Title: Unsettling Truths: The on-going, dehumanizing legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery.
Author: Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
This book shines a damning light on the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the legal framework that grounded and justified European colonial rule of the Americas, and whose fallout continues to impact Indigenous lives to this day.
I was getting desperate. It was the last of four days at the Montreal Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings. Sorrow, despair, hope, anger, defeat, defiance, and confusion washed over me like…
Chilliwack, B.C. Aboriginal artist and carver Isadore Charters worked on his “healing pole” under a tent during breaks at the B.C. MB convention, May 3–4. Charters, who lives in Chilliwack, B.C.,…
“I just want a hug from my sisters.” The pain in the grandmother’s voice is heart-rending, as she gives voice to the hurt and estrangement that has splintered her family. It’s a story all too familiar to thousands of First Nations families across Canada,
Last November, in my role as interim Herald editor, I wrote an editorial urging Mennonite Brethren to participate in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The Commission was formed as a provision of the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement between government, church entities, and former students. Its mandate was to work at healing the personal damage and broken relationships caused by the residential school system.