Such an important question. It came up during a lively discussion in Halifax with members of the AMS and Presbytery of Halifax Lunenburg. It seems so critical we do this or else people will quickly lose sight of why there is a need to reconcile.

In that same discussion, others talked enthusiastically about how much they enjoyed reading the works of Joseph Boyden.  Boyden is a young, critically acclaimed Canadian author.

Several people in the group had read one or both of Boyden’s Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce.  Boyden won the prestigious Giller Prize, in 2008, for the latter work.

Three Day Road draws inspiration from the life of Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwa from the Wasauksing First Nation (Parry Island), Ontario. Corporal Pegahmagabow was awarded the Military Medal plus two bars for bravery in Belgium and France during the First World War, becoming the most highly decorated Canadian Native soldier in that conflict.

Joseph Boyden spent time on the James Bay coast based in Moosonee.  So it is not surprising that he chose this area as a setting for Three Day Road whose protagonists are Cree.

Though they are works of fiction, Boyden’s novels resonate with much that is true about the experiences of Native people in Canada, both historically, and, in Through Black Spruce, more contemporary times.

The group felt they had learned a lot reading these works of fiction.  And it reminded me that good fiction can play a tremendously important role in helping pass along truth:  the truth about how groups of people feel, how they are treated, the challenges they face at varying times in history.

Good fiction, by engaging our imaginations, helping us see visually and feel emotionally, can bring memory to life, like no other form of communication.  And thus, as our group in Halifax observed, it can be a great learning tool:  helping us understand people who have lived through experiences which may be quite foreign to our own experiences.

How are we going to preserve the stories of residential schools and their impact on relations between people in Canada?  One of the answers certainly is through good fiction that does justice to historical truth.

Lori Ransom is the Healing & Reconciliation Animator at The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Phew—that’s pretty easy to answer.  Yes.  Reserves will still exist in 2030.  It’s only 22 years into the future, was my first point.  And, it must be remembered that many First Nation communities are thriving, vibrant places—places we’d all be pleased to live in, work, and raise families.

What worries Canadians—both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people—are those reserves where economic self-sufficiency seems an impossible dream:  where deep-seated poverty and heart-breaking social problems exist, due primarily to geographic remoteness (lack of access to services, goods, and opportunities to work, be educated, and grow).  All those I talk to, want to see all First Nation people having the same kind of opportunities and support that are available to the majority of Canadians.  So wouldn’t it make sense to do away with the “reserve system” at least in these remote places?

The reserves, which First Nation people do not even legally own, are all the land Canada has left the First Peoples, the descendants of nations that spent time living in huge territories, migrating with the seasons.  They did not live in isolated, small, geographically isolated communities.  But this time has passed.  Now there are reserves.  There is no “homeland” to which First Nation peoples may return.  And many of the more remote reserves are located in parts of the country which at least have the merit of allowing First Nation people to continue traditional activities, such as hunting and trapping, in nearby lands “off reserve.” So what has been left to us, First Nation people, is not easy to give up, and certainly won’t be given up for nothing.

This opens a discussion of self-government.  How will First Nation people live in the future?  It is theirs to determine.  The government has a policy of negotiating self-government arrangements—a painfully slow process from everyone’s perspective.  I cannot predict what will happen with these negotiations, but with self-governing communities now in existence in British Columbia, and parts of the Far North, including Nunavut, I see the landscape of Canada slowly changing.  The reserve system is changing, and even disappearing in places.

From a historical perspective, it’s helpful to remember that indigenous peoples have lived in what is now Canada for 20,000 years.  Reserves have existed for about 150 years of that time period.  It is exciting to build a new country, to support First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples in imagining and building their future communities, which, I confidently predict will eventually no longer be called “reserves.”

Lori Ransom is the Healing & Reconciliation Animator at The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

On the first day of spring, the gym at Riverside buzzes with excitement. Kids are arranged in a circle on big blue mats, covered with blankets. They have a great view of the colourful teepee that has been erected at one end of the gym beside a large banner of a medicine wheel on the wall, showing the red, yellow, black and white colours of the four directions, and four peoples of the earth.

Excitement had been building for days. Today the kids have a wonderful break from routine. They won’t sit in the same classroom for most of the day. They had been given passports to attend different workshops in the morning and afternoon, from people they’ve never met. Like them, their teachers will sit in the back like students themselves, learning from others.

In one room, a grade 8 student, named Neanna, a champion Red River Jig dancer, has become a teacher herself–showing a group of grade 3 students the basics of dance. The boys cry with some dismay at first when told to hold hands with a partner to learn how to foxtrot. But by the next dance, a two steps, they are getting into the spirit, and showing off to each other.

Grade 2 students have all kinds of interesting questions for another group of dancers, who are showing them men’s and women’s traditional First Nation dancing. Where do you get the feathers? Who taught you how to dance? How many places have you performed: the answer includes the names of countries on 5 continents.

Volunteers from St. Paul’s Presbtyerian Church help out everywhere, including at a demonstration of fish scale art. where Grade 4 students were applying colourfully died whitefish scales and porcupine quills to tanned deer hide to make beautiful decorations for clothing.

Upstairs in a science room, John teaches grade 8′s about endangered species and the history of the Metis, while the students practicethe skills of traditional carvers: creating polar bears out of Ivory soap.

A few doors down from that clean, soapy smell, one enters a room fragrant with the aroma of sweatgrass where Sheila is telling a multi-grade class about the many uses of local plant life. This is your regular classroom? Have you touched the plants on display? You were told not too? Well you can. The entire class rushes up to the display!

Kindergarten kids sample banana empanadas from Columbia.

A husband and wife from Liberia share African songs over a wonderful traditional feast of bannock and stew back in the gym at lunch.

Les, in his leiderhosen, fakes a pratfall when a he almost walks around a corner into a guitar which Bonnie puts on her back.

A teacher tells me mid-afternoon how amazed she is at the kids’ enthusiasm in the third and final “breakout” session. “They haven’t had a recess, they didn’t get outside at lunch, and look at them. You’d never know it.”

A friend asks, what’s different about this? What’s so special? Many places hold such events.

It was clear from talking to John the Principal of Riverside what a gift it was to have a some funding to pay honoraria to the presenters, to bring in a young men’s drum group, pay for the modest but healthy feast and some gifts. It is rare for many schools, hard pressed to pay for everything involved in delivering the regular curricula to stage an event designed to teach young people about the beauty of other cultures. John’s enthusiasm, the delight in the eyes of his teaching staff, the excitement and rapt attention of the kids who moved with such enthusiasm to each event, and the warmth among the several hundred people who circled the gym in three large rings during the closing round dance told the story of why a school cultural day is so special.

Lori Ransom was appointed Healing and Reconciliation Program Animator, effective September 5, 2006.

She works with congregations, local church groups, Aboriginal organizations, national staff, the courts of the church and ecumenical partners to further the aims and objectives of the Healing and Reconciliation initiative.

Lori has been employed for over 20 years with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, where she most recently served as Director, Executive Services and Communications for the Ontario Region. Her several positions within the department have given her a breadth and depth of understanding of Aboriginal issues and concerns in Canada.

She is an active member of St. Andrew’s, King Street, Toronto. Among other roles, Lori has convened the board of managers; and, she currently serves as the Clerk of Session. Her involvement at the presbytery level includes three years as representative elder and as a commissioner to General Assembly. Lori also serves on the boards of Evangel Hall and Boarding Homes Ministries.

Lori is a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation (Golden Lake, near Pembroke ON).