Mapping did come to St. Andrew’s Anglican Church! We had 25 participants take part in this interactive workshop. Elizabeth Bonnet and Rev Jennifer Marlor facilitated . Our very own - Mr. George Bird was our Indigenous Witness for the event.
Mapping the Ground We Stand On is a program developed by our PWRDF (Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund) to help us grow in our understanding of the Indigenous peoples’ history and engagement with this land. St. Andrews – as a part of OUR commitment to support the finding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission invited facilitators to lead us through the exercise.
Adele Finney, then Executive Director of PWRDF and Esther Wesley (Cree First Nation), then coordinator of the Anglican Fund for Healing and Reconciliation, teamed up to create this workshop and it was released and facilitators were trained in late 2019. It is relatively new and is suitable to junior high to adult populations. A similar workshop is being developed for younger children.
The exercise was organized around a floor map of the northern part of Turtle Island that we now call Canada. The first part of the exercise invites an exploration of the names of some of the Indigenous peoples that have been present on the land for millennia and then for “settlers” to engage their personal family history of arrival and how they come to be here on the land now.
SO…..
At this mapping exercise here at St. Andrew, our group of 25 parishioners gathered in our Parish Hall at the edges of the large map of Canada or North Turtle Island. When unfurled, this map covers a very large patch of the floor- big enough for all of us to stand on.
Rev. Jenn and Elizabeth followed a script in the guide and began by saying “This is the northern part of Turtle Island, what we call Canada (PAUSE) foreshadowing that we were going to learn some new things. Participants were invited to close their eyes and imagine this Turtle Island the way it was millennia ago. Then the names of numerous First Nations and Inuit peoples were printed on sheets of paper and each name was said as we placed them on the map in roughly the right geographic space. The surface was soon covered. Empty lands…..I don’t think so! She continued by saying “How long shall we pause to give us a sense of the millennia this land was inhabited before MOST of our ancestors stepped onto it?” Silence fell over the room for what seemed like ages.
Next, the history of settlers arriving on Turtle Island was described - starting with Viking explorers 600 to 1,000 years ago, then British and French colonists, then United Empire Loyalists, then African-Americans (including those using the underground railroad), followed by the three immigrant waves of the 20th century. Each of us stepped onto the map when our ancestor’s era are introduced. It was very interesting to hear the stories of the first comers to Canada of our parishioners and where they settled. The script also included references to other key events in Canadian history such as – the first Eucharist in Canada by Robert Wolfall in 1578, the first residential school in 1820, the Chinese Head Tax in 1885. With everyone having had a turn to stand on the map, the following words were projected onto the wall and were spoken aloud:
“My truth as a Settler has been one-sided, from the Settler viewpoint. The history taught in our schools does not have a First Nations, Métis or Inuit perspective. I am here to learn facts and truths I do not know.”
One of the most interesting revelations explained in the mapping exercise is the concept of terra nullius, Latin for empty land. This section of the Guide was written by Esther Wesley, Coordinator of the Anglican Fund for Healing and Recognition. I QUOTE “Papal Bulls of the 15th century gave explorers the right to claim lands they discovered for their Christian Monarchs,”. The theory was that non-Christians were considered non-existent, and therefore any land inhabited by non-Christians was uninhabited. To our modern ears these words — the foundation of the so-called Doctrine of Discovery — sound preposterous. Yet their effect held fast and in 1823, the doctrine was referenced in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Johnson v. M’Intosh. It essentially set into law a sort of “squatter’s rights” for settlers to occupy Indigenous land. Courts in Australia, Canada and New Zealand soon cited the decisions in their laws.
It wasn’t until June 2014 that Canada’s Supreme Court recognized the existence of Aboriginal title on a piece of land in British Columbia. In its ruling it said “the doctrine of terra nullius never applied in Canada, as stated by the Royal Proclamation of 1763.” The land treaties that had been written between the government of Canada and First Nations were a case in point: how could those treaties be legal if they were made with people who were supposedly non-existent?
But of course, by then it was too late. The damage of terra nullius had been done. Wesley notes that a fundamental aspect of the Doctrine of Discovery was “its racialized, hierarchical sorting and organizing of entire populations of peoples, and the concept that natural resources can become commodities to be bought and sold.” These concepts have sunk their teeth deep into our land and its people.
The exercise wraps with reflection and a new way of thinking about how we refer to ourselves as Canadians. Many of us in the group found that it was a powerful reminder that we have to learn to listen to the stories of the first people of our country.
Along the way there are opportunities for participants to gather in sharing circles and to express their hopes and disappointments for the relationship between all peoples who now call this land “home”.
I very much valued the time I had with fellow parishioners yesterday and encourage anyone who has the opportunity, to take part in this workshop - or others like it.
We will be getting a list of resources to support this workshop shortly.
Shared by Shirley Bender
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