KAIROS UN Declaration Video: Please Share
Dear Friends,
This Thanksgiving I want to share with you a short video about persistent advocacy and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I invite you to take a moment to watch it, share it with your family and friends, post it on Facebook and tweet it. Share it on your congregation or community e-lists. Show it in your church. Please take action and consider making a donation to KAIROS!
With appreciation for your commitment to justice,
Jennifer Henry
Executive Director, KAIROS
Full text :
I have been thinking back to June 11, 2011. It was an important day in KAIROS’ work on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It was hot, and yet with enthusiasm and in unity we walked through Ottawa from Victoria Island to Parliament Hill to the Human Rights Monument. We were holding more than 350 banners linked together to form a long chain. Each banner was a local community or church call for implementation of the UN Declaration.
Others can remember farther back to June 21, 2001, National Aboriginal Day, when 1000 blankets, also from across the country, were unfurled on the lawn of Canada’s Supreme Court. It was part of an action calling for recognition of the same rights that are central to the UN Declaration.
For KAIROS and its member churches, the story of advocacy for the UN Declaration is a long one, but how much longer is that story for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities? Or among Indigenous leaders who dreamed of, wrote, and advocated for this international human rights instrument that was finally ratified by the United Nations in 2007? Ten years ago. Ten years, and we still raise the cry for genuine implementation in Canada.
A great liturgist, Keri Wehlander, reminds us that “persistence brings forth transformation.” And it does. It must. And so we will persist until all the articles of the UN Declaration leap off the page and into communities, churches, institutions, corporations and governments. It’s more than time, and reconciliation is not possible without it.
People of faith might understand the UN Declaration as a new covenant, written on our hearts, and a way to begin renewing the relationship—between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples – that so needs truth, healing, and justice.
This Thanksgiving, we will express gratitude to the Creator for the bounty and blessings of this land. As a gesture of gratitude and of justice for the First Peoples of Turtle Island, please take a few moments to engage in a collective action – a photo, a call, a letter. Advocate in an act of persistence, for full implementation of the UN Declaration.
Transformation is what our country needs. Nothing less will do.
Thanks be to the Creator, and blessings to you and yours this Thanksgiving.
Take Action:
- Support KAIROS today!
- Contact your member of Parliament in support of the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Bill C-262, coming up for second reading, will provide a legislative framework for the UN Declaration.
- Take a photo with a sign supporting Bill C-262, and email it to your MP. Contact your MP and ask them to vote for Bill C-262. Meet with your MP.
For more information see:
UN Declaration and Bill C-262
How to meet with your MP
Statement on the 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration