National Indigenous People's Day

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has

come. The old has gone. The new is here. All

this is from God who reconciled us to himself

through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That God was reconciling the world to himself

in Christ, not counting people's sins against

them. And he has committed to us the message

of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's

ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal

through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf,

be reconciled to God. This is the word of the

Lord. As we heard at the start of the service,

today we're going to do something a little bit

different. Today, there's not going to be a sermon

like there normally is. We're not going to do

like a talk or a lecture or something like that.

What we're going to do is have a conversation.

Many of you know that June is a month, a whole

month that is set aside for Indigenous History

Month here in Canada. It's an opportunity where

we get a chance to remember all the cultures.

and all the diversity that make up the indigenous

communities around Canada. And you'll know that

on June 21st specifically, which is Saturday

coming up, so this is the Sunday right before

that, is National Indigenous Peoples Day. And

that is a day that recognizes all the contributions

and all the culture of First Nations and Métis

and Inuit people across our nation. Now, here

at Trinity, Not too long ago, we formed a little

committee, which we called our Truth and Reconciliation

Committee. And the goal of this committee was

really twofold. One was to help us as a church

gain a deeper understanding into the issues facing

indigenous people in our time and in our culture.

But secondly, also to help us as a church consider,

prayerfully consider, how God might be leading

us. to get involved in the work of reconciliation.

This isn't a conversation we've had, at least

in my time, since I've been here at Trinity,

and that's been like four years. So it's high

time that we started to have a conversation about

this as a church family. So again, this morning,

it's not a talk. It's not a presentation. I want

you to understand this morning as we are going

to get the opportunity. to hear the gospel through

the lived experience of one person. And that

one person I'll introduce to you in a moment

is Rochelle Bragg. And this is a chance for us

to, again, discern how God is calling us into

this work of reconciliation. So on that note,

if I could invite Rochelle to come up here and

join me on the stage, that would be amazing.

Let's have a round of applause for Rochelle.

Sure, I'll sit over here. Rochelle is a member

of Trinity Streetsville. She's also an indigenous

person of Severan Cree roots. And we're going

to hear, it's kind of an interesting mix, your

cultural background. So we're going to get to

hear a little bit about that. But along with

Andrew and their two boys, they've been members

here at Trinity for a while. And so we're so

blessed to have... and her family here as part

of our church community. And just to be given

the opportunity today to hear this through her

lens, through the lens of an indigenous woman,

is going to be a great, great blessing for us.

So there's a lovely picture of your family, Rochelle.

You're welcome to have a seat. Let's have a seat.

And let's take a moment. Why don't I just pray,

and then I'll start asking questions. And you

can... Try your best to answer them. Is that

okay? That sounds great. Let's pray together.

Almighty God, we thank you for the wonderful

diversity of our church community, for the many

gifts, experiences, and histories that make up

this part of the body of Christ. And we're thankful

for Rochelle and for her family and for the story

and experience they bring into our community.

We pray now that as we gather to listen, Holy

Spirit would open our ears and open our hearts

to all you want to teach us today. We ask this

in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, Rochelle, first a

question we are going to ask you is just to share

with us a little bit about your background, your

cultural background, your history, and all that

jazz. Yeah, it's funny. As I was preparing for

this, I was writing down my notes, and I have

my notes here, and I said to my husband, this

is the part I'm the most... nervous to explain.

And it's like, how can that be hard? This is

who you are. Just say who you are. So as Rob

mentioned, yeah, I'm married to Andrew. So there

we have two young boys. And we've been living

in Mississauga for 13 years about. That's how

long we've been married. And we've been coming

to Trinity for about three of those years. I

grew up in Northern Ontario, though, with my

parents and my older sister in a place called

Sioux Lookout. Not to St. Marie, it's to Lookout.

