One in Christ:
Lutherans and Canada’s First Nations People
by
W
ith COVID-19 our world has changed. We are not permitted to live life the way we did even at the beginning of March 2020. We have been isolated and separated from our communities, neighbours, and even to some degree our families. Thankfully as I write this article, the isolation is beginning to be relieved, and there is hope that by next year everything could be back to how we are accustomed to living. When we look at our Northern Canadian communities and the First Nations people that live with us in this magnificent country we call Canada, we must realize that the world for First Nations peoples likewise changed dramatically more than 400 years ago as colonialism began
Randy Heide
and spread across the country. Their nomadic lifestyle was first restricted and eventually taken away. They were pushed to settle into reservations. They were introduced to alcohol, and to European diseases. Their children were taken away from their communities, families, and way of life, and brought to Residential schools as early as 1831, where their names, language, and identities were removed in an attempt to teach them colonial ways. A variety of other abuses were experienced, and depression, suicide and violence were often a result. It was only in 1996 that the last of the Canadian residential schools was closed in Saskatchewan. It is with mixed emotion that survivors of both the Residential schools and the various forced THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN July/August 2020
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