts hearing the young ones talking about the burnout and the anger. So it got me thinking back to when I was younger, and I was working with on issues of around indigenous prisoners and, you know, trying to get elders and sweat lodgers in. So much injustice, just so much injustice. And I'd be, you know, writing letters to indigenous prisoners trying to give them some hope and connecting them. And I remember one elder telling me at that time that when you're dealing with so much injustice that there's a kind of a line and the way he described it was that if I became full of rage. Then I became just like what I was fighting against. And that I had to keep what he called righteous indignation, sort of that. Yes, it's an injustice. And not going over to that point of pure rage and anger. So I've struggled with that. And that's something that I've kept is kind of a teaching when I do get just full of anger, kind of trying to bring myself back to that place. But I also feel that the youth are totally justified to have their anger. And so when statues were being toppled and things and different people were saying no, no, that's not our way. The whole unmarked graves and the different impacts on the different generations. And my daughter was reaching out to a lot of people. She's both Scottish and indigenous. And, you know, went to school in Eskisoni. One of her roommates committed suicide around that time, or one of her classmates. So there was just a lot happening and the amount of anger that was going on. And I thought it's completely justified. Because the youth are looking at, wait, you know, our elders told their stories of living through residential school. It was on front page in the news. Yet didn't believe them. But now you do that bodies are found. Like, I get that anger. Why didn't you listen to our elders? Why didn't you believe them? So I totally understand the anger. And I think that it's also a hard place to live in that anger. Right. When you're looking at the, you know, the lobster people, you know, the places being burnt and all that violence. It's horrifying and it does have a direct impact on your bodies and your emotions and, and all those things. And that's where COVID makes it hard, because normally we would gather to gather strength from each other. Right. And we would gather to have ceremonies to do healings with each other. And so, you know, thinking about how do we do that, how do we, like Brittany said, be able to connect to an elder. And so you made me think about, we were doing this series called Wabanaki knowledge keepers and having elders come together. And it's probably time to bring that back again. And we also did like check in circles and sometimes people wouldn't say one word. They just be there. But listening to their elders, watching the elders pray and smudge, sometimes having pipe ceremonies, even online was helpful, right, to help build people up. So thank you for reminding me of the importance of, of continuing that work so that people can continue to feel held. Yeah. And around the whole Indian Act, we talked about that in our small group about how when you're talking about treaties, the government thinks, well, I negotiate with the band councils. But the band councils are actually a government institution and are controlled by the government. And so thinking about the work to bring back the traditional governance which Mi'gama Han can talk about for her district, and is now happening down in district one. But how, and the Willis took have the Grand Council, but how do we spread that way of being and the particular challenge around the Grand Council of the Mi'gama which is based on the Catholic Church and doesn't involve any women. And yet the Mi'gama are matriarchal. So how do you have a Grand Council that doesn't have any voice for women. And one of our members, Sherri Picto has now been asked to be some kind of advisor to them. So it's great that they're finally getting a clam mother in there. And that's a start. And I think the main thing is around to keep that is around hope, which is so hard when we're looking at the climate change and COVID and all these different things, right. How do you, how do you find hope. And for me, it has to come from creator, right, like it has to come from, from the spirituality and from those connections to both Mother Earth and to creator, and yeah, and from the ancestors and thinking about those teachings. And when I see things like the Wampum workshop that we did last weekend and the amount of hope and uplifting that that brought to people. And so thinking about those things, the star teachings and, you know, just the things that can help to bring hope and how important that this is. And I just feel very honored and touched to be in this circle. And then my heart feels for all you young, young ones and I'm at an age I can call you young ones, although you may not think of yourself that way. But yeah, just to know that, you know, we are, we are thinking about you and we are trying to hold you and that you don't hold all the responsibility that there's others that are walking with you and some of the older ones that maybe we're in the front lines 30 years ago or not, but there is still a role to play and still there for guidance and still, you know, we've been involved in a lot of struggles and certainly there for you. Thank you. And for me and see, bringing us together here in the invitation of Kai Ross, and having the opportunity to also bring our community together to hear each other is really important. Thank you very much for that. And I miss, I miss all of you very much. And I wanted to respond to a couple of questions on the chat about land being lucky and being connected to the land. Yesterday, we were sharing, and when I was sharing reflecting about our ancestral connections and the original languages of those ancient cultures and reconnecting to that that knowledge for all and how, you know, when reflecting back with the history, how things were like for us here when we talk about Europeans kind of melted everybody into that space when we have all those clans in Europe quickly, like the Irish, the Scottish, all the clans of those lands had a place of their connection. And so it's not when you begin to begin those first step to research in your ancestry. I