
January 13, 2017 · 0 Comments
There is a story of a little hummingbird who lived in the forest.
One day the huge woodland was suddenly engulfed by a raging wildfire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest to the edge of a stream where they stopped to watch the fire.
Every one of them felt very discouraged and powerless, knowing that there was nothing that they could do about this fire which was destroying their homes – everyone, that is, except for one little hummingbird who decided it would do something. It swooped down into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went to the forest and dropped them on the fire.
Then it went back to the stream and did it again and it kept going again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief. Some tried to discourage the hummingbird, making comments like “don’t bother, it is too big and you are too little, your wings will burn up, your beak is too tiny, it is only a drop, you can’t put out this fire.”
And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the hummingbird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked.
Then one of the animals shouted out, challenging the hummingbird in a mocking voice, “What do you think you are doing?” And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said, “I am doing what I can.”
Last year, Orangeville’s United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches got together and decided that we needed to do what we could to respond to the recommendations of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In the early 1990s, apologies were made to the indigenous peoples regarding broken promises and abusive treatment but it seemed that no further action was taken to make amends or change attitudes.
To indigenous peoples, reconciliation is basically about restoring relationships. How do we make this happen? The objective of our group is to gather in the spirit of reconciliation. Our focus is to share the truth about Canada’s history with First Peoples, and to partner with and encourage educational opportunities to ensure respect and awareness for all.
We don’t pretend to be “experts” or “know-it-alls!” As chief Bev Sellars says in her book, “They Called Me Number One,” she really gets angry when non-Aboriginal people become “experts” on Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are the only experts on Aboriginal people. She says she doesn’t care how many years people go to school to learn about them; unless they have lived our lives, they are not the experts.
We are planning events and hope that folks will join us in this learning experience.
On Sunday, January 22, at 12 o’clock noon at St. Mark’s Church, 5 First Avenue, we are having an exercise that will help you to understand some of what the Aboriginal peoples went through when the Europeans arrived and began to colonize this new country. For further information please call Sue at 519-943-1302.
The author is Seniors Minister at St. Mark’s Anglican Church.