Reflections on the National Inquiry

Aug 14, 2016 | 8:00 AM

Decades of
heartache, hopelessness and pain along with the dream that somebody would someday
hear, all came together on August 3
^rd,
in the Long House of
Indigenous peoples, at the Museum of History, formally known as the Musuem of
Civilization in Ottawa. It is ironic that it is this building, this institution
of civilization and history, designed by an Indigenous man, would be the place
this Independent Inquiry would be announced. Perhaps it is the storyteller in
me who mused on this and also heard, mingled with the voices of Ministers
Bennett, Hajdu and Wilson-Raybould, the long ago voices of Indigenous women who
protested this violence which has been perpetuated on them and their children
since first contact.

Voices like
Mariah Vandal, who in the 1870’s refused treaty and told her granddaughter, “I
did that because I would no longer be an Neheyaw Iskwew if I took treaty. I wanted nothing to do with
them, I prefered my life poor as it was to be my own.” I also heard the voice of an old woman called
Mary Anne, who carried her raped, beaten, half-dead daughter to Fort Carlton to
ask for help and was turned away. And Wandering
Spirit, the War Chief of Big Bear whose wife was raped by an Indian agent and
when he tried to get justice was laughed at and ignored. Elizabeth Whitford, who in the 1920’s walked
to Edmonton to report the murder of her daughter and was told to go home before
she was imprisoned. And even older
voices, a woman called Marie, who in 1643, was described by the Jesuit priest Vimont,
as ‘ a savage woman, a rough, wild creature who gives a great deal of trouble
to her husband. ‘ She refused to convert
or give her children to the Jesuits. It was
native women like Marie, wrote feminist scholar Karen Anderson “who were the
Jesuits most vociferous and relentless opponents, who challenged Jesuit
beliefs, and teachings. As women they refused to conform to the behavior that
the Jesuits knew God had ordained for their sex…If the Devil’s plans for the
new world were to be thwarted, if the forces of good that the Jesuits believed
they represented were to be triumphant and souls to be saved, native women
would have to submit to the authority of their husbands and to the church. In
order for that to happen, there had to be profound changes in the relationships
between women and men and a drastic reduction in women’s independence and
powers.”

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These Jesuits were
appalled at the freedom of Indigenous women, writing that they were “haughty
and proud and had entirely too much authority and power.” And so they set in motion those profound changes
creating the core of violence against Indigenous women and their children for
generations to come. A violence that is
today almost overwhelming.

Commissioner Marilyn Poitras with Ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Carolyn Bennett.

Photo by Ted Whitecalf

So those were the
voices I heard and the things I thought about as I listened to Minister Bennett
announce an Independent Inquiry and name the Commissioners. I cried when Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould
spoke. I know her father I met her when she was a little girl. Who would have believed in the ugly Harper
years that she would be the Attorney General when this announcement was made? And, I know I’m sounding like I am a bit
crazy, going on about Jesuits and old history but if we are to stop this
madness then we to have to, like the Jesuits, make “Profound change.” And profound change does not have to be
complicated but it does have to be honest and courageous and, it has to start
at home meaning we have to look at our own violence against ourselves, each
other and towards our children.

How do we do that?
I am not sure but my elders and mentors always said we have to convert, reclaim
and take back the things that made us strong, kind people. In other words we
have to decolonize and that is hard work. Are we up to it? Who knows?

I do know we owe a
huge debt of gratitude to the families and grass roots activists for their tireless
work over all these years. I pray for peace and closure for them, for all of
us. And the Commissioners, let’s help them in everyway we can to do the work
they must do. And that’s really all I have to say. I thought I would fill pages
and pages because I have, like all of you, waited so long for this day and now
that it has finally arrived I am feeling exhausted, emotional and a bit
frightened. Isn’t that odd?

Hiy
hiy, marci kinanaskomtinowow.

Reflections on the National Inquiry

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