The Churches' Relationship With Aboriginal Peoples in Canada - A Conversion Experience?

by Angelika Piché

Angelika Piché was assistant director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism until August 2004.

Ce document est aussi disponible en français : Les relations des Églises avec les Autochtones du Canada : Une expérience de conversion ?

As do individuals, Churches in their collective memory like to remember their good deeds, their helpful contributions to society and their promotion of the Gospel and Christian values for the well being of everyone. They take pride in their achievements and enjoy being confident in their role.

This confidence however, has been seriously shaken for many Christians in Canada during the last decade or two as we have heard the long and painful history of the Residential Schools for aboriginal children, and became more aware of the whole assimilation politic of the Canadian Government, strongly supported by the Christian Churches. Hundreds of lawsuits related to abuse in different forms have come before the courts and were, at least in part, directed against the Churches. The four Churches that had officially owned and run residential schools, the Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United Church, have had to face responsibility for their involvement gone wrong. Moreover, they have had to face the accusation that their intentions were wrong as they removed children from their own environment to educate them in a language and culture foreign to their culture, in order to make them good Christians and good Canadian citizens.

When we look back and listen to witnesses from the time, missionaries, priests, nuns and schoolteachers, we realize that so many of them served at those schools with the best of intentions. They believed they were there to save the children and contribute to the building of the reign of God. The tragedy in this story is that the children lost their identity and way of life, suffering many other destructive consequences. At the same time the Churches lost some of their own identity and struggle still with how to modify their way of life. As one of our authors puts it, this experience of good will gone wrong has meant a "loss of innocence" for many of the church members.

Apart from dealing with the financial implications of the court cases it is crucial for the Churches to reflect on the broader questions that arise: How have we as churches been transformed by this hurtful experience? What have we learned from the experience? Do we live repentance and conversion? In which ways do we seek healing and justice with Aboriginal peoples today? How do we foster reconciliation?

The four main churches in Canada that were involved face the same accusations and ask the same questions today. As much as they shared the missionary zeal in the past they now share the experience of pain and regret and the search for new ways to enter into relationship with Aboriginal peoples. Even though they find themselves involuntarily in the same boat, they try to make the best out of it by rowing it together.

In this issue of Ecumenism we have an opportunity to listen to some of the responses that have come to light thus far:

• From a representative of Kairos, an ecumenical coalition of justice initiatives, where the churches work together on concrete means to foster justice for, among others, Aboriginal Peoples.
• From the Catholic Aboriginal Council for Reconciliation, associated with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• The Confession of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
• From a representative of the Anglican Church in Canada.
• From a representative of the United Church in Canada.
• And finally, a truly ecumenical effort to gain insights from the issues arising from the Residential School legacy will be presented as we reproduce the findings of the Roman Catholic-United Church Dialogue in Canada, which has been discussing these issues during the last four years.

The voices of the aboriginal peoples themselves cannot be captured in one single article or expression. Different tones and colours appear throughout this issue of Ecumenism but much more would of course be necessary for a full understanding of their account.

This time our interest lies in the Churches and how they are living out the experience of their own conversion in the light of their past attempts to convert.