So it's quite up there. It's about a 21 -hour

drive from here. And in terms of my heritage,

so I'm a mix, actually. My father, who is here

today, he's in the third row there. He is Swiss

-German Mennonite. And he grew up in the Elmira

area, just north of Waterloo. So not too far

from here. And his ancestors were Mennonites

that came over from northern Switzerland near

the border of Germany. And they settled in Pennsylvania

before they came up to the Waterloo area. And

so a lot of my family on his side still lives

there. And then my mother. My mother is Anishinaabemowin,

which is Severan Cree. And that's a First Nations

tribe in the Treaty 9 Territory in Northern Ontario.

And as a young girl, she lived off the land with

her family. And her community lived way up in

an isolation, kind of separate from the rest

of the country. And that was before the government.

kind of found them and then put them on a reservation

which is now called muskrat dam so her family

still currently lives there my mother lived there

for many years before she moved off with my dad

when they got married and um uh yeah lots of

my family still lives up there yeah so we have

a map here showing kind of where we are in the

bottom right and where muskrat dam is um so you

said that how long would that take to get up

there So the farthest you can drive is about

21 hours to a place called Sioux Lookout. You

can go to one more place that's farther, but

typically you would drive to Sioux Lookout and

then you'd have to get on a little 19 -seater

plane and then fly for another just over an hour.

Or you can wait till the ice roads freeze over

and you can drive for about 10 hours as it weaves

you in and out of rivers and lakes. So it's very

far. Yeah, that's amazing. So tell us what...

is that like to grow up as a mix of swiss german

background and severin creek yeah um one thing

i'm really thankful for is that my parents were

very intentional about um like having us interact

with both of our families. So they wanted us

to feel very confident and comfortable in both

of our identities as Swiss German and Severin

Cree. And so that was a really beautiful gift

that they gave us. And so I always felt very

comfortable in each family group and each people

group. And then it wasn't until I was older that

I started to realize just how different... how

different these two worlds were, how different

these cultures were, and how they often had a

hard time understanding each other. And so later

in life, I started to kind of have a bit of a

tension in my identity as I went back and forth

between these two groups of people who were...

my family and people that I loved. And so as

I was wrestling with my identity, I was trying

to figure out, like, how do I authentically show

up as myself in each of these spaces? And it

wasn't because I didn't feel loved by both people

groups. I felt very loved and accepted. But this

tension in, okay, who am I? And someone once

described this feeling of tension in my... cultural

identity and maybe some of you have experienced

this as well but this idea of a bridge and the

two pieces of land are the people groups, the

cultures that you're from and then you have the

bridge in the middle and then you're kind of

suspended in the middle walking back and forth

and you're kind of like sometimes you go farther

one way, sometimes you go the other way and so

I had a lot of confusion as a young woman as

I started to notice the difference in my in my

culture groups. And so as I was wrestling through

this over time, I said, okay, God is, he brings

peace to areas of confusion. And so what does

God say about this situation? What does God say

about me? And ultimately what came out of that

was I felt a deep sense of peace that even though

I was suspended in the middle often, That the

truth about my identity was that God created

me exactly how he intended. He created all of

us exactly how he intended. And he also created

cultures to be diverse and to be celebrated.

And that really is a beautiful thing. In Psalm

139, this is a verse that has brought me a lot

of comfort at times. And it says, For you formed

my inward parts. You knitted me together in my

mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully

and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well. My frame was not

hidden from you when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

And that's verses 13 to 15. And so even though

I was feeling tension in my identity, God said,

give me peace over who he created me to be. Yeah,

that's amazing. Thank you. And we did skip over

a photo there. But this is a picture of you,

your father, and your mother, Linda. Yes, who

is also here. I'm sorry I didn't say that. My

mom is here, too. Wonderful. Okay, so, Rochelle.

we're all in different places on this, but many

of us are probably like coming to this place

where we're beginning to understand some of the

painful history that is involved with, that indigenous

people have suffered or continue to suffer in

our own country and around the world, really.

