Indigenous group calls out Papal apology calling it “meaningless”

“If everybody thought that was a solution, that apology they all would’ve been there. There’s no way you could drag me there,” said Mohawk Mother Kwetiio.

An Indigenous group is calling out the Catholic church and the Pope’s visit calling his apology unwanted and meaningless without action.

They say this cross on Montreal’s mount royal is a symbol of pain and a reminder of the church’s involvement with residential schools.

“You’ve taken land. You’ve taken people, you’ve exploited us. You’ve tried to commit genocide on us. Yet this symbol still stands everywhere we look,” said Kwetiio.

“Right now, there’s how much money being spent and how much focus being put on the Pope. But I don’t see the real issues at hand. Also, he could make an apology. What does that do? What does an apology do? Oh, I’m sorry. When was the last time any one of you sat down with a murderer, rapists, thief, colonizer, genocidal person and sat down with them so they could say sorry to you? That’s the entity that I represent, and we can’t stand for that.”

The group of Mohawk Mothers from Kahnawake say they’re fed up with empty words

“We need action. We need to do something. We need the people on this that live on this island with us to understand what has happened to us and that we’re not going to allow it to continue,” said Kwetiio.

“The doctrine of discovery must be revoked. And I think that’s one of the primary things that we need to have done, that the revoking of the of. And you know what that is the reason for being here, you be here is something very false. And I think that has to be removed. And all of this victimization of our people has to stop,” said Mohawk Mother Kahentinetha.

Resilience Montreal echoed the Mohawk Mothers’ sentiments, releasing a statement that read in part “an apology alone cannot mend lives forever changed.”

While the apology represents a step towards healing for some, it fails to address the impacts of the deep intergenerational trauma that many continue to experience daily.

Resilience Montreal’s response to the Pope’s apology pic.twitter.com/Z7tsjlKhsA

— Nakuset S (@NakusetS) July 26, 2022

“Somebody got something out of it. And it’s that’s what makes them relieved. Then good for them. And I really do hope that they heal from something. But to those of us that understand where all this pain and trauma and death and murder and rape and so on and so on came from, that’s not enough,” said Kwetiio.

“The Pope. Did he ever ask the first people here who own the land for him to invite him here? He never asked us, ever. He never asked,” said another Mohawk Mother.

“Nobody asked him to come here. I don’t want. I don’t want him back on my land the last time. And every time that it’s come, it hurts our people. More and more to think of the the injustice that that entity that he represents is here is here in my face. In our faces. And that gets more attention than the people that are here trying to save our land and save our culture and save our people and our babies from having repeated abuse on us,” said Kwetiio.

Many were unhappy with the events surrounding the pope’s visit.

“This big headdress. Do you know how many people are so disrespected by doing that? People are like they can’t believe that they’re out of their mind watching him get that headdress that so took every meaning of what that represents and totally stepped all over it,” said Kwetiio.