Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The challenge of reconciliation • 281connections to their languages and cultures in the residential schools had devastatingimpacts on Survivors, their families, and communities. Land, language, culture, andidentity are inseparable from spirituality; all are necessary elements of a whole way ofbeing, of living on the land as Indigenous peoples. As Survivor and Anishinaabe ElderFred Kelly has explained,To take the territorial lands away from a people whose very spirit is sointrinsically connected to Mother Earth was to actually dispossess them of theirvery soul and being; it was to destroy whole Indigenous nations. Weakenedby disease and separated from their traditional foods and medicines, FirstNations peoples had no defence against further government encroachmentson their lives. Yet they continued to abide by the terms of the treaties trustingin the honour of the Crown to no avail. They were mortally wounded in mind,body, heart, and spirit that turned them into the walking dead. Recovery wouldtake time, and fortunately they took their sacred traditions underground to bepractised in secret until the day of revival that would surely come.... I am happythat my ancestors saw fit to bring their sacred beliefs underground when theywere banned and persecuted. Because of them and the Creator, my people arealive and in them I have found my answers. 79Jennie Blackbird, who attended the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario,explained it this way:Our Elders taught us that language is the soul of the nation, and the sound ofour language is its cement. Anishinaabemowin gives the ability to see into ourfuture.... Anishinaabemowin gives us the ability to listen ... to what is going onaround us and the ability to listen to what is happening inside of us. Throughseeing and listening, we can harvest what we need to sustain ourselves, and tosecure the properties that will heal us. Ever since I can remember as a child,speaking my language, it helped me to restore my inner harmony by maintainingmy mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. 80Spiritual fear, confusion, and conflict are the direct consequences of the violencewith which traditional beliefs were stripped away from Indigenous peoples. This turmoilgives particular urgency to understanding the role of Canada’s churches in effectingreconciliation with Indigenous peoples. A number of Survivors spoke to us aboutthe many contradictions they now see between their adult knowledge of Christianethics and biblical teachings and how they were treated in the schools. These contradictionsindicate the spiritual fear and confusion that so many Survivors have experienced.Children who returned home from the residential schools were unable torelate to families who still spoke their traditional languages and practised traditionalspirituality. Survivors who wanted to learn the spiritual teachings of their ancestorswere criticized and sometimes ostracized by their own family members who wereChristian, and by the church. Survivors and their relatives reported that these tensions