By Alicia DesMarteau
As Ottawa reeled from dramatic changes in the Canadian Government, First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders from across Canada descended upon the nation’s capital to hold what would be an unprecedented summit of the First Peoples in Canada.
Former Deputy Grand Chief Kenny Blacksmith expressed the anticipation of participants in the historic event. “None of us could ever have imagined what the results of our coming together would have looked like,” he said.
The summit was packed with regional and national leaders. Crossroads Christian Communications founder David Mainse said: “There are grand chiefs here. There are chiefs. The former national chief, council members of various bands. This is a high level gathering.”
As the delegates began to tackle longstanding issues between their people groups, Inuit and First Nations representatives opened up discussion and prayer on conflicts dating back to pre-Confederation times. First Nations leaders repented for their tribes’ historic rejection of the Métis, a people group often ostracized because of their combined First Nations and European ancestry.
“To have that acceptance from the First Nations People, and the receiving of that we were really born of these two races, the French and the First Nations People,” said Métis representative Evelyn Lipke, “really gave us our identity that we were missing.”
There is optimism that the relationships established at the summit will enable the First Peoples to embrace non-native Canada. Former Grand Chief of the Carrier-Sekani Nations Lynda Prince said: “The churches of Canada are inviting us to the table, and we didn’t feel that we could just show up when we had unresolved issues, these unresolved, un-discussed issues where we’ve never been in the same room with one another.”
Native and non-native believers are increasingly forging ground-breaking relationships. In July 2005, delegates came from across North America and overseas to attend the Gathering the Nations meetings held in the remote Cree Village of Mistissini in Northern Quebec.
Blacksmith, founder of Gathering the Nations, said there were people from Israel, Indonesia, and all over North America. “I have always been excited to bring the nations to the First Nations in isolated, remote places and let them experience eating goose and moose and blueberry picking and feasting together.”
The gathering in Mistissini saw a powerful time of reconciliation as non-native leaders asked forgiveness for their ancestors’ mistreatment of First Nations people.
Fortress of Hope Ministries pastor Joseph Waswa said that repentance is a critical first step. “It’s one thing, I think, to repent, it’s one thing to be restored, but it’s a totally different thing to walk in relationship.”
“We’re just birthing a brand new relationship,” said Rev. Dan Goddard of Good News Ministries International, “and starting the way God intended it hundreds of years ago.”
In recent months, First Peoples’ issues and concerns have increasingly hit the national spotlight. As non-native Christian leaders have addressed the sins of the past, groundbreaking changes in the Canadian Government’s policies towards the First Peoples have occurred simultaneously.
Coincidence? Or is there a spiritual dynamic at work?
Prince said that as the church of Canada repented and was “converted to their own message”, the government followed suit. “You have to fight and win in the spiritual realm before it is manifested physically on earth.”
The climax of the historic Ottawa meeting was the drafting of an unprecedented covenant declaring the commitment of the First Peoples of Canada to God, each other, and the nation.
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