How do you get all the Canadians out of a swimming pool anywhere in the world? Say “would all the Canadians please get out of the swimming pool.”
Canadians have appreciated that joke for years because it rings true to who we think we are. We see ourselves as nice.
We non-Indigenous Canadians had an uncomfortable wake up call. As elders have been telling us all along, residential “schools” were horrible places designed to destroy indigenous cultures. Many of our churches helped commit this violation, including my own United Church of Canada, who ran the Brandon Indian Residential School from 1925-1969.
In the language of the Christian faith, our sin has been exposed. We failed to fully appreciate the image of God expressed in our neighbours.
As our denomination’s leader said in the 1986 Apology to Indigenous People:
We confused Western ways and culture with the depth and breadth and length and height of the gospel of Christ.
We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel.
We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you, and we, are poorer and the image of the Creator in us is twisted, blurred, and we are not what we are meant by God to be. - the Right Rev. Bob Smith General Council 1986 The United Church of Canada https://united-church.ca/sites/default/files/apologies-response-crest.pdf
Now is the time for all Canadians to take a step beyond being nice, and focus on being kind. If your friend has their shirt on backwards, it might not feel nice to point it out to them, but it is kind.
In the same way, we are called by God to move beyond “being nice” and not talking about this painful part of our history; and move towards being kind by making space to hear the students and their families to speak these uncomfortable truths. Only once we know the truth, can we be set free. Only once we know the truth can we move toward reconciliation.
For me, this has meant pointing out when an Indigenous person is not given the benefit of the doubt where I would have been. These conversations can be awkward and uncomfortable. Jesus had many awkward and uncomfortable conversations too.
Liz Carter-Morgan
St. Paul's United Church, Virden
