When will we Christians ever learn?

This past summer, Kathy Moorhead Thiessen, who works for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraqi Kurdistan, visited the Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) First Nation in northwestern Ontario to prepare the community for the arrival of a CPT Aboriginal Justice delegation. During her visit, Thiessen and Peter Haresnape, a member of CPT’s Aboriginal Justice Team, met with Judy da Silva, a long-time partner of CPT, who was the recipient of the German Mennonite Peace Committee’s Michael Sattler Peace Award in May. (See story at http://www.canadianmennonite.org/articles/ontario-indigenous-woman-award....)

After the initial catching up, Judy said, 'I confronted the [group of missionaries who came to Grassy Narrows] the other day.'

As the story unfolded, we heard about her brother, who has two children. One of the parents went to check on the little ones who were playing outside. To their horror, the children were nowhere to be found.

The parents feared they had gone down to the lake, so they ran to the shore, but the children were not to be seen. Eventually, word got out that the parents were hunting for their children and someone said they were at the church.

Apparently, vanloads of the missionaries had driven through the community, seen children playing, and had invited them, using candy as a treat, to go to some activities at the church.

'A few days later I was working around on the powwow grounds and the vans drove up and stopped,” she continued. “I had to speak to them. So first I asked if they all spoke English, which they did. I told them how worried we had been that we could not find the children. And how upset we were when we found out that they had taken them, without the parent's permission, to the church.'

She said that as she spoke, one woman began to cry. That made her feel bad, but it meant that her message had maybe gotten through.

As I listened to her speak about this event, I wanted so badly to apologize, to say sorry that the faith that I identify with had still not gotten the message that it is not okay to take children, whatever the good intentions, without the permission of their parents, to teach them about Christianity. But I didn't. It was not for me to apologize for the actions of others.

Peter talked about hearing similar stories of missionary groups that offer childcare in other reserves. It seems to be a common and innocuous practice, a form of service, but taken in the context of colonialism it replicates the practice of separating children from families to teach them Christian ways.

A few minutes later, Judy informed us that her father was in the hospital battling an infection in his foot that was leading to the amputation of the leg that had, for many decades, carried him out on the land. She said that he was fighting this decision, but that it was inevitable.

She then asked Peter and me, 'When your team gets together to pray, could you pray for my father? Nothing will save his leg now, but please pray for peace for his mind. Pray that he will be able to accept this.'

In this way she granted us a gift, trusting us enough to pray in our way for something that was so very important to her.