Reconciliation plan approved by city council

It will be a long road towards reconciliation, but Lethbridge City Council has approved a plan to begin the first steps. A full house of supporters cheered when council unanimously approved the 10year Community Reconciliation Implementation Plan, designed to put into motion the actions needed to bring awareness and promote healing.

As this week marks National Aboriginal Awareness Week, the approval of the final report is timely.

In December 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced its 94 “Calls to Action” calling on all levels of government to begin the reconciliation process. The Lethbridge Indigenous Sharing Network began discussion on Urban Indigenous topics within the community, led by Native Counselling Services.

A reconciliation subcommittee, comprised of community agencies, the Urban Indigenous Agencies, Blackfoot Elders, City officials, academic institutions and many more has investigated ways to implement some of the recommendations into the community.

The last 10 months have been filled with meetings, engagement sessions and consultations. A special logo was also designed with the consult of the committee.

Now that the plan has been endorsed it can be shared widely within the community, said Roy Pogorzelski, the City’s Inclusion Consultant. It’s a fluid document that the community can ask questions about and provide suggestions for inclusion.

“Now we’ve got the plan, but now the work begins,” he said. “I’m just so happy to have the support of the community in advancing this very important work. We’ve got such a long way to go, but this is the start. This is the opportunity to start the dialogue, start the conversation and to educate moving forward.”

The process will be ongoing and will balance Indigenous knowledge with Western knowledge, giving opportunities for education and raising awareness.

As part of the process, an acknowledgement statement regarding Lethbridge being located on traditional Blackfoot territory was developed with the assistance from several Elders. The input of Elders was essential to ensure the best process moving forward for all Indigenous People within the city and in neighbouring relationships with the Kainai and Piikani Nations.

The committee also applied for a Canada 150 Grant to host Reconciliation Week activities from Sept. 18-23. September will mark the 140th year of the signing of Treaty 7.

In addition, Orange Shirt Day is planned for Sept. 30. Orange Shirt Day is a reminder to keep the discussion going on all aspects of residential schools and the harm they caused. It grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her new orange shirt stripped from her on her very first day of school at the St. Joseph Mission Residential school.

“We want to make sure the opportunities and the outcomes are the same as any other member of society,” said Mayor Chris Spearman, noting the increased rates of poverty and unemployment among Indigenous people in Lethbridge.

“There’s a lot of healing to come out of this and a lot of healing for those intergenerational effects of the residential schools that you see a lot of people are faced with today,” Pogorzelski replied during his presentation. “So it’s very important that we continue to heal as a community and that everyone realizes that reconciliation is the responsibility of every member of our community to advance this work and build those relationships.”

The Lethbridge Indigenous Sharing Network is to report back to council annually with a progress update on the plan.

Many more copies of the plan will soon be printed for distribution, and shared online, within the community.

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