But I am just wondering, are you able to share

some of your own story, especially of, you know,

the struggles that you and your community have

experienced, the struggles. Yeah, for sure. Growing

up in Sioux Lookout, I kind of was able to witness

firsthand the struggles that Indigenous people

experience, not only because Sioux Lookout has

a large Native population, First Nations population.

They call it the hub of the North because it

kind of services the almost 30... Communities

that are north of it that are isolated and so

people funnel through there to come off the reserve

for various reasons and so not only for that

reason, but also because my family lived a lot

of the Struggles I was able to witness their

experience of life of overcoming barriers And

so if you live on a remote reserve which a lot

of First Nations people do if you're in Northern

Ontario, you experience a lack of access to resources.

So things like medical care, education, clean

drinking water, affordable groceries, proper

housing. And so those are all things that my

family have experienced, and I've been able to

see that over my lifetime. And these things are

all things that are deeply rooted in... systems

that were built to oppress Indigenous people.

And to really understand that, we would have

to do a whole other presentation on things like

colonialism, the Doctrine of Discovery, the Indian

Act. And because all those things brought with

it oppression. And so many of the struggles that

First Nations people experience today are rooted

in our country's history. And so in the Canadian

context, The Indian Act, which was created in

1876, it led to the seizure of indigenous lands,

the displacement of indigenous peoples, and disrupted

their whole way of life and culture. And so many

of my family members have been deeply wounded

by things like residential schools, the 60 scoop,

and racism at both a structural and personal

level. Okay, so you've talked about this racism,

you've talked about the injustices. So you personally,

how has your faith, in Jesus have been able to

carry you through all that as you've come to

grips with it? Yeah, I will say honestly that

there was a point in my life, which wasn't too

long ago, that I was very confused and conflicted

about being part of a faith community, a church

community that could have allowed this type of

oppression to people that I love deeply. I really

wrestled with the idea that the church could

have allowed mistreatment to Indigenous children

and their families through things like residential

schools specifically, because that did immense

harm on people that I know, people who were children

at the time, who were 5, 6, 7, my aunts and uncles,

people in our communities who are now elders.

And as we know, some of those children never

returned. In 2021, there was a kind of awakening

in our country where we collectively recognized

and it was discovered that there were a bunch

of unmarked graves in Kamloops, BC. And when

that was discovered, it was like a new awakening

for me where I had known all of this already,

but I felt this collective awakening and it kind

of reawakened mostly anger in me. And that made

me come to a place where I started to question

being part of a Christian community again. And

through all that, I felt a lot of pain, anger,

sadness, despair, and hopelessness. But God is

faithful. And what didn't waver during that time

was my belief and trust in our creator, the God

of the universe, who I had come to know as good.

And the example of who Jesus was on earth. All

these things I was wrestling with was rooted

in the harm that people have done, not God. God

has given people free will, right? He's given

us free will to believe in him, to not believe

in him, to do harm or to do good. And I was recognizing

that God doesn't control all of our moves. He's

not up there deciding what everyone's going to

do. And rather, I was able to see that, okay,

God is actually a good father who wants the best

for us, who wants us to treat each other with

love and kindness, and that's up to us whether

we listen to him or not. And so through this

pain and whatever pain, you know, we all experience

in life, God promises to draw near to us. That's

one of his promises when we're brokenhearted.

He promises to always be with us, to strengthen

us. and help us in times of trouble. And there's

so many other comforting verses in the Bible

of who God is in times of distress or pain. In

Psalm 34, 18, it says, the Lord is near to the

brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed

in spirit. So I was able to come to a place in

my life, in my faith, where God anchored me in

my despair, and he was the comfort in my brokenheartedness,

and he fueled me to stand up against injustices.

