September 30th was Orange Shirt Day, and also my 30th day of serving the communities of the Lutheran and Anglican churches on the Peninsula. I was blessed to be welcomed in September by parishioners and neighbours: some who have lived on the Peninsula for most of their lives, many who have made this beautiful slip of Creator’s handiwork their homes, choosing this location for their retirement, whether full-time or seasonally.
Two people from the community who have welcomed me from outside the church families I serve are Miptoon (Tony) Chegano and Marydale Ashcroft. They are two of the organizers of the Walk of Healing & Recognition which was an incredible show of welcome on Friday. The sea of orange shirts that lit up Purple Valley Road to the Cape Croker campground were a visible sign of the hope-filled welcome offered to all of us by the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. The spoken words in both languages, songs, refreshments and friendship modeled a way for us to walk together into a future of healing.
Part of our celebration and friendship-building for the day included having the visitors receive a gift, and speak an intention as we handed that gift to the local people who joined in welcoming us to their territory. When I turned to share that gift, tears could not be held back. The speaking of the words of intention, the love with which they and I were received were pure, unadulterated grace. The resulting hug and exchange of phone numbers and texts has been the good fruit of that grace, the seeds of friendship – something to nurture and build upon.
As a first-generation settler to Turtle Island, Canada, by way of Sri Lanka and Jamaica, I went through a process of applying for and gaining “Citizenship” in this, our home on Native Land. At the time of my citizenship swearing in ceremony, I was working as an intern at the Six Nations Anglican Parish, and Faith Lutheran in Brantford. When the swearing in ceremony was done, my voicemail box was filled with messages of welcome from my Haudenosaunee friends at Six Nations of the Grand River. My facebook page and desk were covered with notes, cards and gifts of welcome from indigenous friends from across Canada. These signs of welcome also were pure, unadulterated grace.
We, each one of us, making our home on Native Land, have a powerful invitation to enter into this grace with Good Minds. The Good Mind is geared towards building relationships with humility, trusting that we do not come with answers and solutions, trusting in Creator to knit together the threads we each hold.
We come with the courage to hope that together – as equals in our humanity, and as settlers in a land occupied from time immemorial by First Nations peoples – we come with the courage to hope that we can Walk in Healing and Recognition, learning to hear, learning to listen, learning to be good friends.
Pastor Janaki Bandara,
Anglican Parish of the Bruce Peninsula
