I was pleased to read your editorial regarding this being the time to take anti-racism action.
As a retired educator, who spent much of her over 35 years in BC schools (both teaching & administration) working with indigenous students, parents, councils and elders I enjoyed the article about respected elders in our area.
I must say after these, I found an incredible amount of irony as I read the article “Second appeal to stop McDougall Church historic rebuild dismissed."
If you want a really good example of systemic racism it is very clear in the situation the Stoney Nakoda First Nation is facing as they try to negotiate the many levels of bureaucracy in the Canadian Court & Appeals system.
An initial appeal (to the MD of Bighorn Subdivision and Appeal Board (SDAB) was rejected as the majority of the issues were “outside the Board’s jurisdiction.”
The Court of Appeal then tells the Stoney-Nakoda that the SDAB did not err in its interpretation & application….. This seems to me like the proverbial Catch 22 using the system to create loopholes that basically allow the case to fall through the cracks of systemic racism.
Then I read the McDougall Stoney Mission Society Chairperson, Brenda McQueen, quoted as saying she cannot get any response from the Stoney Nakoda Council despite trying for three years. This is very ironic indeed. Ms. McQueen says she is a great advocate for reconciliation yet she apparently cannot see what is staring her right in the face.
The Stoney Nakoda council has tried twice to make their position very clear by launching appeals of the rebuild. They are not in favour of a replica or rebuild “which will only serve to cast the shadow of a painful history.”
What is critical to remember here is that Reconciliation cannot be driven by the settler society’s ideas of what it should look like.
It has to be driven by the indigenous peoples themselves. Sometimes this is awkward and painful for those of us who feel we are very well-intentioned and not at all racist in our thinking.
The answer seems simple to me – DO NOT REBUILD THE CHURCH!! Then perhaps, we can begin real Reconciliation in the Cochrane area.
Sincerely,
Susan Carberry
