‘HE WHO WALKS WITH THE STARS’
Tragically Hip frontman honoured with Lakota spirit name in emotional ceremony he dubs the ‘greatest day of my life’
Gord Downie, overcome with emotion, turned toward each of the four directions as he was given his Lakota spirit name: “He who walks with the stars.”
It was an overwhelming honour for Downie, the frontman of the Tragically Hip, as he stood before the nearly 600 Canadian indigenous chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special assembly in Gatineau, Que., on Tuesday.
He was wrapped in an eight-point star blanket and given many gifts, including an eagle feather — an honoured gift from the Creator — artwork and a pair of size-11 moccasins.
Downie became a brother, embraced in indigenous culture and history, as he continues his personal ambition to do his part for Canadian reconciliation.
Downie has brought the story of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack into the consciousness of Canadians. Wenjack’s tragic death symbolizes the legacy of the residential school system that saw 150,000 indigenous children taken from their homes and sent to church-run, state-funded schools for more than a century. Chanie ran away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in October 1966, only to die of exposure on the railway tracks as he tried to walk nearly 1,000 kilometres home to Marten Falls First Nation in northern Ontario.
Soon, Downie told the assembly, it will be Canada’s 150th birthday.
“I will personally then celebrate the birth of our country, celebrate the next 150 years. It will have taken 150 years or seven generations to heal the wounds of residential schools, to become a country and truly call ourselves Canada,” Downie said.
Indigenous people believe it will take seven generations for First Nations to rise through several stages of history and healing before a path forward is taken in harmony with all nations. “We must become one. We must walk down a path of reconciliation as one.
“This is the first day of forever, the greatest day of my life,” Downie said as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau watched, along with AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde.
This was the second time the prime minister addressed the AFN’s annual December meeting, noted Bellegarde, who also said that while Trudeau and indigenous chiefs may not always agree on issues — such as the recently announced Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project — it is important to have a dialogue of mutual respect.
To that end, Trudeau said he was proud of Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr for apologizing for his “unfortunate comment.” Trudeau’s statement was met with muted applause. After Kinder Morgan was approved, Carr made comments that perhaps the government would use “defence forces” to protect the pipeline’s expansion.
“I know we’ll disagree with which path to take or at which pace. But the important thing is we keep moving forward, that we keep moving forward together . . . a new and stronger and better Canada,” Trudeau said.
He added that he did not take lightly his job of improving nation-tonation relations between indigenous and non-indigenous people.
Trudeau, who has faced criticism for not living up to promises he made to indigenous people when he was campaigning last year, said progress is underway on 36 of the 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action that were solely under federal jurisdiction.
“I understand many in this room are impatient . . . but that is OK because I am impatient, too,” he said.
The prime minister pointed to the appointment of Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first indigenous minister of justice and attorney general.
“Not only is she the right person — indigenous or otherwise — for this central role, she is our government’s loud and clear message to our country that the laws of this land that were, and in many ways still are, used to control and constrain indigenous peoples are now the particular responsibility of a First Nations person. An indigenous woman,” Trudeau said.
Wilson-Raybould will, along with her cabinet colleagues, now lead a joint effort with indigenous people to decolonialize Canada’s laws and policies that have held back indigenous rights, he said.
Trudeau also made special mention of education and the barriers that must be brought down in order for indigenous children to learn in schools that are at the same standards as those for non-indigenous children.
However, he steered clear of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling in January that found the government was discriminating against 163,000 indigenous children by failing to provide them with adequate funding for child welfare and other services.
“As a teacher, I’m especially excited that this year, almost 2,000 students started the school year in six brand new schools. There are now 31 new schools under construction on reserve. Another 27 are being designed and a further 72 are in feasibility studies,” he said.
Later this month, Canada’s first First Nations School Board Agreement in Manitoba will also be signed, he added.
On residential schools, Trudeau said it is too well known how they were used as a deliberate tool to eliminate indigenous languages and culture.
In an effort to prevent further loss, Trudeau committed to enacting an Indigenous Languages Act, co-developed with indigenous people, with the goal of preserving, protecting and revitalizing First Nations, Métis and Inuit languages. Trudeau heard Downie when he spoke out about the importance of indigenous rights at his final Tragically Hip concert in Kingston last summer.
Downie has been diagnosed with incurable brain cancer.
“Indeed, 12 million Canadians heard him that night,” Trudeau said. “Gord, in simple and elegant words, used that moment to advocate and advance by many years the reconciliation dialogue in our country. Gord embodies all Canadians’ desire for reconciliation.”