June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day
Officially, it’s still National Aboriginal Day; the bill that would have renamed it National Indigenous Peoples Day died on the order paper when the 2019 federal election was called.
I just learned through the current Wikipedia article on the subject that when the idea of designating July 21 as a day to honour and celebrate Indigenous peoples was first proposed back in 1945, it was from First Nations voices and minds, and pertained to the entire continent.
This serves as a reminder that the people of Turtle Island transcend the borders and orders of our time. “National” and “Indigenous” are, to an extent, a contradiction in terms: indigenuity is in relation to the lands and waters as the Creator made them (or, if you prefer, geological time), not to the United Settler Republic or the Confederated Settler Dominion of these latter days.
It is important that we make this distinction between these modern nation states and the Indigenous peoples or nations of this continent, because without it we can never come closer to the full truth or begin to achieve anything like reconciliation.
June 21st is, nevertheless, Canada’s day for “recognizing and celebrating the cultures and contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Metis Indigenous peoples”, not just of this country, but of the continent we are part of, who, in turn, are among Indigenous peoples and nations around the globe. And it is fitting that as Canadians, we honour, celebrate and express our gratitude for their presence all together, as engaged citizens in a democratic body politic.
But let’s make sure it is a celebration. The longest, brightest day of the year is not a day for mourning. I think the Grand River Transit decision to stop all buses and trains for one minute of silence was misguided. Canadians now have another National Day dedicated to reflecting on Truth and Reconciliation: September 30.
For similar reasons, I also don’t think canceling Canada Day, renaming it or making it yet another day of mourning, can accomplish any good purpose. But Canada as a body politic, past, present and future, is pertinent to the matter at hand, far more than any particular personage, especially historical figures, however personally blameworthy, who have been dead and buried for a century or more, and therefore no longer able to approach the truth, make amends or actively work towards reconciliation.
Putting the blame on John A Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson or the Empress Victoria is passing the buck: Reconciliation is the work of every living Canadian, and those yet to be born. It is entirely in our hands. I’m just not sure whether it is possible to make a separate peace for our portion of the continent, or if the all-powerful revolutionary republic we share the continent with would even permit us to be so boldly honourable unilaterally.
To my mind, reconciliation does not mean judgment, blame, negotiation, compromise, partition, settlement or any other kind of deal-making. The goal is true peace, when the nature of the conflict itself is resolved and dissolved, not the peace that comes with victory, or punishment, or a simple cessation of hostilities. If it means justice, we’re doomed. Redemption is possible, but it can never be earned or deserved. Full reconciliation means peace almost beyond understanding, centred in the heart, the soul, the very being of a people or a nation. And it is forever.
My sense, or at least my hope, is that this is what the promise of the Two Row Wampum is all about. As I like to imagine it, Two Row began, not as a deal or a bargain, but as a profound understanding about how this new relationship between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and these settlers from the United Provinces of the Netherlands could and should work. It is better recited as a prayer, a ceremonial incantation, or a hand-on-the-heart pledge than as some kind of contract.
At first, it looks like a graphic representation of apartheit, or separation. But the two parallel lines are identical, and inseparable. The rows are aligned, forever. The background, interpreted as the water that carries both vessels, is a point of connection, not a wall that divides or distinguishes. There is not even a separation between past and future, between the point of origin and what has transpired over time. The lines run side by side, always:
As long as the grass is green,
as long as the waters flow downhill,
and as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
The relationship is lateral, not hierarchical:
You say that you are our father and I am your son.
We say, We will not be like Father and Son, but like Brothers.
Like East vis à vis West, never the twain shall meet. But there is no inherent antagonism: one exists in relation to the other.
Maybe Two Row is an impossible prescription, like the golden rule about loving thy neighbour as thyself, or turning the other cheek. But there is great wisdom here, plain, simple, yet profound and, fully considered, unfathomable. As a general direction, as something to set our compasses by, I think it can help us find our way.
June 24 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day / Fête nationale du Québec
June 27 Canadian Multicultural Day
At a point between Victoria Day / Fete de la Reine in May and National Indigenous Peoples Day in June, I made the suggestion that the Lion and the Lamb depicted on the original symbol of Waterloo County could also, like Two Row Wampum, be interpreted as a symbol of reconciliation. This was my contribution to the discussion over the statue of Queen Victoria in the local park that bears her name.
Kitchener artist Michele Purchase had made an interesting suggestion in one of those social media exchanges about the significance of this troublesome remnant of our Victorian heritage a while back: Let’s think about the Lion and what it signifies, she proposed, rather than the Empress whom the people who lived here five or six generations ago loved and revered so deeply.
The idea resonated with me because I like to think about the Lion as part of the original emblem of Waterloo the County and settlement: the biblical image of the lion lying down with the lamb, a symbol of peace, hope and promise. I wrote a column about this a while back, originally intended for the Cord Community Edition, but ultimately submitted to CultKW.com: The Lion and the Lamb: a Wonderful Civic Emblem.
We could, if we chose to do so, make this emblem a symbol of Truth and Reconciliation: The lion's carnivorous nature is undeniable, as is the vulnerability of the lamb. That's the Truth. One solution would simply be to exterminate the lion, so we can all live in safety and peace. Kill them all; obliterate every trace of their existence. But to do that, the lamb would have to develop lion-like powers and instincts. That's not reconciliation, but triumphant victory over an enemy, and in so doing taking on the very characteristics that made that enemy so dangerous.
For the Lion to lie down with the Lamb, there would have to be some kind of miracle, one that would change the very natures of living beings. If Zaccaquini's public art work is allowed to remain where it has stood for 114 years, I propose we re-dedicate it to longing for peace, pondering over whether truth and reconciliation can ever be achieved, and if so, thinking about what is required of us as citizens and as members of the human race to bring such a miracle about.
If we're not ready for that, I think it might be better to remove Victoria from her pedestal, store her bronzed image and that of her Lion somewhere out of harm's way. They should be kept in storage, accessible for study and contemplation, for however long it takes for us to move beyond fighting those old battles.
The basic question is whether to defend and adapt to the orders of the day, or to overthrow, destroy and replace them with something new. If I were compelled to choose a side, the logical preference would, of course, be the Canadian way, the way of piecemeal, but peaceful, transition, rather than the way of the rebel, the resistance fighter, the revolutionary, the disrupter, the destroyer. That would be swimming against currents that have prevalent going on 250 years: The 19th century didn’t belong to Canada, nor did the 20th.
Empires come, and empires go. Sooner or later the tide will turn. But a reversal of fortune, with loyal, orderly, law-abiding Ontario prevailing, for once, over “thus always to tyrants” Virginia and “live free or die” New Hampshire, would not be a turn towards truth and reconciliation. The peace train -- the miracle, the holy roller -- will be something else again: A new dispensation.
To be continued: