Thank you for that.
The first thing that comes to mind is a celebration. First, it's your pow wows and grand entries in uniform. To me, that is powerful work, with the chief council and the RCMP and everyone there. That visual is a start, within that work and to that area.
Then we have cadets from the nation dressed up in uniform. That's a message right there on its own. They're dressed up proud, and everything else.
We concentrate on our youth with our elders. You put them in combination with the veterans and they're marching together. What more of a picture do you need to explain about reconciliation and truth? They're indigenous and non-indigenous, that's all. They're marching all at the same time. That's key to that.
For me, this summer, there were a lot of the grand entries in uniform. I was in the all-chiefs meeting here in Ottawa, or across the bridge over there. I'm asked to participate in different ones and I share. That's when I get my consultation going: Where are you from? Is there's anything we can do with our friendship centre? Here's a contact. That's what I do.
You talk about reconciliation. That's what we're doing now in Alberta. We're sitting at the table at St. Paul des Métis in Alberta and it's starting to work now. Two veterans have come forward from first nations. They had never talked, never shared. That's exactly what's starting now, what you just mentioned in that.
For my role, I always look at the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. The elders.... Do you know what? They called me an elder one day, and I looked around and I thought, okay, I'll accept that from the youth and the children. My late grandfather said, “If you're walking on Jell-O all your life, in the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional, your journey is going to be pretty rough.” You have to have a balance in life today. We have the Creator, which we acknowledge every morning through our different ways. All walks of life do that. If we can sit next to everybody and ask for that forgiveness. We move forward with the knowledge base and everything else.
Concentrating in one area.... You need the big picture. Sometimes we're just focusing on that reconciliation. There's more to it, with family and extended family—whether the kids are coming home. Just recently in the newspaper in St. Paul—I don't know if you've seen it—there was something about the statement on residential schools. What did the kids learn? I'm sorry to say it, but we still have racism. We still have it.
I'm going to just share. I was sitting and they were talking about “the Indians out there”. I finally showed them my treaty card, and I said, “You're talking about me. Could you explain a little more, please?” I was not negative, because you have the right to do that in reconciliation. He came and shook my hand and gave me a hug. That's building that relationship, with what you're doing.
In B.C., you have some real models out there. They come back to Ottawa here and that's shared openly.
I graduated in Prince Rupert, B.C.. I lived there for two years. It was in the same area.