So on a personal note, how did your relationship

with Jesus kind of develop and grow over the

years in that context? I was raised in a Christian

home, so my parents were Christian when they

had me. And so my sister and I, we always knew

that Jesus loved us. We never had to really question

that. And so I always knew this, but I didn't

really get to know who Jesus was at a personal

level until my early 20s. It was at a time where,

you know, when you leave home, you're finally

questioning for yourself, what do I believe apart

from my parents? Does this make sense? Does this

add up? And so I found myself in university.

in a similar place with other young people who

were having questions about God, faith, Christianity,

Jesus, all of that, and what that means. And

so what came out of that time of searching is

I met Jesus for the first time. I was reading

through the Gospels with a group of people, like

I said, that were having similar questions. And

for the first time, I felt like I actually met

Jesus. I read about someone who was passionate,

loving, vibrant, and not apathetic to matters

of injustice. I read example after example of

Jesus going out of his way to spend time with

people who were overlooked, oppressed, hurting,

and cast out from society. And I thought, okay,

this is a Jesus that I can follow. I have no

control over the actions of other Christians.

And so all I can do is use my own voice. And

I decided to use that voice to help mend what

was broken between. christian church and indigenous

people yeah so i mean you mentioned the church

so what has your relationship with the church

been during this time both positive and negative

yeah um this is going to sound really obvious

but and especially as i have been part of trinity

and the church we were at before but as i looked

around at people in the churches who had come

to know and love and i was able god revealed

to me all the amazing works that people were

doing every all the hard work and effort people

were doing to fight injustices and to stand up

for the brokenhearted and um that sounds obvious

when you come to come out of a place of anger

but at the time When someone's trust has been

broken, and I felt like my trust had been rebroken,

when someone's trust has been broken by someone

or the church, it's really easy to fall into

a very black and white thinking, a black and

white lens where you, you know, something happens

and someone from one group does something bad

and therefore that whole group is bad. You can't

trust them. And I do think there's an appropriate

amount of time and space that we need to give

people where they can process that hurt or process

that anger. And I was really angry at that time,

and it was really hard. But I began to wonder,

okay, how will I ever be able to trust the church

again? If I look around and I see good people,

how can I trust the church again? God was faithful.

He was able over time to just continue to remind

me that there are so many amazing people in my

life who do care about justice and who speak

up for the oppressed and who are doing really

good work in their own communities for other

causes as well. And knowing that God cares about

these matters of injustice meant a lot to me

and was very impactful. In Exodus 34, God says

this about himself. The Lord called out his own

name, Yahweh the Lord, the God of compassion

and mercy. I am slow to anger and filled with

unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing

love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity,

rebellion, and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty.

And so this idea of, okay, God is this big God

of compassion and mercy, and he's so, so faithful.

And he will have justice in the end. Thank you.

So, I mean, the key word, even from our scripture

reading today, is reconciliation. And so I guess

I just wonder, for you and for your family, what

did that look like? What did it look like to

kind of come to this place of reconciliation?

I'll start by sharing a couple examples. And

I'll use my parents as an example of what reconciliation

can look like. So at the beginning I mentioned

my dad is Swiss -German and my mother is Anishinaabemowin,

which is Severn Cree in English. And I've been

watching them serve together for my whole life

and them walking alongside each other in their

differences from two different worlds and continually

choosing to come back and work through the difficult

times. the difficult scenarios that they have

to work through. And so it's such a perfect example

of God's love. They've spent the last 30 years,

almost 30 years, I guess, working closely with

Indigenous communities, my mother's community

being one of them. And there are counselors who

deal with topics like abuse, addiction, grief,

trauma. And they're just very passionate justice

-seeking people, and so it's just a beautiful

example of reconciliation between two worlds

and that journey. Another concrete example is

I've had the privilege of watching my dad interact

with my mom's family for my whole life, and I've

been able to witness his humility, his love and

respect, which has not only given him many wonderful

friendships with those in my mom's community,

but it's actually healed. hearts that have been

broken, and trust that has been broken between

Indigenous and non -Indigenous. My dad has been

part of the Muskrat Dam community since he first

went up in 1985 as a teacher, and then soon after

met my mom, and a few years later they were married.

