Singer, songwriter and interua-
tionally acclaimed family enter-
tainer Raffi has worked in sup-
port of a number of aboriginal
beoples over the last few years. He
participated in the Journeys
1997 for VisionQuest. He shares
his impressions bere. Raffi plays
the Centennial Theatre on
Sunday, Oct. 12, 11:30 a.m.
and at 2 p.m. The shows are close
to being sell-outs.

PVE just returned
home dazzled by an
extraordinary event, a
Canadian “peace story”
akin to the dismantling
of the Berlin Wall, and
I want to fully under-
stand what I have wit-
nessed.

Did this really happen, or
was I imagining things? Did !
teally see the huge painted
canoes in the water? Did they
really travel a thousand miles in
one-month? Could it really be
that Canada’s national police
. force has joined with aboriginal

peoples to carve our a new leaf
in the history of this land?

Te--was like: a really good
dream’... actually, more like a
vision quest come to life.

When the idea was. born in
the’ heart and mind of artist
- Roy Henry Vickers (a Tsimsian
from - pore near pene

pert) a and shared by his
friend Ed Conte “sergeant
in the aan Canadian
Mounted Police), it was a
unique seed that could not
know its destiny.

Each had his own knowl-
edge of pain and dysfunction—
Roy in his sixth year in recovery
from alcoholism and aware of
the scourge of addictions in
aboriginal communities; Ed, as
a law officer, encountering
first-hand. the misery that
afflicts addicts of any color.

When I met Roy two years

RAFFI ... a paddie with
friends impresses.

wasn’t about paddling,” one
Mount old me.

It was about a sharing of
stories, cultures, and the team-
work that kept the canoes
going through rains, gusty
winds and occasional swells.
Along the way, the waves of
emotion overflowed, bringing
tears to every face.

In over 20 villages and
towns where the weary pad-
dlers looked to rest, there were

ago, he was firmly rooted in the

gifts of recovery — of self, of
culture, of integrity. The quiet
strength of his voice spoke
heartfelt words of his own heal-

ing journey and of his wish for
others to find themselves and
know their connection to the
bounty of Creation.

Roy’s words, like his evoca-
tive visual images that are
known far and wide, made
sound-pictures ofa man with a
mission.

That mission turned into
Journeys 1997.
Vision Quest, a healing journey

for . f

of a thousand miles made with « J

three canoes and 70 pullers
{including 50 Mounties), to
mend relations ~—_—sbetwween
RCMP and First Nations and
help raise $5 million for an
Addiction Recovery Center to
be built in British Columbia —
a centre unique for having the
RCMP’s active involvement
and support.

. A demanding voyage, phys-
ically and emotionally, this sca
saga along Canada’s west coast
yielded gifts to all those who
signed up to pull together. “We
found out very early that this

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scenes of historical significance.

The travelers were greeted by
the excited members of indige-
nous communities, where
some elders can sull recall a
time when the tradition of
ocean-going cedar vessels was
still alive.

Paddles held upright and
canoes huddled together, vari-
ous pullers asked the assembled
chiets and elders permission wo
disembark. “We come in peace
and respectfully ask permussion
to come ashore.”

The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police had come to
apologize.

The offer of reconciliation
was a new sound in these lands
where, for decades, the
RCMP’s arrival brought pain
and suffering to aboriginals.

In this summer of 1997,
Insp. John Grant, in full red
serge uniform, was apologizing
for the misdeeds of the past. It
was a sincere attempt to tend to
the festering wound of a terri-
ble blight — the brutal intoler-
ance of native culeure: the theft
of land, the assignment of
English names to the people,

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the outlawing of languages and
customs the abduction of chil-
dren from their families.

This apology, made at each
stop, was met with forgiveness
every time. Natives now walked
with Mounties in a rare atmas-
phere of mutual trust, and chil-
dren watched with wonder.

Tt is more than an apology. I
see it asa gift to all of us, what-
ever our origins. It models
something precious and not
seen enough, what every par-
ent ties to teach every child —
to say you're sorry for some-
thing you should not have
done, for something you
regret.

And it sets an example of
taking responsibility and of
understanding the importance
of apology in the healing
process of reconciliation,

The journey’s end was in
Victoria where I was invited to
perform during an all-day
musica] celebration and benefit
for Vision Quest-on the
grounds of Royal Roads
University.

After I was done singing,
with a throng of well-wishers I

Sunday, September 28, 1997 — North Shore News — 87

Police and natives find friendship

walked down to the water to
greet the great painted canoes.
We saw the three vessels
approach in uniscn, now sitting
still, paddles upright. We heard
the request to come ashore.

The Esquimalt chief said,
“No, first vou must sing us a
song of peace.” We waited.
Roy Vickers, standing tall, fed
the paddlers in song. Many
voices became one in the after-
noon sun. Permission was
granted. The men and women
disembarked and = were
embraced by the jubilant gath-
ering.

T talked to a number of abo-
riginals and officers, all sharing
stories of transformation and of
how much this voyage had
meant to them.

It is hard to underestimate
the healing impact of a police
apology to communities whose
culture was shattered by sys-
tematic institutional abuse,
whose people long to trans-
form patterns of addiction, sui-"
cide and despair.

The RCMP zpology, while
not yet expressed by everyone
in the force, has the whole-

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Hess inside & ult the

hearted blessing of
Commissioner Phil Murray.

At a celebration dinner fol-
lowing the pullers’ arrival,
Commissioner Murray spoke
from the heart about the
importance of this journey and
the change that he feels is now
at hand.

In a world that often seems
short on good news, some-
thing big is afoot here.

If you don’r see this process
as historic, you have only to
think of the state security forces
of countries around the world
and ask which of those agents
of colonial powers have cum.
apologized to the indigenous
peoples they harmed.

Funding for VisionQuest is
provided through privarc dona-
tions, the financial assistance of
caring corporations, and the
promotion of events organized
and supported by the RCMP.

VisionQuest Recovery
Society is incorporated under
the Societies Act of British
Columbia.. Denttions can bé
sent to: VisiixQest Recovery
Society, 657 West 37. Ave.,
Vancouver, B.C. V5Z IK6.

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