Siloam announces commitment to truth, reconciliation

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This article was published 30/11/2022 (756 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Siloam Mission released a new commitment statement to fostering truth and reconciliation during its first annual community report Thursday.

The announcement comes two years after the “Not My Siloam” social media campaign called out the organization for failing to properly support its Indigenous visitors.

The inner city non-profit has spent those years seeking perspectives from Indigenous communities and has come to face how its space has been “not always a strong ally to the original peoples of this land,” Siloam Mission CEO Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud said.

“While we know that the majority of the community that we have served over the years at Siloam is Indigenous, regrettably, there have been times where we failed to recognize that good intentions which carry cultural ignorance were, and continue to be, very traumatizing and oppressive to Indigenous peoples,” she said at the public announcement Thursday.

As part of this process, Whitecloud said Siloam was dedicated to following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, particularly Nos. 48 and 49, which call on Canadian faith groups to adopt principles set by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and formally repudiate concepts such as the Catholic Church’s Doctrine of Discovery that were used to justify harm and sovereignty over Indigenous people, respectively.

Siloam has hired a director of Indigenous relations, Christine Varagas, who is in the process of updating policies and creating protocols to improve its culture-based support systems. She also facilitates an Indigenous employees circle within Siloam.

It has also formed an Indigenous advisory council, which includes elders and community leaders, to inform its future decisions.

“Meaningful and active inclusion of Indigenous peoples is fundamental to these larger conversations,” Kendall Joiner, a member of the advisory committee and chief executive pathfinder at Native Clan Organization, said in a statement.

“Siloam Mission has taken the calls of the community seriously in its efforts to find its place in the environment of today, and continues to do so in a humble way.”

Siloam has updated its job postings to prioritize hiring Indigenous staff and recruited two Indigenous board members, changing its composition policy to ensure all future boards will have two Indigenous members.

Part of the TRC’s 48th call to action calls on faith groups to ensure Indigenous people have space to practise, develop and teach their own cultural traditions. Construction is currently underway on Siloam Mission’s cultural space, set to open in 2023, which will host a sacred fire, sharing circles and ceremonies year-round.

“We recognize that cultural bias supported by colonial attitudes and structures failed to recognize the deep faith and the centrality of the Creator in the Indigenous worldview, which was present long before non-Indigenous peoples arrived on these lands,” Whitecloud said.

“We acknowledge that there has been a long history of harms and injustice towards Indigenous people that Siloam did not do enough to disrupt…. Words alone will not do will not undo harm, rather, we must act, not in isolation, but in friendship, partnership, and with guidance from Indigenous peoples.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca