Don Schweitzer - Honouring the Declaration: Church Commitments to Reconciliation and the Un Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

honouring the declaration

University of Regina Press designates one title each year that best exemplifies the guiding editorial and manuscript production principles of long-time senior editor Donna Grant.

Honouring the Declaration

Church Commitments to Reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

edited by

don schweitzer and paul l. gareau

2021 University of Regina Press

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or placement in information storage and retrieval systems of any sort shall be directed in writing to Access Copyright.

Printed and bound in Canada at Imprimerie Gauvin. The text of this book is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with earth-friendly vegetable-based inks.

Cover art: Rock Dove ( Columba livia ) with wings raised in flight, in monochrome by Panu Ruangjan / iStock

Cover design: Duncan Campbell, University of Regina Press

Interior layout design: John van der Woude, jvdw Designs

Copy editor: Ryan Perks

Proofreader: Alison Strobel

Indexer: Patricia Furdek

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Honouring the Declaration : church commitments to reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples / edited by Dr. Don Schweitzer and Dr. Paul L.Gareau.

Names: Schweitzer, Don, 1958 - editor. | Gareau, Paul L., editor.

Description: Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210232897 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210236779 | isbn 9780889778337 (hardcover) | isbn 978088 9778320 (softcover) | isbn 978088977834 ( pdf ) | isbn 9780889778351 ( epub )

Subjects: lcsh : ReconciliationReligious aspectsUnited Church of Canada. | lcsh : United Nations. General Assembly. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. | lcsh : Civil rightsReligious aspectsChristianity. | lcsh : Race relationsReligious aspectsUnited Church of Canada. | lcsh : Indigenous peoplesCivil rightsCanada. | lcsh : Indigenous peoplesLegal status, laws, etc.Canada. | lcsh : DecolonizationCanada.

Classification: lcc bt .. h 2021 | ddc .dc

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University of Regina Press, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, s s a
tel: (306) 585-4758 fax: (306) 585-4699
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. / Nous reconnaissons lappui financier du gouvernement du Canada. This publication was made possible with support from Creative Saskatchewans Book Publishing Production Grant Program.

by D on Schweitzer and Paul L. Gareau

by Sandra Beardsall, Sakej Henderson, and Don Schweitzer

CHAPTER

by Sakej Henderson

CHAPTER

by Christine Mitchell

CHAPTER

by Lynn Caldwell

CHAPTER

by Adrian Jacobs, Keeper of the Circle, Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre

CHAPTER

by Sandra Beardsall

CHAPTER

by Paul L. Gareau

CHAPTER

by HyeRan Kim-Cragg

CHAPTER

by Don Schweitzer

CHAPTER

by Jennifer Janzen-Ball

CHAPTER

by Iskwewuk E-wichiwitochik/Women Walking Together

by Sakej Henderson and Don Schweitzer

Appendix A:

Appendix B:

ancc: All Native Circle Conference

crgb Models: Culturally Relevant Gender Based Models of Reconciliation

djsrc : Doctor Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre

dmc : Division of Mission in Canada

fstc: Francis Sandy Theological Centre

gce: General Council Executive

ibnwt: Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories

icpond: Interchurch Project on Northern Development (Project North)

ie: Iskwewuk E-wichiwitochik/Women Walking Together

mmiwg s: missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirits

ncc: Northern Coordinating Committee

nib : National Indian Brotherhood

nimmiwg s : National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits

nwac : Native Womens Association of Canada

sps : Saskatoon Police Service

sssc : Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre

trc : Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

ucc : The United Church of Canada

undrip : United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On November and , 2017 , the contributors to this volume gathered at St. Andrews College in Saskatoon, located on Treaty territory and on the Mtis Homeland. We congregated to present and discuss the outlines of our chapters and talk about the possibility of bringing them together into an edited collection. This meeting decisively shaped what you are now reading in several ways. We must first explain some of the terms and ideas from this book.

First Sakej Henderson, who spent years working along with others to draft what became the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, expressed an aversion to the acronym undrip . Out of respect for him, in what follows we have used the Declaration as an abbreviation for this document instead, although undrip does appear in quotations and references. Second, our authors use the term Indigenous to speak generally of the perspectives and experiences of the First Peoples of the land on which we live and where this book took shape. This term does not negate the importance of recognizing the term Aboriginal, which in section of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes Treaty Rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Mtis Peoples living in Canada. Our orientation is always toward Indigenous self-determination by naming Indigenous nations in our texts using Indigenous autonyms and languages where we can. In this way, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty in our writing by reflecting the experiences of Indigenous Peoples in place, as was well as in relations with other peoples and in other places.

Finally, the group did not want to have one or two editors making autocratic decisions about other peoples chapters. So instead of having editors, two timekeepers were chosen, who were charged with keeping the project moving ahead. However, as these timekeepers, we found that some aspects of the work of making a collaborative, edited volume were unavoidable, and that timekeeper is not yet a recognized term in academic publishing. So, in a concession to convention, we are listed as editors in the books front matter. However, in editing this book, we strove to adopt a deeply collaborative approach. Over the time of writing, authors were set into pairs to review and support each others work. It was a helpful and relational way to find the critical voice of our chapters as well as to help one another in the collaborative editing process. Major editorial decisions such as chapter order were made by the group, and in that regard our role has indeed been more of timekeeping than a strictly top-down, editorial one. It has been an honour to have been entrusted with this responsibility.