Truth and Reconciliation Can Change the World

National Truth and Reconciliation Day is celebrated in Canada every September 30. It’s also Orange Shirt Day, which highlights the negative impact of the residential school system on Indigenous communities. In honor of this, we offer an interview with Lyndon J. Linklater, a representative of the Indigenous people of Canada.

I met Lyndon at the Ukrainian Catholic Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The Church has invited Lyndon J. Linklater, a highly respected custodian of traditional knowledge and storyteller, to speak during the Divine Liturgy on September 15. With his extensive knowledge of treaty history and responsibilities, Lyndon invited the parish to join the reconciliation process. Given the ambiguous attitude toward this problem, a lot can be told about this. Instead, the Ukrainian Catholic Church constantly defends and popularizes true humane values.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created in 2008, as part of the Residential School Settlement Agreement for First Nation Children, to document the history of Canada’s residential school system and its harmful and ongoing impact upon Indigenous peoples.

What inspired you to come to the Ukrainian Catholic Church?

Your church invited me to speak and talk about my views on truth and reconciliation. Myron, Father Andre’s press secretary, called me, and he told me what the Ukrainian Catholic Church is doing, as it has a special committee on Truth and Reconciliation. He invited people to come and say words that would promote better understanding between people. Your church is very friendly, and I feel that love for people lives in it.

Did you achieve your goal?

Yes, I have achieved it. After the mass and my speech, we went to have coffee with the parishioners.

I talked with Andre’s father, with Myron, with Margie, and with some of the older people. Yes, these are native Ukrainians born in Canada. They speak perfect English because they are educated. And this is good because we work together in the context of truth and reconciliation, get to know each other, and learn from each other.

We try to better understand each other’s culture. I want this. I want to know more about Ukrainian Catholics because I am also Roman Catholic. And the reason is that my parents attended British boarding schools when they were children.

Those were Roman Catholic boarding schools, and all the children were there and the boarding schools they went to.

In Roman Catholic boarding schools, where me and my brothers and sisters were brought to, they became Roman Catholics. Yes, we were baptized in boarding schools, we confessed and received communion there. I went to a Catholic school as a child. Like everyone else, I went to mass every Sunday, and that’s how I got to know Catholicism. I learned about the Catholic Church.

When your church called me to mass, I asked if I could receive communion from you. They answered me in agreement and said that it would be good if I came to mass and received Holy Communion.

This was one of the reasons for my visit to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Your church is very friendly, and I feel that love for people lives in it.

I was crushed by what I saw and heard. The mass of Ukrainian Roman Catholics is different from the rest of the Roman Catholic masses. You have a warm, comfortable attitude. And for the First Nation of Canada, this is important. The Europeans once came to our land and took children to boarding schools. We had, and still have, a different culture. Our way of life is very different from British and European.

We don’t write. We don’t read. Likewise, we don’t have our writing. We pass our stories on by word of mouth.

When Christopher Columbus first came to America and decided that we were worthless people, uncivilized pagans, who did not even know God, thought that we should be saved and that our souls should be saved. And this is to help us. And how did they help us? Not in a good way. Many of us were killed and destroyed more than 500 years ago.

And so slowly, our culture was forced to change.

Over time, as the United States of America developed, North America began to develop and become more powerful, Canada in particular.

People in power create governments that make laws. And they passed a special law about us Indians, according to Christopher Columbus.

He called us Indians. But we are not from India, so we are not Indians. We are called North American Indians—North American Indians, and now they call us First Nation. So, we are the First Nations of Canada. That passed law is special—an Indian Act, that limited our freedom, our language, our culture, and our way of life. They imposed Christianity on us, and then established residential schools, where they took children four or five years old to boarding schools. Children need mom and dad foremost. If mom and dad didn’t send their children to those schools, they would go to prison.

In the province of Saskatchewan, the first boarding school was established in 1874, and the last one was closed in 1996.

Over time, different religious denominations—Catholic and Anglican — managed boarding schools.

We were forced to convert to Christianity, we were forbidden to wear our traditional clothes and to speak any language other than English.

So those boarding schools caused us great pain and wounded our souls.

Today, you see that many of our people are poor, primarily because of what happened once.

When a child is taken away from his parents, he grows up without love, is mischievous, and has problems with his mentality.

