Reconciliation is not enough to create change

Once again Aboriginal Day has come and gone and things in Saskatchewan can go back to the lopsided existence we regard as normal.

It seems that our people are always reaching out and making efforts to foster inclusion. When our people first began the urban migration, each major city in Canada developed a friendship centre. The object of these institutions was to welcome aboriginal people and create a safe space to go and integrate into the city. The concept behind the friendship centres was that they were places where aboriginal and white people could get together and form bonds of friendship. But that didn’t happen; instead, they became Indian Centres.

The practice of meaningful integration is not understood in Canada. Instead it is incumbent upon us to assimilate and be submerged into the anonymity of the big city.

The word these days is “reconciliation,” but once again it is our people reaching out to the general public. Reconciliation implies that there exists a relationship that is broken and needs mending. To have reconciliation you first have to have a relationship. In our case we have been ignored and treated with indifference. Most Canadians have never had dealings with First Nations and aboriginal people. Many don’t even know an aboriginal person.

In order to create change, reconciliation must have some real teeth and not just a feel-good occasion.

We must start right here at home.

Saskatchewan has only six aboriginal persons in the provincial legislature — five now that Jennifer Campeau is stepping down. The province has 14 members of parliament and only one is aboriginal.

We have only two aboriginal judges in spite of the disturbing fact that our people make up most of the people who appear in court.

The jail population is 80 per cent men and 96 per cent women of aboriginal descent. An aboriginal person is 33 times more likely to go to jail than the rest of society. This number exceeds that of a black person in the United States or even South Africa during the apartheid era. It is also the highest rate of any other province. Much of the crime and violence is pointed inward and an indigenous person in Saskatchewan is six times more likely to be murdered than the national average.

But what are the underlying factors? The last boarding school in Canada closed down in Saskatchewan. The effects of this social disaster have fanned out like ripples in a pond, affecting succeeding generations. Sixty per cent of Saskatchewan’s aboriginal students will drop out of school before graduation.

An aboriginal child in Saskatchewan has 13 times more likelihood of being apprehended and placed in foster care than a child in the general population. A startling 83 per cent of children in care in Saskatchewan are aboriginal. When they turn 18, they “age out” and are abandoned; many turn to petty crime and a street life to survive. In a short time they will be arrested and sent to jail, completing the circle of a life that was stolen.

In Saskatchewan, white privilege rules. A year ago the Environics Institute conducted a poll on Canadians’ attitudes toward aboriginal peoples. Saskatchewan scored the lowest in most areas. According to the research, 41 per cent of Saskatchewan residents feel that aboriginal people are to blame for their situation, compared to 26 per cent nationally. Also, only 44 per cent saw First Nations history and culture as important. Sixty per cent of Saskatchewan respondents said they saw the relationship between indigenous and nonindigenous communities as negative. Saskatchewan is way behind the trend when it comes to race relations.

The provincial government is bereft of policy alternatives for aboriginal people and continues to pack jails and continue with the old disastrous child welfare policy.

Federally, the government continues to throw crumbs our way. This week’s announcement from the prime minister that henceforth National Aboriginal Day will be known as National Indigenous Peoples Day was a shallow announcement that was not thought through. The newly named holiday is already known as NIPs Day, which is a racist slur on our Japanese friends.

Saskatchewan has the highest percentage of aboriginal people of any province in Canada. Because the provincial population is growing older and aboriginal people are much younger, the province’s future workforce depends largely on aboriginal people.

We need new approaches to old problems and a new relationship with each other. Reconciliation is an opportunity whose time has come.