Building Bridges Between Canada’s Indigenous and Newcomer Groups by Shauna Labman

On May 12-13 a gathering “Building Bridges Between Canada’s Indigenous and Newcomer Groups” took place at Circle of Life Thunderbird House in Winnipeg that brought together individuals, community workers, artists, advocates, and academics keen to build relations and understandings in the city. A small CBC piece on the event has generated almost 400 shares.  I want to use this forum to offer further clarity on the origins of the meeting, a summary of discussions, and possibilities moving forward. 

The event was originally conceived out of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s funding call for grant proposals “Connecting for Canada’s 150^th”.  As Canada approaches this grand birthday, discussion has swirled around what precisely this marker celebrates, what it blurs, and what it ignores at a time when reconciliation is both an ambition and a challenge.  In the same moment, Canada is welcoming refugees with targeted resettlement programs for Syrian and now Yazidi refugees and struggling with its reaction to asylum seekers entering irregularly from the United States. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada made specific Calls to Action concerning Newcomers to Canada:

93. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the national Aboriginal    organizations, to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.

94. We call upon the Government of Canada to replace the Oath of Citizenship with the following: I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including Treaties with Indigenous Peoples, and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.

It is also important for all Canadians to understand Canada’s international obligations and domestic commitments to refugees.  Thus with Canada’s 150^th on the horizon, it made sense to focus on the oldest and newest inhabitants of the land that now makes up Canada and their relationships with each other.  For me, thinking about these issues side by side raised questions on the meaning of home. What does it mean to be home, to fight for your home, to lose your home, to create a new home?

In a city like Winnipeg, the physical homes of indigenous and newcomer groups are often side by side in core neighbourhoods.  I am on the Board of Directors at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM).  IRCOM has operated an apartment building on Ellen Street since 1991 that offers transitional housing to newcomers to Winnipeg in their first year of residence and extending up to 3 years. The grand opening for IRCOM’s second location, on Isabel Street, will take place next week on June 5, 2017.  IRCOM has sought to nurture strong indigenous – newcomer relations as a strategic priority since 2015.  As a practical matter, hosting this gathering struck me as a way to support this effort.

Participants came to the conference with a wealth of knowledge, working relationships, and insight.  The goal of the event was to strengthen these connections, fill in gaps, and broaden the reach of collaborations.  We commenced the first day with an opening prayer and the Kairos Blanket Exercise as an active experience of the historical and contemporary relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada and ended the day with a facilitated refugee myth-busting exercise.  On the second day we invited speakers from across Canada working on similar bridge building and closed with art, music and dance as a celebration. Robson Hall law students served as attentive note-takers throughout the two days and a full report that hopes to capture the diverse perspectives shared, the commonalities, misconceptions, and points of conflict or contention in the panels will follow shortly.  

It proved unnecessary to pursue funding through the SSHRC grant as the University of Manitoba generously funded the event through the Legal Research Institute, the Dean of Law, and the Conference Sponsorship Program.  While I served as the lead organizer on behalf of the Migration Law Research Cluster, the two days were planned through collaboration with the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (Aimée Craft), the Faculty of Social Work (Regine King) and IRCOM (Shereen Denetto).  Law students Madison Pearlman and Danielle Morrison were hired to turn a proposal into a reality and worked closely with Jessica Praznik from the Immigrant Centre Manitoba to navigate the logistical details.

It is important to recognize the university’s role in the event as an opportunity for outreach and relationship building as well.  Rather than holding the event on campus, we hosted the event at Thunderbird House to both bring the university to the community and allow conference participants to familiarize themselves with the space as well as the vision and principles tied to its construction. During the conference we facilitated a “Skills and Knowledge Exchange Bank” where in the listing of resources it was noted that academics are physical resources able to provide information and insight.  When the Migration Law Research Cluster hosted an event focussed on “Building Connections: Refugee Research and Community Outreach” in 2014, issues were raised with respect to demands sometimes put on NGOs to facilitate academic research and the lack of post research advocacy or assistance.  It has been an objective of the MLRC from the outset to build knowledge and understanding and to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement through monthly noon hour speakers, social media, and larger community conferences. The Building Bridges conference was both an outgrowth of earlier events and itself a means to extend our own reach and connection into the community.  On behalf of the MLRC, I invite you to keep the conversation going  and be in touch with us.  I look forward to what comes next!