Introduction

For Aboriginal Canadians who leave reserves looking for a better life, Canada's large cities can turn out to be more of a nightmare than a dream come true. Historically, they have been discriminated against in housing, recreation, education and more.

In the face of such discrimination, the Christian Reformed Church seeks to meet the spiritual and social needs of aboriginal Canadians through three Urban Aboriginal Ministries:

• Indian Family Centre, Winnipeg
• Indian Metis Christian Fellowship, Regina
• Edmonton Native Healing Centre, Edmonton

Each ministry seeks to respond to the needs of Aboriginal Canadians in its community. The ministries, while addressing spiritual needs and incorporating worship, are multi-service delivery centres rather than churches, striving to help Aboriginal Canadians to live dignified and harmonious lives.

reForming Relationships

Starting Fall 2011, the Aboriginal Ministry Committee together with the CRC's Urban Aboriginal Ministries invite you to participate in reForming Relationships with our Aboriginal neighbours.  

Inspired by God's call to be ministers of reconciliation, reForming Relationships is a cross-country art tour featuring Kisemanito Pakitinasuwin - 'The Creator's Sacrifice'.  This tour will provide opportunities for learning and building new and renewed relationships with our Aboriginal neighbours, as part of the Christian Reformed Church's ongoing journey of reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Visit the reForming Relationships webpage

Canadian Aboriginal Ministry Committee

The Canadian Aboriginal Ministry Committee (CAMC) has the specific role of educating and mobilizing CRC members and congregations to live in reconciled relationships as covenant (treaty) people before our Creator.  
Read more 
 

Liturgical Resources

National Aboriginal Day

June 21 is National Aboriginal Day in Canada. This day provides an opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal peoples and cultures, and to celebrate the gifts and richness that they bring to Canadian life and society.  The Aboriginal Ministry Committee produces a bulletin cover and/or insert for National Aboriginal Day each year, along with resources for worship.

Litany for a National Aboriginal Day (Word) (pdf version)

Multimedia Presentation (4 min) 
Prepared by the CRC's Aboriginal Ministries Committee for National Aboriginal Day, this four-minute presentation echoes the words of the Prime Minister's Apology on June 11, 2008. It is ideal for a meditative pre-service or offertory segment. Special thanks to Anita Van Zeumeren and Rev. Sam Cooper.

More worship resources

• Responsive reading 1 (.doc)
• Responsive reading 2 (.doc)

• June 11, 2009 was the one year anniversary of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's public apology to First Nations for residential schools.

  Worship resources for June 11, 2009

Resources for Learning

The Blanket Exercise

The Blanket Exercise is a powerful way of learning about the history of relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada.  Knowing this history enables us to move together toward renewed relationships of peace and friendship.

The Exercise uses blankets to represent the lands of what is now Canada, and the distinct cultures and nations which live on those lands to this day. Participants represent the First Peoples; when they step onto the blanket, they are taken back in time to the arrival of Europeans. Two participants and/or the facilitator are selected to play the roles of the Narrator and a European (or two) while the exercise goes through the history of treaty-making, colonization and resistance that resulted in the nation we today call Canada. Read more
(Image: Chief Crowfoot and Family, 1884)

Video

“A Stolen Identity” tells the story of an Aboriginal girl’s experience of abuse at a Saskatchewan residential school, and how years later she found the path toward healing at the Indian Metis Christian Fellowship (a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church). This was originally broadcast as an episode of Primary Focus, a series from Back to God Ministries International.

Articles

From Mobile Justice:

• "A battle against time" by Ella C. Land, November 2008
• "Response to the Prime Minister's Apology to Aboriginal Peoples" by The EFC's Aboriginal Ministries Council, October 2008
• "A story to heal our land" by Rev. Michael J. Lafleur, September 2008
• "Strawberry Communion in the Manner of the Longhouse" by Henry de Young, August 2008
• "Dance the reconciliation dance" by Harold Roscher, July 2008
• "Do you seek what they seek?" by Dr. John Valk, June 2008

Contact Us

For more information email Bruce Adema or Steve van de Hoef, or call 905-336-2920 or 800-730-3490.