Under One Roof

I was recently given a gift by someone I have known for a long time.  She was visiting in Ottawa and came across a unique item.  It was a small green and bronze pin in the shape of a maple leaf.  Intrigued, I read the card inside the plastic sleeve that protected the pin.

The Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OCAPDD) had created these pins as a fundraising idea.  The pins were crafted with the help of people with developmental disabilities from the original copper which covered the roofs of Canada’s Parliament Buildings from 1918 to 1996.  The campaign is called Under One Roof.

My first impression was that this was a very creative idea that someone had to reuse some of the copper.  Of course, the pin is green because the copper oxidized long ago.  Copper is a metal which was mined here in Canada and was once so cheap that our pennies were made of it.  Once the copper in pennies was worth more than one cent, pennies disappeared.  Copper is now quite valuable. Copper is sacred to many Indigenous Peoples in this land we now call Canada.  A copper vessel is used to hold water during Indigenous Water Walks and Water Ceremonies.

I got to thinking about the name of the campaign: Under One Roof.  I suppose that means that the Parliament Buildings represent a building that “houses” all of us.  Perhaps the creators of the campaign were thinking about how people with development disabilities are often left outside of the mainstream and this was an attempt at inclusivity.  That is certainly a worthwhile sentiment.

But, then I thought about the dates for the roof.  It was put on the Parliament Buildings in 1918 at the end of the First World War. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia  the original Parliament Buildings opened on June 6, 1866 a year before Confederation.  However, on Feb 3, 1916 a fire destroyed the buildings except for the library.  So, I imagine that the copper roof was put on the completed building in 1918.

The idea of Under One Roof kept niggling at me.  Were we really all under one roof.  What about the original and longstanding people who are indigenous to this land?  Were they under this roof?  The more history that I read, the more I come to understand that the land was taken away from them through “treaties”.  The Royal Proclamation of 1763 stated that no land could be transferred from Indigenous Peoples to anyone else except through a treaty with the Crown.  That means that as Canadians, these treaties were made by our governments to procure land for settlers to occupy.  That makes non-Indigenous people, treaty people.  We are represented by the governments’ side of the treaties. 

This can be quite a disturbing thought.  After all, we are finding out that the governments by and large did not act honourably or in good faith.  The land was taken, but what the governments agreed to give in return was often not in fact given.  For example, in the area where I live, the Williams Treaty of 1923 was only just honoured a few years ago with a government payment of the original debt.  And this only happened after years of legal action by the Indigenous treaty members.

The roof of the Parliament Buildings was taken down in 1996 which is coincidentally the year when the last Indian Residential School in Canada, the Gordon Indian Residential School, in Saskatchewan was closed.  I thought about all the Indigenous children who died in those schools and who were abused in ways that they carried for the rest of their lives and that their descendants still carry through intergenerational trauma.  The decisions to try to “take the Indian out of the child”, were made under that roof.  Perhaps it’s good that it was taken down.  All kinds of decisions were made under that roof that were harmful and dishonourable.

The website description reads “ Welcome to Under One Roof the home of heritage souvenirs that celebrate our country’s rich history while preserving part of one of our most treasured Canadian symbols.”  It is true.  The Parliament Buildings of Canada are symbolic of Canada.  I have seen them on paper money.  It is where people go to celebrate and to protest.  Some would argue that we have democracy whereas other countries do not.  Some would compare us to the US and say that we’re not as bad as them.

But what if we want to live in a way that is not shadowed in shame and propping up an image that is false? I would like to dissociate myself from the things that happened in that Parliament but the truth is, we are all treaty people.  I would like to think that all the bad things were done in the past and I have no part in it.  However, bad things are still being done by the government.  Clean drinking water is not available to the people on many reserves, children are still being taken away from their parents by the child welfare system, there is a lack of safe housing, and the list goes on and on and on.  What do we do as treaty people? 

I have read more than one Indigenous author who says, non-Indigenous people are smart.  They will figure out how to do the right thing.  So many of us just feel bad about the past, feel helpless, feel guilty and then give up.  We don’t want to be treaty people.  We think that it is a choice we have.  Indigenous people are treaty people.  They don’t have a choice about that.  The Indian Act (1876) is still in effect.

How do non-Indigenous people reconcile themselves with the truth of how we came to be on this land that we call home?  It is only when we start to understand who we are as Canadians that we will understand our responsibilities and know what to do.  Politicians follow our lead.  That’s what polling is all about.  If a lot of us wanted something to happen, it would.  That’s democracy.

Perhaps the mixture of seemingly contradictory emotions is just what is feels like to be on the failing side of a treaty.  There is the pride of being part of the dominant side, the shame of being on the “wrong” side, the confusion of a shifting story from being the “good guy” to the “bad guy”. And it goes on.  We have a lot to figure out.  But we are figuring it out with clean drinking water, warm homes, jobs and kids who believe they have a future.  We are privileged, whether we understand this or not and yes, we are smart.  We can figure this out.  We can do the right thing.  We can change the story.

So, when I wear my green maple leaf pin, it will remind me that I am a treaty person.  I wear part of the Parliament Buildings on my lapel to remind me of that.  To remind me that we should all be under one roof.  To help me figure out what I can do to change the story.