The history of mission to First Peoples in Canada has been an experience of misunderstanding by all involved. Different cultures and assumptions about truth blocked real communication. Europeans offered the Good News from their own cultural perspective and imposed it as part of the continued cultural genocide that First Peoples experience. The struggle to maintain the ownership of truth is related to the economic and social marginalization of First Peoples as the colonial history continues into the present. The Elders of First Nations teach respect as a way of life and this means there can be right relations if Canadian society is willing to address historic wrongs.
The Very Rev. Dr. Stan McKay
The Very Rev. Stan McKay of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Manitoba is a former Moderator of the United Church of Canada. He has worked extensively in leadership roles among Canada's First Peoples and the World Council of Churches. Rev. McKay served as Director of the Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre, an ecumenical theological college that prepares Aboriginal students for ministry. He also served as Director of Spiritual Care, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg. With Janet Silman, he is co-author of The First Nations: A Canadian Experience of the Gospel-Culture Encounter. He received an honourary doctorate from the University of Waterloo.