Siloam Mission unveils new strategic plan focusing on Truth and Reconciliation efforts
Faith-based charitable organization faced scrutiny for failing to honour Indigenous spiritual care
Winnipeg's Siloam Mission made commitments to truth and reconciliation in its first public report to the community on Thursday, almost two years after former staff accused the charitable organization of neglecting Indigenous spiritual practices.
A five-year strategic plan that newly incorporates truth and reconciliation in the organization's values and key priorities was also presented at the public meeting.
"There have been times where we failed to recognize that good intentions, which carry cultural ignorance were — and continue to be — retraumatizing and oppressive to Indigenous people," CEO Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud told members of the media and community on Thursday.
Whitecloud said faith-based entities like Siloam have, at times, misused Christianity as an instrument of moral superiority instead of "an extension of unconditional love and friendship."
At the end of December 2020, a group called Not My Siloam began a social media campaign to draw attention to the organization's failure to support the Indigenous community.
Concerns included leaving spiritual and cultural care staff positions vacant for months, and not having a dedicated space for people to practise ceremony.
Indigenous people make up to 80 per cent of the community to which Siloam provides services and care.
Siloam's CEO at the time, Jim Bell, resigned in early 2021. The mission later hired an Indigenous consulting firm to review their policies, and a new cultural space is slated to open in 2023.
"It is our response-ability as a Christian organization to acknowledge the realities and histories of the Original Peoples of this land and all who are oppressed," reads a new pillar under the organization's values.
Whitecloud declared the organizations intent to fulfil the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to actions 48 and 49, which call on faith groups to adopt the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and renounce concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine of Discovery.
She officially rejected the Doctrine of Discovery — a public international law principle that says when a nation discovers land, it directly acquires rights on that land.
Kyle Mason, an Indigenous activist and former pastor, attended the public meeting to see how Siloam has progressed since the concerns were raised.
He says they needed to Indigenize their organization, and Thursday's meeting showed some promising first steps.
"They are initial steps. So I'm really excited to see how these steps continue to go and how they build on them," he said.
Siloam now employs 30 Indigenous staff members, out of a team of 170, and are prioritizing hiring more.
Kendell Joiner co-chaired the Winnipeg Indigenous Advisory Council when concerns were raised about Siloam, and has been following the issue closely since.
He's now a part of the mission's Indigenous advisory council.
"It's been really refreshing, and almost a gold standard of kind of how reconciliation should take place, when it comes to either a faith-based organization or a non-Indigenous organization," Joiner said.
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With files from Alana Cole