Family is very important in our culture. In European culture, a family lives in one house — it’s Mom, Dad, and children. And who lives in our families? It’s Mom and Dad, children, grandparents, as well as aunts’ cousins, uncles, cousins, sisters. We have a big family where everyone helps each other to raise children, feed them, and teach them.

So boarding schools have harmed our system, causing moral trauma to our children. The will and mind were truly broken.

The mind was truly broken.

Look outside. You see a lot of First Nation people — alcoholics, drug addicts, and homeless. They don’t have a good education, they don’t read well, and they don’t know numbers.

And there are First Nation people who are educated and have higher education. I have a job, an apartment, and a car. I make a living, and I have a credit card. Not everyone can have a credit card.

I met a girl, but I had to learn and heal. I used alcohol and drugs when I was young; I used to be late with these people.

I was on the streets and had problems with alcohol and drugs when I was young.

I try to help my people, and there are many of my nation’s guys like I am, working men and women. Still, there are poorer people among us.

My wife is also a First Nation. The both of us were in Germany in 2001 and then again in 2013. German people love Indians. When I first saw my wife, my eyes widened. We have been together for 28 years.

This is my second marriage. When I met her, she already had a two-year-old son. I raised him. Yes, he is now 29. But I have other children that I love, they are from my first marriage.

Do you preserve your traditions today and how do you do it?

I was 19 years old when my first son was born.

Here is a photo, and you can see what he is wearing. This is a tradition.

The child feels that someone is hugging him all the time.

It is very important to feel loved. For children, especially babies. When I was 14, I started growing my hair long.

I had long hair. In our culture men have long hair. It was like a water war. I had long hair with some special details. We learned traditional ceremonies from our elders.

Here I go to my first special ceremony — Sweat Lodge.

It’s like a steam room or a sauna. We heat the stones in the fire, and then we carry the stones and make a house. And we sit and pour water on the stones.

And then we sing a special song. An adoption ceremony is called an adoption cut. So, after the adoption ceremony, the man here is my father, and the woman is my mother.

He began to teach me well the culture and ceremonies.

I learned a lot. Once he told me, “You should learn the language, because our ancestors did not speak English.”

How do the First Nations treat Ukraine, and has the attitude towards Ukraine changed since the beginning of the Russian invasion?

Foremost, I have to say that many First Nation people do not know history.

They don’t know much, they live in their world, but they are not educated. But some do understand.

So, Putin, who invaded Ukraine, did not come for land. He wants to control people so that they do not speak Ukrainian, but only Russian.

You see, it happened to us. And this is the case in different parts of the world. They invade with war to control people and their souls.

Do you know any stories about First Nation people helping Ukrainians who came to Saskatchewan in the last century?

Yes, I know many stories. In our culture, we should always help those in need, be it a duke or a simple Ukrainian, a representative of any nation. We help everyone who comes to Canada. If we don’t help them, they may die. Two years ago, it was minus 52 in the winter.

What would you like to tell Ukraine?

Importantly, when you can understand the language, you also understand the culture. My dad went to boarding school for 12 years, and when he graduated, he was like a brown-white man. He only spoke English, and my mother ran away from boarding school when she was 14 years old. And she never came back, she was just a girl. She ran away from her grandmother. So, my grandmother saved her, this is how my mother protects her language. This is her first language; she is saving the language. My mother keeps many traditions. I have these photos. A lot has to do with my mother. She is proud of the culture and teaches us to be proud of our traditions. I like your embroidery. In our culture, women never wore pants, long dresses only. But today it is different, many women wear pants.

All people must learn to love each other, not to fight each other, not to kill each other, and to respect each other. To make the world a better place.

We must learn from each other. I was in the Ukrainian Catholic Church for the first time, and there I was respected and felt comfortable. Although I remember what the Europeans did to our children. But I must learn to forgive, I can’t live in anger.

There is beauty in our native languages and our traditions. I want them to teach theirs.

We must teach our children of tradition and to preserve the language. I root for you, Ukraine, and many First Nation people support you, Ukraine.

I don’t know what is happening in Russia, but I know Ukrainians born in Canada and some of the newcomers. And we cheer for you!

We pray to our gods that Ukraine will win and preserve its people and its culture. We will always be with Ukraine!

Maryna Kovalchuk, Newssky deputy editor-in-chief (Central Europe and Canada), V5 Media project manager, contributed.