think that's really appreciate Isabel Brian on that yesterday about a way of doing that and so those are some of the, I keep recommending our settler families who are here on our land on our lands of our ancestors to begin to look and reconnect with those relationships. And it has to start with your connection to the land and how important that is when we talked about treaty and what responsibilities are there. I could see the disconnect that has happened recently for us as indigenous people here with the settlers it's been much longer and we've seen the impact it's you've been through the through my eyes what I witnessed is you've recovered from colonization historically. And now you've on another stage of journey of that acceptance of colonization and have as I hear over and over entitled or privilege, looking at living in a model of colonization as privilege. I think we need to really look at those foundations that were standing on, and I, how we're identifying ourselves to those systems. So, for me, and what I've learned on the blueberry fields sit with my sisters and my little my cousins and my aunts and my grandmothers, it's where I learned about my language, learned about the importance of sharing tolerance, dealing with the mosquitoes, you know, and being present. And that being supported by the maternal system, the maternal way of life. I think it's, that's what we need to bring, bring above these systems and post systems. All the undergrowth is really the same for all of us, the love of motherhood, mother nature, being with each other as a family, value in bringing value back into motherhood into families with each other, communities with each other, and bringing all that back above this post systems and bringing humanity on to grow over just as the land will grow over on top of all these systems. That's who we are as a life force. And it's so simple. I think we need to bring that simplicity back in our lives because it's how nature to observe nature, the true, the true guide. And I could see why we've been misrepresented because we're talking about those two, those two sovereign nations that we are a nation from coming from a mother based foundation. A matricultural society, as opposed to a paternalistic system that knows what is right for everyone. And those those the pillars of that system is broken apart because they are maintaining control. We are very small few when our maternal matricultural way has been always been inclusive, you know, and so, and that those those teachings and that way of life comes from the land. I know we have a short time here but I just want to go back to that question about how could we be connected if we're settlers on the land. Of course, because yesterday when I shared about the teachings about the deeper we're connected to our ancestral roots. We're all in the same place because we've all been taught no matter where we're at, where we come from on our Mother Earth on this planet. We're being taught by that same be our Mother Earth. And the heart is at the center. And I think we need to the treaties are a reminder a post remind us about what our history and we are our marriage to each other. And those are commitments that we made with our and with our sacred relations with our commitment to God for Geniska for us. And so the ceremonial part was in place when those treaties were formed. And it was at the time when our ancestors were in a place of privilege and in a place of a place of advanced position. But because of that, because of who we are a mother based culture, all love it all life. This is what we've extended in the long house from the long house. And I can see why the long houses were destroyed. Because it truly represented a mother base way of being that everyone, everyone had a voice, and we moved as a collective. Because just recently, without history, just recently for our community when we went through the vision wars. It was because those words to place again because we, we had to 10 years to fight in our system fight for the treaties and 10 years 10 million dollars costs for our rights to be affirmed and the Supreme Court of this country. So, and today, each time when our communities are growing, we're expanding and we're being denied of being to live and to thrive in our whole plans to build long houses, truly long houses. I don't think anyone has ever experienced long houses in the Wabanaki. So in building a future together, dreaming together, I want us to dream about building a basin long houses that are supportive of all life supportive of everyone living here on our sacred mother, caring for the relations to four legged, the wind wants to fish and the ones who are living under our feet. And I want to be able to be speaking in our language and that you grandchildren, the settlers and all to understand me when I'm speaking in our language. This is the first language that was ever sounded out in Wabanaki. And it's now we're just recovering from it from being outlawed. And listening to the younger people with their research and they come in, you know, when they say, oh my goodness, now I know why the language was outlawed, because it holds such knowledge. And it this access about who we are as human beings has all that information in it, and we are much more than what we've been led to believe. I want to invite you to have tea, especially said I had shared it, you know, all these invitations are nice, but it's based on is it. It's based on relationship. It's something that is mandated for you to do just to and then to check off something that you fulfilled an obligation. It's not ever going to be enough and that's been our relationship in the future in the past. Moving forward in the future. It's about those ways of coming together and build in relationship building friendship. I get too emotional, I get too deep, but let go. Stop here and those are the recommendations that I would encourage you to, you know, to look into first find out who you are. And all those wonderful ancestral heritage that we all hold to bring forth. And to be with each other, not to have an institution or other like governments represent us different institutions outside of us represent us. So we've been disinformed so much past. Thank you, I want to take a moment to offer very, very warm thanks to, first of