History and Ongoing Vision of Canada Awakening Ministries
*See below for the Reconciliation Proclamation that came out of that Sacred Assembly in 1995.
This ministry has subsequently spoken at the funerals of both Elijah Harper's father in March of 2010, Alan B. Harper, a respected elder and pastor from the Red Sucker Lake First Nation for 54 years, and also at Elijah Harper's funeral in May of 2013 where Canada Awakening paid tribute Elijah Harper's vision for the nation of Canada, a vision that Canada Awakening very much shares.
In 1996, this ministry travelled with First Nations leaders such as Elijah Harper (former Manitoba MLA and Federal MP) and Wally Mckay (who was the runner-up to become the Grand National Chief in July of 1994, and who organized Elijah Harper's Sacred Assembly in 1995) to attend and to participate in the Inaugural World Christian Gathering of Indigenous People led by Maori Leader Monte Ohia at Rotorua City, New Zealand, in November of 1996.
Here is a 20-minute link to the highlights of that World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People.
Subsequently, this ministry has attended and participated in World Christian Gatherings on Indigenous People in Rapid City, South Dakota, U. S. A. in 1998, Kiruna, Samiland (northern Sweden) in 2005, and in Israel in 2008.
Leading Indigenous Tours to Israel Between 1999 and 2018
Canada Awakening Ministries has either organized or participated in some eleven Indigenous Tours to Israel (in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012) that has brought together Canadian Inuit, Greenlandic Inuit and Manitoba First Nations at the northern ends of the earth, and Maori, Fijians and Samoans from the southern ends of the earth back to the City of Jerusalem from where the original gospel message first came. In Israel, these Indigenous People have shared their language, their culture and their faith with both Jewish and Palestinian audiences alike. In one Israeli community, they even shared a message that brought hope to a joint audience of some 500 people that included both Jews and Arabs coming together with a heart to teach the next generation not to hate!
In addition to eleven Indigenous Tours to Israel, Canada Awakening Ministries has been involved in some fourteen tours to Israel, and has participated in events that involve Jews, Arabs, Samaritans, Druze, Bedouin and Gypsies. This ministry sees every human life as equally valuable, and in addition to the many trips to Israel, has also ministered the northernmost part of Arctic Canada (Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet), the northernmost part of Greenland (including Qaanaaq, Maniitsoq and Sisimiut), Samiland of northern Sweden (in Kiruna), South Korea, Indonesia (in Jakarta), West Irian, Mexico, Cuba, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
Contending for Community Transformation in Nunavut and in Nunavik Acknowledged in Transformations II Video Released in 2001
In 2001, Canada Awakening Ministries' work among the Inuit of Canada's North was acknowledged on the Transformations II video produced by George Otis Jr. which documented the beginnings of transformation (inside out change) in some of the communities of Nunavut and Nunavik (northern Québec). Compared to where these communities had been in the 1950s and 1960s, the Holy Spirit has been doing and continues to do a transforming work.
This clip in the video below is taken from the Transformations II video (starting at the 1:55 mark).
This is the legacy that Canada Awakening Ministries seeks to build upon, that is, to build on examples of where God was already at work within the culture, even before the coming of foreign missionaries who, in specific cases, brought more than the gospel, but worked in cases like the residential schools with an unholy alliance with the state in attempting to conform Indigenous People to European culture. Too often, the western church has assisted in replacing the Indigenous Culture (which acknowledged the Creator to be the true Owner of the land) with British and French cultures which fought each other in order to claim ownership and authority over the land based upon the Doctrine of Discovery. **
Facilitating a Healing the Land Process in Specific Northern Communities Upon the Invitation and Welcome of Local Gatekeepers and Authorities
Between 2006 and 2018, Canada Awakening Ministries has conducted Healing the Land processes in northern Inuit communities such as Rankin Inlet, Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet, Clyde River in Nunavut, and Kangirsujuaq in Nunavik (northern Québec). The connection between reconciliation among the people living in a community, and the vitality and revitalization of the land has become evident. To the degree that relationships were healed, the land has also been healed with the return of animals, plant life being revitalized, and the land itself coming to life. This healing the land promise is not to be a one-time event, but a continual, ongoing process like transformation.
All of creation is groaning, and is eagerly waiting with anticipation for the manifestation of the mature sons of God who are reflecting the heavenly Father's desire for love and for unity among all of the spheres of His creation, and between the people and the land. Canada Awakening takes a holistic approach to the healing of the creation, with the restoration of relationship of human beings to their Creator being the spiritual dimension, inner healing of the soul, and reconnecting heart and mind being the psychological dimension, the healing of human relationships being the social dimension and the healing of the land being the environmental or ecological dimension of a holistic salvation that has been made available through the finished work of Christ!
"He comes to make the blessing flow as far as the curse is found..." is what we sing at Christmas time, but it needs to be sung regularly throughout the entire year. What is the curse? It is the shedding of innocent blood, the breaking of covenants and treaties, sexual brokenness, witchcraft and idolatry. It is broken homes, substance abuse, domestic violence and high incarceration rates. The healing of the land according to II Chronicles 7:14 will reverse these effects.
*The Reconciliation Proclamation that came out of Elijah Harper's Sacred Assembly on December 9, 1995, proclaimed the following:
The Doctrine of Discovery
**The colonial, paternalistic, assimilationist Doctrine of Discovery that was the basis of the claim of European nations (in Canada's case the French and the English) to rule over the territory that they had "discovered" was built upon the false premise that nobody lived on these territories with a government that could be engaged with. It also assumed that the Indigenous People of the Land did not have a system of government that we could learn from when it came to 1) ownership vs. stewardship of the land, 2) punitive justice vs. restorative justice and 3) decision-making by consensus sharing in a circle where a good chief was a good listener rather than the confrontation-adversary approach of the British Westminster system of government.
In Canada, the French and the British fought over the territory that is now Canada, as did the North West Company and the Hudson Bay Company during the fur trade years. Consequently, the French and the British have not really gotten along in Canadian History since 1759 and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and it has become clear that they will not be fully reconciled before they both understand the Indigenous worldview on land ownership, justice and to first listen with understanding before one speaks!
Conclusion
We must come to a common understanding of who the Creator is. Does He bless only, or does He both bless and curse? We must come to understand who we are as human being created in the image and likeness of God our Creator. As such, do we try to dominate and control one another, or do we build partnerships and spiritual bonds based on our relationship to God and to one another where we can be free to have a unity within diversity rather than a unity based upon conformity and sameness?
Canada Awakening Ministries will be addressing these issues of the nature of our Identity as the children of God, and to encourage both people and people groups to allow the heavenly Father to establish His children in their own unique, distinct identity as many members of one Body that are different, and yet unified and in harmony like a choir or a symphony that can create a more beautiful sound than any one person or people group could ever do on their own!