Julia L. Jamieson, Director of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Holistic Practices, at the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies reflects on National Indigenous History Month and June 21 as National Indigenous Peoples Day.
To all my relations,
As June has come to serve as an opportunity to highlight the tremendous accomplishments of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit persons and communities across Turtle Island, OACAS celebrates engagement that prioritizes truth and reconciliACTION. We are reminded that Indigenous Nations and their communities have the inherent right to tell us, as a province, about the appropriate ways of knowing and being that contribute to the safety and well-being of Indigenous children, youth, and families. They are the experts; they are the knowledge keepers.
As we gather our minds as a child welfare sector at this time of year, with an aim to celebrate and honour the rich traditions, cultures, languages, and histories of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, we must ensure we are simultaneously focused on centring decolonized child welfare practice. We must ensure that Indigenous young persons—our collective future—as well as their families, see, feel, and hear this change. We cannot honour Indigenous culture and community without ensuring they are also the foundation for the work we do with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children, youth, and families.
In peace, power, and righteousness, I implore all Ontarians, but especially those working in the child welfare and related sectors and systems, to collaborate in preparing a provincial protocol that asserts reciprocal and respectful relations, and to do so with the wisdom of the Anishinaabe Seven Grandfather teachings.
June serves as an opportunity to learn more about the diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities across this land we call Canada. But we must ensure we do not limit our learning, reframing and reconciliation practice to one time of year. It must be consistent, ongoing, tireless work. It must continue beyond June 30 and past September 30. It must never end.
For some ideas of ways you can learn, honour, and celebrate this month, click here.
