Truth and Reconciliation
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) defines reconciliation as an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships.
Land Acknowledgement
In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation. We would like to humbly and respectfully acknowledge that Boreal Heartland operates on Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 territories. Traditonal and Ancestral lands to the Woodlands Cree, Métis, Plains Cree, Dene and Saulteaux.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing
impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
Legacy of Colonialism
The residential school legacy is far reaching and has implications that echo for many generations.
Besides residential schools there are many ways other that Indigenous people have been marginalized in Canada.
There have been severe cultural, economic, and health impacts of settlement on Indigenous people of Canada.
•Cultural
– loss of language, loss of family connections, loss of spirituality
•Physical Health
- diet, disease, sickness
•Mental Health
– Loss of self esteem, being made to believe that ways of life, spirituality, language, foods, land, animals, plants have no value. Being made to believe that all the trappings of the dominant culture are more valuable than Indigenous ways of life.
•Economic
– loss of ways to make a living, little opportunity given to participate Canadian economy
•During the colonization process, Indigenous people were made to believe that their culture, spirituality, land, plants, animals have no value.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
92 ii. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples
have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.
For more information on the 94 Calls to Action
Boreal Heartland is a vehicle for
economic reconciliation as follows:
•Giving people a chance to earn income through sustainable harvest of boreal forest resources
•This gives people self esteem and helps regain an understanding of the value of the land, plants, animals .
Boreal Heartland – Economic Reconciliation
•Reconnecting indigenous people with cultural and traditional knowledge
•Reconnecting people with traditional ways of teaching and learning – within families and from elders to children.
Building a sustainable local economy in our communities
Boreal Heartland is building a business that contributes directly to the local economy:
Over $200,000 paid to harvesters in summer 2022
Over 250 harvesters that have brought in Product at locations in Air Ronge, Deschambault Lake, the Cumberland Delta, White Fox area and Beauval
Estimated $250,000 in wages paid out for field work, processing, packaging, management and admin – all in northern Saskatchewan
