Spoiled rotten, some think;  Oh, so blessed, others marvel; Chosen for, I believe.  All these epithets can be used to describe me.  Why?  Because I was born of healthy parents, who always stayed deeply in love with each other, who provided me with four older siblings who showed me the way to fully living, and who gave me a kid brother to make my growing up always fun.  In addition they handed on faith to me – a faith that was authentic, dynamic and full of intimacy. 

These three epithets also apply to me because I was born in a land of freedom, peace, clean water, ample food and a land full of opportunities for me for education, employment and any meaningful career I wished.  I am spoiled rotten, oh so blessed and chosen for, because I was born in Canada after World War II, and have been privileged to live here all of my life.

Some time ago I was invited to do the blanket exercise. The blanket exercise is an interactive learning experience that teaches us the history of relations with Indigenous peoples in Canada.  This helped scales to fall from my eyes.  I learned first of all, that all of my life I had been walking on land belonging to indigenous peoples and that I am presently standing on the land of the Wendat, Anishinaabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations. 

And in that exercise I experienced how our ancestors were welcomed as visitors on this land by the indigenous peoples.  And I learned how our ancestors then quickly became colonizers and through a series of unjust treaties systematically took away much of the land from the indigenous peoples who had inhabited the land for generations.  They justified their actions with their theories of terra nullius and the doctrine of discovery, which they claimed gave them a right to take over these lands.

 I also experienced how indigenous children were forcefully separated from their parents often at a very young age.  Our ancestors did this in order to systematically kill the Indian identity in these children, robbing them of their culture, language and spiritual practices.  And I saw this continued in the 60’s scoop, which in the 1960’s took children away from their families and adopted them out to non-indigenous families. 

I saw a blind eye cast toward long lists of murdered and missing indigenous women, toward the disproportionate numbers of indigenous people incarcerated and toward the unequal provision of educational opportunities and even of adequate housing and clean water.  I was shocked to discover that my Canada was different from the Canada my indigenous brothers and sisters had experienced. My Canada had been full of opportunity and possibility – theirs was misery and exclusion.

But then, just recently, came the courageous decision of the Canadian Government to make open apologies to the First Nations of Canada and to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  A truthful admission of this horrible Canadian sin and cover up of our history has led to dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians, has restored hope, and is beginning to restore relations between us.

Now in a slow, but respectful and authentic dialogue with my indigenous friends, I am beginning to see Canada at 150 as truly a great nation, one where truth can be told and admitted, where we say we are sorry, where we are forgiven, and where we become friends.  Now I can say with pride, I am spoiled rotten, oh so blessed and chosen for.  As a Canadian, arm in arm with my indigenous brothers and sisters, we are chosen for a mission to help the whole world experience a reconciliation with the Creator, with ourselves and with others.