Note: Wilfred was asked to make a presentation at a conference sponsored by the Government of Canada following the official federal response to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples final report. The Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, The Hon. Jane Stewart, made the announcement of 350 million dollars in funding towards the creation of the National Aboriginal Healing Foundation. With it the government acknowledged their role in the now infamous residential school system.

I would like to talk about healing as I see it. The most important first step is identity: when you know who you are and your relationship with the land, you are home.

The Western Europeans who came to this Island have not discovered that yet...maybe there are a few. The Aboriginal people here are the real healers - because we are the land.

A doctor in Western society is not a healer, because healing comes from within and heals the whole of what we call the self.

This Government is trying to buy its way out. 'Here!' they say, 'Here is 350 million - heal thyselves!' But those that caused the hurt are not here. Therefore healing can not take place because both sides are not present. My people are the victims and we are told to heal ourselves. Your Western European pride is holding us down and trying to buy us out. That's the coward's way out. The circle is not complete unless the ones that caused the hurt are also present in the circle. There is no redemption without humility - and 350 million is what you consider is your price for redemption. Redemption to you is - 'we, the Western Europeans are no longer guilty for the past wrongs.' Yet, all your money can not pay for the lives you have destroyed and wasted.

Come sit in our circle because you need the healing as well. This Western European society is sick. Its destroying the land, the trees, the birds, the animals, the water, the fish, the insects, the air, and above all humanity. Greed is your weapon and money your tool.

Western society's usage of language, your laws, your justice system, your educational system, your rights system, your discrimination system, your equality system, all boils down to management. Trees for centuries who always knew how to grow are now managed. Water is managed, birds are managed, animals are managed, land is managed, air is managed, insects are managed, love is also managed and all this is man made. You call it economics. Even people are managed through your educational system to create a duplicate of who you are, yet Western European society has no idea of who they are, only as a category, teacher, doctor, lawyer, wife, carpenter, labourer, but that is only what they do, not who they are.

And who am I? I am the land, the water, the air, the trees, the fish, the plants, the sky, the animals, the insects, in fact the whole universe. Western European society not knowing who they are, are destroying themselves and us along with them through their destruction of the land and above all their wars. Todays wars are based on a concept, and that concept is religion and all the morals it contains.

With Aboriginal people spirituality is individual, its within each person, not abstract. To see a tree separate from self is destructive. We are all interconnected to everything we name. This is identity. This is true healing.

You need me as much as I need you or there is no survival. Words create. The spoken word - not the written word. Oh, I am not against the written word but I think the written word is dead. But you and I are alive. Knowledge is to discover what you already know.

So I ask the Western Europeans to come sit in the circle with us. First of all - money is not healing no matter the amount. Maybe the ones who give it need the healing and I am pretty sure of that. So I say maybe 350 million given by Jane Stewart, and her advisors through the federal Government, is the price it puts on redemption. They are saying, 'we no longer are guilty for past wrongs- so heal thy self.' You cannot place a money value on healing, it can only come from within and that is to both sides.

The Western Europeans who came to this Island have no relationship with the land and therefore not knowing who they are, are destroying the land and everything and everyone on it. If ever there needs to be healing they are the ones who need it. Can they be humble enough to ask the Aboriginal healers for help? If this society continues on as it is, it will destroy not only all life on earth but the land itself. It seems to me this society has been hurting their healers of the Aboriginal people who truly have an identity with the earth and all life on it.

So I am not asking for your redemption through money but no matter the cost I beg you to heal yourselves first so that my people can be healed. Is redemption remembering (past wrongs) or is it humility? There is no hope for my people unless you are healed.

Come sit by our fire and listen to the fire so that you can awaken yourselves to complete the circle. The Inuit healers say both sides have to be in the circle or there can be no justice.