By: Hannah Adamson
Creating space to acknowledge harms of the past, share truth, and collectively heal is essential to overcoming injustices against Indigenous communities and fostering transformation towards a just society that recognizes indigenous peoples rights. However, navigating harms of the past, and their continuing legacies today is not an easy process. To support these processes, the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation, Saami Council, and Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations convened a Side Event on April 21st 2021 at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. Speakers included government representatives, commissioners, and Indigenous communities around the world who are engaged in truth and reconciliation processes to identify key lessons learned and foster peer-learning.
The webinar began with an address from Malin Brännkärr, State Secretary of the Minister of Justice, Government of Finland, who spoke about the development of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Sámi Peoples in Finland. Secretary Brännkärr emphasized the need to understand the past and current harms, and provide psychosocial support in the process. Following this address, Anne Nuorgam, Chair of the UNPFII, welcomed attendees and emphasized the importance of truth and reconciliation processes both informed and led by Indigenous peoples. She valued this opportunity to convene people working on such initiatives and announced her intention to set up a working group within UNPFII to study international Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation cases and support the formation of communities of practice.
Anne Nuorgam speaks after her appointment to become chair of UNPFII, August 2019.
““Indigenous peoples have been longing for truth for a long time, we have known how exploitation of other people and nature is hurting us and how intentions of dominance are just destructive for humanity.””
The event was moderated by Antti Pentikäinen, Director of the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation, who reaffirmed the need for processes based on Indigenous traditions: “Reconciliation, justice, and healing are deeply meaningful questions and concepts for survival of indigenous communities. And they come alive when they are true for individuals, but also alive in their tradition”.
Following the opening remarks, MHCR Research Professor Eduardo Gonzalez presented his comparative paper, “The Interaction Between Transitional Justice And Indigenous Truth And Reconciliation Processes”, which analyzed approximately twelve truth and reconciliation commissions around the world and provided recommendations for future processes.
““Listening to the truth can be disruptive and can be complicated and difficult and tough...The non-Indigenous population will be very happy to look into reconciliation to move forward without looking at the past, but they have to listen to what happened because a reconciliation that is based only on the good feelings... is not going to be significant for Indigenous peoples without acknowledgment of what was inflicted on them.””
Following this presentation, the first panel discussion focused on learning from Indigenous communities experiences; panelists included Dagfinn Høybråten (Chair of the commission to investigate the Norwegianisation policy and injustice against the Sámi and Kven/Norwegian Finnish peoples), Anni Koivisto (First Vice President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland), Liz la quen náay Medicine Crow (President/CEO, First Alaskans Institute), and Eduardo Gonzalez. Mr. Høybråten and Ms. Koivisto reflected on their experiences developing and implementing truth processes to address the harms against the Sámi. They spoke to the importance of building trust and providing psychosocial support for those involved in the processes. Comparing these experiences in Norway and Finland with the United States, Liz la quen náay Medicine Crow spoke about the First Alaskans use of a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Tribunal. Led by First Alaskans, this tribunal has become part of their culture, “it's a living entity of our peoples constructed by their wisdom...the process itself, we call it a truth.” After hearing about these three distinct experiences, the panelists engaged in a fruitful conversation about how they could learn from each others’ processes. The Alaskan model of having the state, church, and other community members become accountability partners for Indigenous communities was explored with particular interest. The Sámi representatives requested further opportunities to learn from the model.
The first panel of the webinar featuring MHCR Senior Research Professor Eduardo Gonzalez
““The international examples showed us that maybe this process, maybe a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, could work here too, so we started thinking could this be the solution for us in Finland.””
Framing the second panel discussion, Marcus Stewart, Co-Chair of First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria in Australia, presented his experience in the creation and facilitation of the Assembly to address the history of harm against Aboriginal people. The second panel was moderated by Petra Laiti (a Saami rights advocate) and panelists included Liv Inger Somby (of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Norway), Councilmember Kouslaa Kessler-Mata (of the California Truth and Healing Council), and Chief Wilton Littlechild (Former Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). Both Ms. Somby and Chief Littlechild described not only their experiences in truth and reconciliation processes, but their personal stories experiencing forced assimilation policies in residential boarding schools. Panelists reflected on people’s desire to share their stories in safe environments, the importance of encompassing diverse voices in the process, and how they each perceive reconciliation. Chief Littlechild explained how he views reconciliation as a spectrum and Ms. Laiti expanded upon this in regard to forgiveness.
The second panel of speakers and MHCR Director Antti Pentikainen
“”Indigenous people are not obligated to forgive anything … the state should move away from the rhetoric of asking for forgiveness because some things cannot be forgiven but rather you just simply heal from them””
By the end of the webinar, a connection through their shared hope for justice and societal transformation could be sensed among the panelists. Witnessing the benefit of this reflexive discussion, the event culminated in an expression of hope for future collaboration between presenters and panelists, potentially through the community of practice proposed by Anne Nuorgom during her opening remarks. As we move forward navigating Indigenous truth and reconciliation processes, let us remember the words of Chief Littlechild, “the best healing for me is going back to my culture”, and prioritize the wisdom and traditions of Indigenous people around the world.
You can view the full recording of the event here.