MAKING PROGRESS
Reconciliation flag raised
The journey of reconciliation isn’t over yet, but the idea that progress is being made was shared by many at the reconciliation flag-raising ceremony at city hall in Saskatoon.
“We are setting a standard for every other municipality, every other city, every other province,” Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand said after the ceremony.
“We are making a difference here.”
The event paid special tribute to victims of residential schools and Sixties Scoop survivors, as well as reconciliation efforts. According to a news release, the Reconciliation Saskatoon movement now includes 88 different organizations pushing to engage the community in conversation about reconciliation.
Mayor Charlie Clark said the journey has to involve building relationships and creating conversations in order to produce more visible goals.
“It has to lead to outcomes — to less young people being incarcerated, and more young people graduating high school and being fully part of our society,” Clark said in his speech. “That is the outcome that, to me, is where reconciliation heads.”
A long list of Saskatoon delegates spoke at the event, including FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron and Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. president Shirley Isbister. Sixties Scoop survivor Betty Ann Adam and residential school survivor and elder Frank Badger also shared their experiences.
Many of the speakers said they support efforts by the mayor and city administration to push the topic of reconciliation forward. Badger commended Clark specifically for the memorandum of understanding he signed with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies earlier this year in hopes of creating more training, education, and career development opportunities for Indigenous students.
“I’ve ... seen a lot of changes within my time, and this is one of them — reconciliation,” Badger said. “I think it’s probably the best that I’ve seen happening.”
The event included announcements of more projects to come. Carm Michalenko, executive director of the Saskatoon Community Foundation, announced the first grants from the organization’s Community Fund for Reconciliation have been decided.
Michalenko said nine projects were selected for the grants, which will give a total of $100,000 each year for the next three years.
It has to lead to outcomes — to less young people being incarcerated, and more young people graduating high school and being fully part of ... society.
“We worked alongside Indigenous leaders to help us determine what projects in our community will be supported through funding,” she said. “That’s a rare, rare opportunity where we are making a multiple-year commitment to really advance reconciliation.”
Feelings of celebration and progress shone through during the ceremony, from small quips from the speakers to Clark and Isbister jumping up to dance a jig.
Speakers at the event acknowledged more has to be done, but expressed a feeling that the city is headed in the right direction.
“I believe in Saskatoon,” Arcand said.