The long road to reconciliation

In a busy Tim Hortons on the Trans-Canada Highway in Kenora, Ont., the conversation often turns to reconciliation.

Marlene Elder, Dan Yerxa, Geraldine Kakeeway, Theresa Jamieson and Shirley Kelly are regulars here. Today, they sip tea with honey, making jokes about bannock and squirrels. While the close-knit group often has hearty laughs together, they also sometimes find themselves reflecting on the impact of colonization, residential school and racism.

People don't have time to worry about reconciliation because they are trying to find a house, or get their kids back or get a job, Elder said.

If reconciliation is working, why can't a family of eight get an apartment or a home in this town? Jamieson asked.

Kenora, a city in northwestern Ontario on Lake of the Woods, not far from the Manitoba border, has been called the crossroads of colonization.

Treaty 3 territory, where the city sits, had six different residential schools, with the last one closed in 1974. Two sat not far from Kenoras bustling downtown business district, which fills up every summer with cottagers.

The city also has a long history of violence, racial tensions and segregation policies, which sent a message to many of the areas approximately 25,000 people from the 28 First Nations in Treaty 3: Do not come here.

In the three years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued its report, which included 94 Calls to Action, the idea of reconciliation has permeated meetings, churches, dinner tables and coffee shop talk in the city of about 15,000.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was organized by the parties of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It travelled across Canada to gather information and its report detailed the harmful legacy of residential schools and made suggestions on how to advance reconciliation in Canada.

In Kenora, some evidence of that advancement is visible.

The Treaty 3 flag flies at city hall. It was raised for the first time, over the summer of 2017, on National Aboriginal Day alongside a traditional ceremony. The flag is meant to symbolize the reaffirmation of the treaty, a city spokesperson said in an email.

A few months later, Colonization Road built as part of an 1850s policy to expand European settlements and give settlers access to land that was traditionally used by Indigenous people was renamed.

The city plans to have Ojibway translations appear on new signs that it puts up in Kenora.

And it arranged cultural sensitivity training for staff by an Indigenous-owned institution.

This past August, Kenora's 2020 Strategic Plan was updated to ensure that all Indigenous Peoples were included in the commitment to honouring the 94 Calls to Action, the city spokesperson said.

But, despite these symbolic changes, some people question whether meaningful reconciliation will come to Kenora anytime soon.

The group of friends gathered for tea on a snowy evening at the end of October said that, despite all the talk of reconciliation in Canada, they still face racism, and any real progress seems as insurmountable as the communitys housing crisis.

While relationships have improved over the last decade, Kakeeway said racism is still accepted when there are no Indigenous people in the room. Her children have lighter skin and they tell her stories about the terrible things that have been said in front of them and children are often just repeating what theyve heard at home.

When the government made the big apology, and the TRC and all of this other stuff, to me personally, I feel that there is an unsaid timeline OK, let's get to reconciliation so that everybody can get over it. Great big chorus of Kumbaya across Canada. But it's going to be a long time in coming, she said.

What we are experiencing right now is education but I don't think it's reconciliation yet because in order to get there we have to really acknowledge that there was some really ugly shit that happened.

Racism is not just behind closed doors.

In August, a justice of the peace made a comment in court that no one there had heard of Benny Hill and when a Mikmaw lawyer said she was familiar with the comedian, he replied, Your ancestors probably scalped him or something.

The Criminal Lawyers Association made a formal complaint to the Justices of the Peace Review Council.

Some people in Kenora struggle with their Indigenous identities, and shame was a result of racism shown by non-Aboriginal people, according to a report from the Urban Aboriginal Task Force in 2007.

Sometimes we were called dirty Indians. We were called names and stuff like that there was this one family that was very, very racist, said an anonymous respondent in the report.

They made it known that they did not like Indians and walking down the road after school to go home she would say, Why dont you go back to where you came from? Meaning me as an Indian person had no right to live in town.

It can be tough for non-Indigenous people to sit and listen to the history of their community how colonization brought trauma and destruction but its essential, said Meg Illman-White.

Illman-White is a minister at Knox United Church and moved to the city about two years ago.

One of the privileges of being white is we like to be comfortable, and when you put yourself in a place where you are hearing stories of real deep pain, of repeated trauma and of all of the stuff that colonization has done, your heart cant help but break, she said.

The church facilitated a six-week series for people hoping to better understand the history of colonialism and its impact on Kenora last March. The series came after the church opened its doors to help in the search for 16-year-old Delaine Copenace, who was later found dead.

Particularly for churches across the country, reconciliation cannot just be about raising a flag or renaming a road, it has to be community members taking action every day. They must interact with and advocate for their First Nations neighbours even if it makes them uncomfortable, she said.

This is where healing needs to happen and its going to take a long time. Its not tomorrows work, its a step at a time, she said.

Before the Skead family from Wauzhushk Onigum Nation, located immediately south of Kenora, shares their experiences, over different generations, of being taken to residential schools, they do traditional protocols like smudging and prayer.

In a recent interview with CBC News, stories of angry, mean and physically violent teachers, a loss of language and horrific abuse flowed from daughters Sally and Kathleen, mother Jeannette, and father Clifford.

I made it home but some of the kids, the parents don't even know what happened to the child, said Kathleen Skead, who attended St. Marys Indian Residential School for four years.

That school opened three kilometres south of Kenora in 1897 and was run by Roman Catholics.

Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School opened in 1902 in Kejick Bay and was operated by the Presbyterian Church. It is the residential school Chanie Wenjack ran away from in 1966 before being found dead. His story was the subject of a book and album by the late Gord Downie.

From 1906 to 1926, four more schools opened up on the treaty territory: Fort Alexander Indian Residential School, McIntosh Indian Residential School, Pelican Lake Indian Residential School and St. Margarets Indian Residential School.

Education about that difficult history is a key component to the work being done by Ahze-mino-gahbewewin, or Reconciliation Kenora.

The non-profit was created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members last year to support initiatives promoting reconciliation.

If there was any place we felt needed action, it is Kenora, said co-chair Elaine Bright, a non-Indigenous lawyer who represented people at residential school hearings and has lived in Kenora for about five years.

The group has done a few projects so far, including a powwow in June and a traditional medicine garden. Its members include a retired Ontario Superior Court judge, a councillor with the Mtis Nation of Ontario and a member of city council, among others.

The group itself is a microcosm of the challenges with reconciliation in the larger community, said Kathleen Skead, the director of the group.

At a meeting there was discussion about showing the film about Chanie Wenjack at an event, but Skead said another member was worried it would just shame Kenora. You cant even start talking about reconciliation if you are unwilling to face the wrongs in the past, she added.

I did tell everybody, OK, this is the elephant now in the room. It's been said, it's right here, and I gave everybody a chance to give their opinions ... So even within a group this is such a big issue, this is such a big topic that it's hard to really say where we are going to start, how we are going to start, she said.

However, its important the groups members are seen to be trying, she said. Thats not always the case in the larger community.

Back at the coffee shop, Yerxa and Kakeeway talk about how the responsibility of reconciliation is somehow falling on First Nations. Its becoming exhausting.

Elder chimes in that shell listen to all the apologies, but until theres an emergency shelter downtown and kids arent being taken into care, it wont mean anything.

People say they want reconciliation, but they want absolution. They want forgiveness and they want to say, OK we are starting from fresh. But until you stop the whole system, the big things, colonization, how can you start from fresh?

What does reconciliation look like in small communities? Its a question that reporters for Discourse Media and CBC Indigenous have been trying to get answers to.

Follow the project here.