Canadian Friends support rights of Indigenous Peoples
Friends in Canada have recorded a minute on their work on Indigenous Peoples' rights
Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) last week received an update on its work on Indigenous Peoples’ rights and agreed a minute to carry that work forward.
CYM and the Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) have been collaborating with other faith bodies, including issuing a joint ecumenical statement.
The minute recorded that CFSC has explored the work of reconciliation with many Meetings. The work is grounded in Quaker practices, and Friends are called to listen to the concerns of Indigenous Peoples and ask them what they want and need rather than making assumptions.
Friends are also called ‘to be open to being challenged in our assumptions about the many destructive facets of colonial legacies and continuing racist practices… We acknowledge that part of our journey is to decolonize our own thinking and sit in the discomfort and pain of confronting where we need to deepen our understanding, bear witness, and transform our behaviour’.
Friends in Canada will prioritise this work. The minute asks Friends to continue to educate themselves, including children and youth, about ‘the doctrine of discovery, the ongoing effects of colonialism, the UN Declaration [on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] residential schools and their legacy, the history of the land on which they live and reconciliation efforts’.
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