Voices of past, present, future set direction for conference
- NC Raine | October 19, 2018
For four years, leading experts, community leaders, elders, and youth have been gathering at the annual Wicihitowin Aboriginal Engagement Conference to encourage community organizations to take action in reconciliation.
The theme of this year’s conference, which took place October 17-18 in Saskatoon, was “Voices of the people - past, present, and future”, focusing, in part, on learning from the voices of residential school survivors to light the path for future reconciliation.
This year’s conference drew its biggest crowds to date, with over 700 attendees to the two-day event.
“We try to identify people from across the country who are busy doing the work, advancing the Calls to Action, and shoulder tap those individuals to present and frame those ideas in a way that could be adopted and adapted to any community,” said Neal Kewistep, Executive-in-Residence at Johnson Shoyama Institute of Public Policy. “We’re not saying that ‘these are the answers’. We’re saying that they are some of the answers. And the community is responding really well.”
Kewistep said that these sort of events and initiatives are starting to create real awareness and inclusion in Saskatchewan for Indigenous people and reconciliation, citing gestures like acknowledging treaty land during gatherings, as well as the community-driven naming of Saskatoon’s new Chief Mistawasis Bridge, and the University of Saskatchewan’s new strategic plan for Indigenization.
“We need to see big changes happen, and we’re starting to see that stuff happen,” said Kewistep. “We want to evolve (Wicihitowin) collectively as a community. We’re ready to start taking bigger steps, and address those policies that could be barriers to taking bigger steps.”
This year’s speakers included Senator Murray Sinclair, Former Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Eugene Arcand, Indian Residential School Survivor Committee.
“This conference is about the institutions that are in place in Canada, and recognizing the change that needs to occur within themselves,” said Sinclair, who challenged attendees to make the TRC Calls to Action a priority for politicians in the upcoming election year. “Make sure the political leaders are not allowed to forget (the TRC Calls to Action) …One of the most important questions as Canadians is what we are going to do about the fact that we’ve created this mess and we need to fix it.”
Similarly, Arcand, speaking alongside elders and survivors, spoke to the importance of action for meaningful change.
“We don’t want pity, we’re past that. We want people to understand where we’ve been,” he said. “To make sure the future generations don’t experience any of this.”
Wicihitowin, a Cree and Saulteaux word meaning “working together”, was originally envisioned as a four-year conference. But, with participants gathering from four different provinces, organizers think the momentum behind the conference may carry it into the future.
“We couldn’t have imagined that much support and the growth the conference has seen over the years,” said Kewistep.
“The phrase most often shared (from elders) is ‘I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.’ I think we all need to share in that pride (..) we’re making a dream a reality for them. It’s events like this that’s contributing to that momentum being built.”