all, to you make Mahan for your words today. Thank you so much for your ongoing work and your help also organizing this circle, bringing us together it's it's so deeply appreciated. And to the members of the circle, Lisa Ishtel, Juliana Brittany and Keanna really can't say enough. Thanks for the wisdom, the hope, the struggle, everything that you've shared. At this point, what I'm going to do is open the chat, just in case others want to add words of thanks I think I've technology. Yeah. So if others do want to add words of thanks you should be able to do that now. We're in person, as, as my mom said, we would certainly have a token to offer you of thanks, but we'll have to send that by mail, but the, the gratitude. We want to take the time to express right now. Alison. Yes, I would also like to take this moment to, because we talked a lot about education. And I think further educate I noticed there was some links posted and, you know, if those could be sent out to people, as well as I'm sure you must be familiar with Marie Bates living treaties. This is another, for those who view who like to read is an excellent book on now living treaties. And it's by Marie Bates. She's a well known Mi'kmaq academic, and she's put together an interview with a series or various authors in this book, talking about the treaty relationship. You know, it's, it's, I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet but what I've read so far is very, very good. And it's a, it's an excellent way to expand your knowledge about treaties and what other indigenous people are thinking about the treaties as well in this country and how to move forward in a respectful relationship. Thank you very much. It's a wonderful recommendation and also agreed. Perhaps we can send the name of that book, as well as some of these links to webinars and videos. I know many of us will want to continue the conversation and learn more deep in our understanding. So that's one opportunity. We will share that information. I wanted to mention a few other opportunities to, to get involved or to carry on some of these conversations, and I'm going to call on Elizabeth first. Just to tell a little bit about a small prayer group that we have that anyone would be very, very welcome to join. Thank you, Susan, and thank you to the circle. You've given us much to journey on with and to find new ways of coming together. Wednesday mornings at nine o'clock, there is a small group of us who meet together for a time of prayer and reflection specifically focused on our relationship and responsibility as treaty people. And we'd be very happy to have any of you who are here. Join us in that gathering. Perhaps I could put my email address in the chat and if you would like to join that group, please do email me and I will send you the link. I look forward to welcoming you with us. We meet usually from nine and, and sometimes we aim to end at 10. But sometimes we get going in conversation that takes us a little bit later, but we do try to keep it from nine to 10. And it is a time of both coming together to hold ourselves in relationship with creator together and to do some reflecting on what it means for us to be together in his treaty people. So I'll just put my email address in the chat and you're welcome to join if you would like just email me. Thank you. Thank you. And maybe we can also include your email address in an email to participants, but certainly take it right from the chat. We'd love to have you. Brian Gifford and Linda Scherzinger are involved in a interfaith group. And I'd like to invite one of one or both of them just to share a little bit about that. Okay, perhaps I can help and then if Linda wants to add anything that would be great. When the fishery dispute arose a couple of years ago in St. Mary's Bay. There were a number of members of different faith traditions who were very concerned about it and wanted to express solidarity. So we organized a visit to Sonyaville and participated in a circle led by Doreen Bernard which was very moving and other others who are there at the site and re-ignited in the spring. We tried to figure out how to respond as things were rapidly developing and the main thing because of COVID we weren't able to actually visit and to do things in person. So we organized a sort of a joint session of prayers in various faith communities around the around the Atlantic region, especially in Nova Scotia. Lately we haven't been as active. There was a letter written recently spearheaded by Nancy Lee at the Kautomukwish Center to express our deep concern at the New Brunswick Government's decision to disallow expressions of acknowledgement of land and treaty obligations in New Brunswick Government meetings. And so that was sent off. So we haven't been as active lately but we are, and there's been some turn over in our membership to career changes and so on. But we would welcome, I can put my email in the address in the chat and we would welcome other people joining us so that when we do develop actions we can let you know about them and you can participate in helping us figure out how to be supportive of treaty rights. So Linda, if there's anything you'd like to add, that would be great. Thank you, Brian. I think that really is the message. It's not that there are particular actions that are engaged in frequently but it is a supportive group that I kind of envision as standing by when needed to stand up for rights and responsibilities for the treaty rights. