Out of One Sea We Came

This past week, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recognized the end of its work with a ceremony in Ottawa. For six years, its commissioners, the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson, and Chief Wilton Littlechild, met with, listened, and recorded the narratives of those who had been affected by Canada’s Residential Schools. The recorded narrative accounts, ranging in length from ten minutes to five hours and which, together, would take over two years to watch or listen to, will form a permanent record of this most challenging chapter in Canadian history.

I lived in Inuvik, NWT, for three years in my early twenties. Another three years was spent in Rankin Inlet, now in Nunavut. During those six years, I built some relationships with aboriginal friends but for the most part, I remained woefully ignorant of the Residential School travesty. Stringer Hall, the residence run in Inuvik by the Anglican Church, had closed four years before I arrived there. Grollier Hall, the home run by the Roman Catholic Church, remained open until 1996, years after I left. I was never inside either of them. Many of us, despite our close proximity to the truths, remained ignorant of the realities faced by First Nations people.

We can no longer claim to be.

West Hill’s First Nations Study Group has been sharing the truths of our First Nations brothers and sisters for some years now. In the fall of 2013, they created a petition challenging the federal government to represent us fairly in our treaty relationships with First Nations peoples. It collected three thousand signatures and was read in the House of Commons. Ruth Gill, coordinator of the Study Group, spent this week in Ottawa at the TRC’s closing ceremonies.

This morning at West Hill, we participated in a new ritual created for the purpose of moving us through our own experiences of guilt. The closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a perfect opportunity to embark upon it and I hope we will use regularly in coming years. It was based on the writing of author Carol Berg, a fantasy writer, and inspired by the Ritual of Purification found in Soul Weaver the third book of the Bridge of D’Arnath series. Scott reads to me each night before we go to sleep and fantasy series are often on the list. Berg, who holds degrees in mathematics and computer science, writes with insight into many of our human challenges, playing them out in fantastical worlds.

To augment the ritual’s significance for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I worked with the sixteenth century French folk tune “Une Jeune Pucelle” best known as the music to which Jean Brebeuf wrote “The Huron Carol” in 1642. “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” was originally written in the Wynadot language and has become a well-loved Christian Christmas carol despite criticism of what some call its racist roots and the rebuke of Native faith and traditions contained in the original words, translated to English in 1926. (Continues below photo)

“As One” picks up on our common truths: we came from the same evolutionary history and we are all first nurtured in the womb of a woman. “Out of one sea we came, into one world.” We have so many things that mark us as one, as sisters and brothers. So many things that can pull us together. Scarred and wounded by our history, and strengthened by the courageous acknowledgement and shared truth of its tragedy, may we dream our way toward a better future. Together.

As One

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p style=”text-align: center;”>Before we came into the world
before our lungs drew air,
around us wrapped the sea of life,
its waters everywhere.
Before we ever knew “apart”
we heard the beating of one heart.
Out of one sea we came into one world.
May we ever be as one.

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p style=”text-align: center;”>Through all the world we have dispersed,
to every island come.
We’ve built our lives and families
on land we now call home.
Yet we forget there are no walls
upon a planet loved by all.
Out of one sea we came into one world
May we ever live as one.

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p style=”text-align: center;”>Tomorrow does not build itself;
it, by our hands, is made.
Through care and justice might we all
its great foundations lay.
We’ll set aside the tools of yore
And build with love forevermore
Out of one sea we came into one world
May we ever dream as one.

© 2015 gretta vosper