John Lomax was our speaker last week and his main theme was Understanding the Past; moving forward together as a way to recognize the partnership of the Rotary club in “Honoring Indigenous People”.
John started with the committee at the urging of then President Venora Spleen in being a part of the indigenous resource committee that became “Honoring Indigenous People” group . The agenda is to keep land acknowledgement and recognize the contributions and needs of the indigenous people in Canada. There is about 6 million first nations people comprising of 633 first nations communities, with 52 distinct languages. John looked at the history of the people dating back to 16000 BCE to the overlap of the Europeans as of 1650. He looked at the history of the Residential school and the attitudes of abuse and shame of “Indianess” and how we can move beyond the past. HIP was brought about with the truth and reconciliations efforts and the team is represented by members of the Rotary, women and some representation of the indigenous people. The heart of moving the agenda of the HIP team is based on 3 tenets to execute their mission and vision:
- Building relationships
- Learning and Sharing
- Walking together
The message of change is to speak to the community listen and help them to provide what the community needs so that the contributions can be effective in addressing community needs. A question was asked about how economic opportunities can be provided for moving the HIP agenda forward.