One more story I have of my dad trying to gain

the trust of the community, and mostly my mom's

family, is when... my mother and father were

going to get married. And so word was getting

around. My mom was telling her family members.

And she called up my gookum. We called gookum

for grandma. My great gookum, Juliet, and was

telling her on the phone. And she was not happy.

She did not want her to marry my dad. And it

was not funny at the time. And I'm just chuckling

because in the end, Oh, and she was so much so

not trusting my dad that she decided not to show

up to the wedding. She said, nope, I'm not coming

to this wedding. She had a hard time trusting

that my dad would take care of my mom. They got

married, and over the years, my dad continued

to show his love and care, not only for my mom,

but for her people. And eventually, Juliet came

around, and they shared many years of friendship

together. My dad's persistent love, humility,

and respect has built him many years of friendship

over his lifetime. And so my point here is that

reconciliation is a journey, and if we are to

move forward together, we have to do so with

humility, love, and respect, even when it's really,

really hard, even when there's pushback. I would

say start by listening to the stories of Indigenous

people and their experiences. Believe those stories.

And allow that to open your heart with empathy

and love. Friendship is that doorway that opens

the pathway to reconciliation. There's a book

called The Reason You Walk by Wab Kanu, who's

actually the first ever First Nations premier

in Manitoba. And he wrote his biography, and

he wrote this in there. Reconciliation is not

something realized on a grand level, something

that happens when a prime minister and a national

chief shake hands. It takes place at a much more

individual level. Reconciliation is realized

when two people come together and understand

that what they share unites them and that what

is different about them needs to be respected.

Reconciliation happens when the archbishop and

the sun dancer become brothers. I truly believe

there's hope for our future and that deep friendship

can be had and understanding can be had between

Christian people and the indigenous people. That's

Wab Kunnu. Yeah. So, kind of bringing this together,

what is one thing, if there's just one thing,

that the church or we as a church could... do

differently or think differently coming out of

this? Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately I do want

the church to know that this can be overcome.

If you haven't started this journey yet of understanding

what our country's history is with Indigenous

people, I would want you to know that there is

hope because it's a very painful history. But

to have faith and hope that it can be overcome.

that the power of our God is big enough to overcome

what humans have done. You know, the message

of the cross is one of reconciliation, as we

read this morning in our scripture reading. And

to know there are many people, indigenous people,

who are followers of Jesus, who have been able

to wrestle through these things and overcome

and see that God is good, Jesus is good. And

so I hope... I hope that as we do that, as Christians,

we would be reminded that we are called to stand

up for justice, care for the hurting, comfort

the brokenhearted, and bring people together.

The passage I read earlier about who God says

he is, and so just clothe that on yourselves.

Be loving, compassionate, slow to anger, carry

empathy, and be willing to listen and learn so

that we can connect on a human level. and move

forward in truth towards reconciliation because

the pathway of reconciliation is a journey, and

so it's not an easy fix. It's choosing to come

back and choosing to listen and believe and show

up. In the book of Micah, God speaks through

the prophet to his people, and he says this.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and

what does the Lord require of you but to do justice?

And to love kindness and walk humbly with your

God. And I think that's just a beautiful summary

of what God wants from us. As humans who walk

this earth, who try and coexist together in all

of our diversity and our messiness and our mistakes,

we should walk forward together with love, kindness,

and humility. Well, thank you so much for sharing

this very... Well, it's a powerful story. It's

a sacred story. It's a story that's infused with

pain, but also infused with grace and God's love

and reconciliation itself. It's a wonderful picture

you've given us. So thank you for taking the

time. to be with us in this way. I know it's

not the easiest thing to do, to talk about this,

but to talk about it in front of a crowd of people

also makes it all the more difficult. So I want

to say thank you so very much for sharing that

story with us today. Could we just show our appreciation

for Rochelle?