Indigenous Relations Circle: An interview with Pat Oakes

Pat Oakes is a founder of the indigenous relations circle, alongside Society president Michelle Johnston. Pat is Still involved today as a retiree.

When did the Indigenous Relations Circle (IRC) first launch?

PAT: What first launched as the Aboriginal Relations Committee in 2010 was renamed Indigenous Relations Circle in 2019.

What inspired the creation of the IRC?

PAT: The Society had a relationship with what was then called the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF, now Indspire). Their CEO at the time, Roberta Jamieson, engaged with the Society and requested its support for NAAF’s Indigenous scholarship program. This relationship inspired the Society, under the leadership of then-President Rob Sheppard, to launch its own Aboriginal Relations Committee. This would later become the Indigenous Relations Circle.

It was a very small group in the beginning. It was Joe Heil, Michelle Johnston, and me – that was the committee. We first started in 2010, and we’re still going strong today.

The committee wanted union members to be educated. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’ (RCAP) was established in 1991. It sought to restore justice to the relationships between Indigenous peoples and the government and broader society. The RCAP released their report in 1996, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded in 2015 with 94 “Calls to Action”. There were so many things over the years affecting Indigenous peoples, and the general public was unaware. High schools don’t teach this history. However, universities do if you choose to study Indigenous history. The Aboriginal Relations Committee wanted to start filling in the gaps. The Society also did this by supporting National Indigenous Peoples’ Day initiatives and celebrations.

2014 committee members Sara Jane Souliere, Michelle Johnston, Sharon McGuire and Pat Oakes

What is one way the circle has had an impact on the union or its members?

PAT: Every year when the Society held its delegates’ Council, we would provide educational opportunities one day before. We had workshops where we would talk about everything from the Doctrine of Discovery, the Two Row Wampum, the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Treaty of Niagara, the Indian Act of 1876, residential and day schools, and the TRC. We discussed how Aboriginal and treaty rights were enshrined in the Constitution.

"As the Society did more education, people were starting to understand that it doesn’t matter where they lived, they’re living on Indigenous or traditional land."

As the Society did more education, people were starting to understand that it doesn’t matter where they lived, they’re living on Indigenous or traditional land. Although it may have been expropriated by the government or, as the government purports, given up by treaty through a negotiated process. However, Indigenous people, we disagree with that. Most all those treaties were negotiated under duress, with language barriers, and amidst inequity. People lost their lives or were forcibly removed and put on reserve communities.

Religion forced its way of life onto Indigenous communities. Kids were forcibly taken from their parents without their approval. They were literally pulled out of their homes and put into residential schools. I don’t think there’s one family that I know anywhere that hasn’t been affected by that, including my own. I have grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides of my family that went through that situation.

They wanted to take the Indian out of the child, meaning that they wanted us to lose our culture and language and become like them. It partially worked, and it broke communities apart. Many children never returned from residential schools. Children died there from unknown causes and parents were never notified. Graves are still being uncovered today. All types of abuse occurred behind the walls of those schools. Thousands of Indigenous children lost their identity, culture, traditional knowledge, ceremonies, and language in those schools.

Then governments and corporations went in and either put huge transmission lines through the middle of a First Nation community, or they put dams next to the community and flooded out their sacred sites or their land fit for housing. From our committee’s educational work, employees began to understand how the companies we work for were part of that unfortunate history.

But we cannot change history. We can only ensure we do things differently going forward. The goal was to help people understand, to develop a better relationship with First Nations peoples in Ontario.

March 6, 2020 - Then IRC Chair Sara Jane Souliere, Society member Jaime Metallic, current IRC Co-Chair Gary Paulin, and Society Staff Officer Renee Laporta at the Indspire Awards. 


What is an IRC initiative that is memorable for you?

PAT: I think for me personally, it was the first time I was asked to do the traditional Indigenous Opening at the assembly (Council) when the whole Society meets. I did it in my traditional Mohawk language and Toronto was acknowledged as our traditional territory. It was a memorable moment. I was forbidden from speaking my language in Indian Day School for so many years that I lost a lot of it. But living in my home Mohawk community now, I am becoming fluent again.

I was standing in front of about 300 delegates, many whom I had known for years and walked the picket line with at Hydro One. We knew each other in the corporate environment, but to do an opening in my Mohawk language as a committee member, for me that was almost like, “Wow, we Indigenous Peoples are finally being respected and recognized.”

I never thought it would happen. I just felt a lot of pride in the union. The Society took a leadership role in Indigenous relations. For me that was my defining moment, where I thought, “Look at us, my Society brothers and sisters sitting here, genuinely caring and listening intently. They’re all getting this. And it’s going to continue.” That was one of my best memories.

I gave delegates the opportunity to smudge (a cleansing ceremony). That’s when we burn one of our sacred medicines. This is a cleansing we do to take the negativity out of our mind, body, and spirit so that we do things in a good way with kindness and goodness.

Mohawks start off the morning with a spiritual prayer called the Ohen:ton Kariwahtekwen. We give thanksgiving for everything from the water to the spirit world. And we do that every day because it reminds us to be grateful to Mother Earth and for everything that she provides us. That’s one of the things that I did for the opening of the Society delegates’ meeting. It was well received, and we set the stage for a really good day. I was honoured to be there.

An Indigenous Lobby Day organized by the Canadian Labour Congress.