First Nations, organizations in Lloydminster-area vow to work together on reconciliation
- EFN Staff | April 24, 2018
A public signing between partners with a shared vision for reconciliation took place in Lloydminster recently. A group of individuals, community-based organizations, governments, faith communities, and businesses from Onion Lake Cree Nation, Lloydminster, Frog Lake First Nation, and Poundmaker Cree Nation came together and formed Heart of Treaty 6 Reconciliation – a partnership to build relationships on working together.
“It’s a pretty diverse group which is part of the strategy is to bring in diverse people with different perspectives together and to have a discussion on what kinds of things we need to work on in order to move forward,” said Rhett Sangster, the Director of Reconciliation and Community Partnerships.
Sangster said the recent public meeting on Wednesday, April 18 was a discussion on the dialogues between the partners that has occurred for over a year on working together towards reconciliation.
“Since December 2016, we’ve been talking about what a common agenda could look like and what kind of perimeters we could work on,” he said. “We’ve developed a commitment to relationships and trust.”
The event which took place at Lakeland College campus in the Indigenous Student Lounge started with a pipe ceremony followed by a public signing a declaration between the partners of Heart of Treaty 6 Reconciliation. There were many dignitaries in attendance including the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Thomas Molloy.
“He talked about the relationship building and trust building processes are important,” he said. “He congratulated our group for starting that relationship process [with the Heart of Treaty 6 Reconciliation].”
The much bigger process now is working on the two priorities that Heart of Treaty 6 Reconciliation group has agreed to. Education and awareness about the residential schools and Indigenous history and the strength of the cultures in the region. The other priority they vowed to honour is to work on looking at healing on the effects of colonization by building hope and pride in the communities. Sangster said there’s still more to work on but hope to be more inclusive to make the group bigger of participants.
“We would like to expand and have more of the Saskatchewan Metis there,” he said. “It’s not everybody and we’re not claiming to have everybody in the circle but it’s a start and the circle will grow include others as well.”
An official launch of Reconciliation Regina was held on March 20th with similar goals of the group that consists of organizations, politicians, government representatives, Indigenous leaders and community members.