‘King’s journey of repair begins today,’ Indigenous justice organization says

A west coast-based Indigenous justice organization is calling on the new King to take an active role in shaping Canada’s future after Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday morning.

Indigenous justice organization RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) says that as reactions pour in over the Queen’s passing, it has the organization thinking about grace and goodness.

“The Queen did her job with grace, and we send her family our condolences,” RAVEN wrote in a statement. “But: the office itself was part of a colonial tradition responsible for cultural genocide around the world. Institutions like the monarchy are designed to dazzle people with the manners and comportment of people who are tasked with upholding systems built on inequity.”

The organization says its heart goes out to Indigenous communities whose losses are being overlooked as the world “celebrates the legacy” of Queen Elizabeth.

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“We call on Canada to honour that legacy by upholding the spirit of the Royal Proclamation, which 250 years ago made it clear that Indigenous people hold title to their lands, and that those under treaty are entitled to the Crown’s ‘protection’.”

In a contemporary context, RAVEN says this includes respecting Aboriginal titles to traditional territories, and working to repair the damage done by racist institutions and laws.

“What’s good is when systems that have long been responsible for oppression begin to reform themselves,” RAVEN wrote. “We’ve seen glimmers of a shift through the Queen’s lifetime, notably when, after having been snubbed by the first Prime Minister Trudeau, a delegation of Indigenous leaders petitioned her to press for inclusion of Indigenous rights in the repatriated Constitution in 1980.

“Those negotiations, and the outcome, which are the game-changing Section 35 rights that have led the way to victory after victory for Indigenous Nations in Canada’s courts, happened quietly, outside of any diamond-encrusted royal visit.”

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RAVEN says Prince Charles III, the Queen’s successor, will be “pulling on a mantle heavy with untended sorrows,” noting the British royal family has not apologized for its role in the residential school system, “and made no reparation for loss of lands, livelihood, and language.”

The organization is now for the “quiet goodness” of contrition and restitution, rather than jubilees and ceremony, it says.

“As the Queen had a hand, for a very long time, in shaping what Canada is today, so should her successor take an active role in shaping what we could become.

“The Queen is dead: the King’s journey of repair begins today.”