In "Prophetic Act," Former First Nations' Chief on Canadian Cross-Country Tour Urging Tribes to Forgive

Teresa Neumann : Apr 12, 2010
Frank Stirk - Canadian Christianity

"Our children will look to that day and say, 'My ancestors, they stood before the government. They stood before the Church. They stood as a people. They recognized who God is in our nation. And they did not back down. And they believed for the healing of our nation. They believed for a revival in our people—and the freedom. That's what it's all about.'"

(Canada)—Canadian Christianity reports that moments after Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized and asked for forgiveness for the federal government's catastrophic residential schools policy, Native leader and former MP Elijah Harper and 100 Huntley Street's David Mainse went down to the Speaker's Chair in the House of Commons.

"We knelt down at the chair and prayed together," Harper said at the time, "and I expressed my forgiveness in my prayer."

That was on June 11, 2008, the report notes, but today, a team led by Kenny Blacksmith, the co-founder of Gathering Nations International and a former chief of the Cree community of Mistissini in northern Quebec, is on a cross-country tour urging his people to accept the Prime Minister's plea.

"We're asking our people," said Blacksmith, "to seriously look at your life and see and understand your bondage to offence, your bondage to unforgiveness. And then when you recognize you can't do it by yourself, surrender to God and ask God to help you and enable you to release forgiveness."

According to the report, there is much to be forgiven—so much, in fact, that many First Nations, Inuit and Metis people feel that it is impossible for them to forgive.

National Indigenous Anglican bishop Mark MacDonald was quoted as saying he believes that what Blacksmith is attempting "has the potential of being a prophetic act. "I think there's a strong and growing sense that we've now entered into a new era," he said, "a God-given time of recovery, release, reconciliation. A word that I hear often is 'restoration.' That's what I feel in the air—that excitement that God is leading us into a new day. And Christian indigenous people are so much at the heart and the spirit of that."

Concluded Blacksmith: "Our children will look to that day and say, 'My ancestors, they stood before the government. They stood before the Church. They stood as a people. They recognized who God is in our nation. And they did not back down. And they believed for the healing of our nation. They believed for a revival in our people—and the freedom,'" he said. "That's what this is all about."

Read more about Kenny Blacksmith's passion for forgiveness and reconciliation by clicking on the link provided.