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. And again, we'll try to include that contact information for anybody who would like to join or get involved or learn more. I think the other thing I'll mention is our own Atlantic Canada Coordinating Committee of Kairos Canada, which is the group that is hosted today's gathering. We would certainly welcome new new participants of any kind. And we have one specific task that we were hoping a kind hearted volunteer may step forward to take which is the role of treasurer. It's a very simple role. We don't spend a lot of money. We have just as a small, a small grant we receive each year. And we, we often use it to host a gathering such as this or a similar project. But of course we do need someone to manage it. It would involve opening a simple bank account and just writing a few checks a year and preparing a very simple financial reports. If you're interested in that, just let us know. And I'm sure we could find a way to work with you to it would be ideal if you were interested in that role you could come right on as a member of our coordinating committee, but even if you weren't able to, if somebody was able to help with that task that would be very warmly appreciated. And of course, your other contributions are very welcome to our committee is some most of the members are new and we have a quite a flexible program so any opportunities. You know, to to promote justice and the integrity of creation are very, we're very open to them. And we want to continue this conversation to, if there's interest and willingness I mean we can certainly open up more opportunities for folks to participate. I think I just want to I think what I'm going to suggest as we come to the end is, perhaps we can return to. Oh, yeah, right. So let's turn to a gal review if folks know how to shift their computers I'll just remove the spotlights. And if folks want to turn your cameras back on, you're very, very welcome to ideas for continuing the conversation. We'd invite them both either in the chat or just in our final few minutes if you want to share a great out loud interested in hearing from members of the core circle themselves of any upcoming opportunities or opportunities to continue this conversation, or from anyone who'd like to share an idea. I was at Alonzo this year. I came in late this morning I was having problems connecting. I find the topic was interesting, but I like to go deeper in the situation about treaties and look at the question of how tribes and cultures fall into the dominant tribe or dominant culture. Many treaties are not the crux of the problem, but it's the process of colonizations that human beings have done for a couple of 5000 years. And we have a group called welcome to a talk, and we've had some discussions on there, and also some zoom and also some historical background. I see the process of colonization rooted in the DNA of human beings and their tribes. And if we look at the process colonization is run by the Egyptians, by the Romans, by the Germans, by the French, by the English on and on and on. Being Acadian also was great Britain at one point that did colonization. The process is very, very much the same. And I call it almost in our deep cultural DNA. One of the processes remember is, of course, the one with Nazi Germany, but whether you look at the process that Great Britain did or the process that France did in the different places to colonize the steps are exactly the same. As what was done to the indigenous people in North and South America, and having met people from South Africa, people from the Middle East where there's an ongoing colonization going on. People from the indigenous people in different areas of North and South America, and people in Guatemala, the techniques are exactly, exactly the same. These then becoming relevant because it's a dominant class at rules. I don't like to term what is the government doing for us because the government that's there is elected by the people that want things exactly the way it is. I see elements of what what complicity. I see things. I think we have to go back and see why human beings, human tribes, human cultures need want to an effect dominant over other cultures, and then look at to me treaties are just a tool. All this you guys goes almost down to the DNA or cultural DNA. So, so that's where I see the things in certain way. Thank you. Alonso what did you say was the name of the group that you're with. It's a one for talks. It's on Facebook. It's a closed group, but anybody can join your discussion in the group to make it open or close but I did post it in the chat there. Thank you. And I wanted to point out to that Diane has has offered an invitation in the chat for those who would like to read Living Treaties by Marie Bates the book we just heard about with her in the new year. Welcome that her email address is there and again we will try to compile some of these opportunities. I've just had a request to ask just a show of hands. If you'd like to continue, if you'd like to meet again to work more on this topic or to continue the conversation. And you can raise your physical hand or you there's a way on zoom to do it if you're familiar. Either is okay. Just to get an idea. Thank you so much. It looks like there is a lot of interest. Yeah, yeah go ahead yeah. Alison I think now. Maybe if folks could put their hands down for this one we're going to, I'm going to ask for hands on a different question. Because the follow up question is, who would be interested in helping to set that up. Thank you Shannon. And it could be a one time thing, it could be an ongoing thing to have a conversation around. What do we do. How do we do this. That is not the part that people are interested in. I think the coordinating committee will take that back and see what we do with that. Fair enough to and I realized we're sort of putting folks on the spot but Shannon maybe we can in our follow up email just include it for maybe even more specifics of folks did one step forward and help Elizabeth did you have a comment. Oh maybe not. I just thought I saw her raise her hand. Maybe she was willing to help organize. Maybe she's frozen. Oh, that's okay we will. We'll talk to her soon. We are coming to the very end of our gathering and I want to thank everybody for taking part it's been it's been such a privilege to share in the conversation. I will just have a very brief word of prayer but then I'll invite you if you want to take your microphone off mute and just say goodbye be beautiful. And of course any other messages you want to add in the chat will be welcome. I'll just offer this prayer. God our creator. First we pray thanks for this land for all peoples and for the, the openness and courage that has been shared here. Kindle our imaginations, give us the peace we long for and and guide us all together in our relationships and our work together. For the good of all, we pray. Thank you everyone. Thank you feel free to take off mute and just say goodbye. Thank you. Thanks very much for hosting. Wonderful. Everybody. Think about privilege. Wonderful. We're learning.