NUNAVUT
Members of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples spoke to those in attendance at the General Synod last month about a confederacy of indigenous ministries that would see indigenous members of the church self-determine their own ministry within the existing church.

The General Synod, held July 7 to 12 in Toronto, is the national meeting of Canadian Anglicans held every three years.

"(The proposed confederacy) is not separate. We look at it more as a partnership," Rev. Canon Ginny Doctor, co-ordinator for indigenous ministries since 2011, told Nunavut News/North from her office in Toronto.

Doctor, a Mohawk from the Six Nations and previously a canon to the ordinary for the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, is a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S. and spent 18 years in ministry in Alaska.

"You see, we are different. We have a culture onto our own. Having said that, even in our indigenous communities, when you go from community to community, they are culturally different."

Doctor says settlers frequently don't understand those cultures.

"And they don't understand the traditions and don't understand who we are as people. Therefore they have imposed their values, their way of doing things on us - which is not consistent with what we were taught."

She recalls an instance in Alaska, for example, where missionaries told people in an Inupiat village that their dances were "evil" and "of the devil."

Doctor lets out a subdued chuckle, then says, "There is nothing wrong with these dances."

She adds: "Most dances, really all dances, are thanksgiving for something. For something that has been given to you from the Creator. It's not about trying to do black magic or create something evil. It's not that way."

'It's about keeping the best of both worlds'

Someone from another village had come to teach the traditional dances and songs to the young people.

"They danced for the first time. It was one of the most powerful ... not a dry eye in the place. People were grateful. That's an important part of reconciliation - to reclaim something that was taken away," Doctor said.

"We are trying to reclaim who we are as indigenous people, to be self-determining in terms of who we are as indigenous people."

However, she says not everything taught by settlers was bad.

"I think it's about keeping the best of both worlds and molding them together and making something that works for our communities," she said. "There's still a need for pastoral care in terms of suicide prevention, in terms of brokenness and family violence. All those things that are a result of the Doctrine of Discovery which, more or less, took things away from indigenous people. It's historical trauma, as they say, passed on from generation to generation."

The Doctrine of Discovery, dating back to the 15th century, was the legal means by which Europeans claimed rights of sovereignty, property, and trade in regions they allegedly discovered during the age of expansion. The Doctrine of Discovery smoothly transitioned over centuries from Roman Catholic to international law, writes Robert J. Miller in The Doctrine of Discovery: The International Law of Colonialism.

The Anglican Church of Canada officially repudiated the doctrine at their General Synod in 2010. Dean of St. Jude's Cathedral in Iqaluit Very Rev. Jonas Allooloo is one of a group of almost 20 people to be named to the Primate's Commission on the Doctrine of Discovery, Reconciliation and Justice in June 2014.

According to the Anglican Journal, the commission requested at the recent General Synod that its mandate be extended to 2019 due to the "extensive nature" of the tasks it was set.

National Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald reportedly noted that many non-indigenous Anglicans are still not sure what the repudiation of the doctrine really means.

"Even many people who are quite sympathetic to indigenous peoples still think of them as being quite primitive, and that idea is a very destructive one," MacDonald is quoted as saying in the Anglican Journal.

"A lot of the havoc that has happened to First Nations peoples, to Inuit peoples, to Metis peoples, has not been out of spite or anger, but out of a sense that this is the best thing that could be done. It is very, very important that we understand that the best thing that can be done is to give people the freedom to control and work over their lives."

Doctor told Nunavut News/North that even from an indigenous perspective a lot of people don't understand the Doctrine of Discovery.

"We need to focus on that and, by focusing on that, we need to help heal it," she said. "We need to find ways to overcome it, to understand it. That's what we're most concerned about - how we restore our communities to be whole and healthy. We know, we know what the church has done has not totally helped because it still took things away from us. Look at residential schools, what they took from us. And it still goes on."

That, she says, is the main reason the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples wants to find a different way of doing things.

"Not that we're taking off and wanting to fly on our own because we still need each other. That's just the way it is. We're still related, as they say.

"This all a part of reconciliation. And many don't realize it. But they will once they see it happen. And once they see our communities thrive and become whole and healthy they will know that this was important."

In fact, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Actions includes specific references to the doctrine, and states in three separate instances that concepts "used to justify European sovereignty over indigenous lands and peoples such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius (nobody's land)" must be repudiated by churches, as well the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments.

"We had talked about doing this since way back in 1991, talking about self-determination and how we could move toward that. It never really got off the ground in the United States. I have a few theories on that. But basically it's just that they're not ready," she said.

"They're not healthy enough to do it, in my estimation. But I think in Canada it's different. Once the apology was made in 1993 by (then-Primate) Michael Peers ... that began to turn things around. People began to see, they've acknowledged our pain. We know we have healing to do. That's when we actually started the healing journey - and that's a journey some are still on.

"Now the work is to figure what is self-determination and how to get there."

Doctor suggested Nunavut News/North speak with Allooloo.

"He has been involved in discussions more so than anyone else in the Arctic."

Allooloo declined to speak, saying Nunavut News/North had to contact the Bishop of the Arctic Diocese Rt. Rev. David Parsons. Parsons could not be reached by phone nor did he respond to several emails requesting to speak with both him and Allooloo about the proposed confederacy and what it might mean in Nunavut.

Doctor said the values of the church and the traditional values of indigenous people are inherently similar.

"You just look at the traditional teachings - and they vary a bit from nation to nation - but basically they're the same. Humility. Love. Love is the biggie. Generosity - you're to share what you have with others. All those teachings scream Christianity. So they're basically the same," she said.

Asked if she thinks the non-indigenous members of the Anglican church are supportive, Doctor says that's hard for her to put a finger on.

"I think that most are supportive. I know there are always those that are not supportive, for whatever reason. I don't know if it's paternalism. I don't know if it's racism. That's a hard call. But I think the more education we can do, the better, because people will begin to understand the why of us needing to do this."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.