Indigenous Peace and Friendship
Building on the foundational work of Lnapskuk – The Neighhbours Project from 2002 to 2005, this project has worked toward further efforts of peace, justice and mutuality among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and groups in the Maritime region including bearing witness and solidarity work in earlier struggles in Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church) to claim Treaty fishing rights. This has been a partnership over the years between Tatamagouche Centre and the Mennonite Central Committee, in association with the Aboriginal Rights Coalition – Atlantic and the Task Group on Aboriginal Relationships and Concerns of Maritime Conference, United Church of Canada.
The title “Peace and Friendship” comes from the names of the series of treaties, signed in the 1700’s, between the First Nations of this region and the British Crown. These treaties are legal today inspiring us toward a re-newing of right relationship, as had been envisioned long ago.
This work of Peace and Friendship happens through Peace and Friendship gatherings where Indigenous and settlers alike can be in friendship, ceremony, share food and Indigenous teachings. These gatherings embody the right relations we strive for in other areas of Centre life. We also work in collective care and solidarity to amplify Indigenous friends and Elders fighting for water and land, fishing and other Treaty rights and naming ongoing violence.
Our vision for Peace and Friendship work:
To create a new understanding and awareness between one another which creates an environment for healing the past. Many generations before us have passed on without reconciling the past. Now, we as the children of those ancestors who signed the Peace and Friendship Treaties (Mi’kmaq, Wolastoq, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and non-Indigenous) have a unique role, responsibility and opportunity to re-establish peaceful relationships with one another so that the atrocities of the past will not be repeated, overtly or covertly.
We must create new awareness between and amongst Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, that those who currently and/or one day will create policy (social, political, educational, judicial, environmental, etc) will someday deem it laughable and absurd that there was once a time the Indigenous Peoples of this land were not included in any type of policy development or discussion, at any level. - Tina Bernard
