Lawsuit protesting Indigenous ceremony blurs line between cultural and religious values
A mother in Port Alberni is causing controversy with a Supreme Court petition objecting to her children participating in an Indigenous cleansing ceremony at school, citing religious freedom.
The Alberni school district says the ceremony, known as smudging, is a cultural practice which does not violate freedom of religion laws, and plans to continue the ritual.
The case raises questions around how religious freedom laws apply to practices that straddle both cultural and religious arenas.
John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, who filed the case on the family's behalf, explains their issue lies not with the the content, but the method of instruction.
"A lot of people are misinterpreting the court case as an opposition to teaching about Aboriginal culture [ . . .] but that's not the case. It's the way that it's taught."
"It's good to teach the kids about Christianity, that's part of our culture and heritage, but it's quite different to teach the kids by forcing them to recite the Lord's prayer."
Carpay argues the inclusion of Indigenous ceremonies in school makes for "a double standard."
Essential to his position is the understanding that there is no difference between spirituality and religion in the eyes of the law.
Niigaan Sinclair, head of the native studies department at the University of Manitoba, disagrees, and sees that line of thinking as symptomatic of a reductive approach towards Indigenous culture.
"If religion and spirituality is the same, then that's a way to collapse Islamic and Christian traditions with Indigenous traditions."
The most important issue in the country is reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and this epidemic of ignorance of Indigeneity is frankly intolerable and has created much of the mess we've been in for the last 150 years.- Niigaan Sinclair
Sinclair explains how smudging is a practice that invokes the mind, body, and emotions of a participant's present state, and as such is more spiritual than religious.
He goes on to say including these types of traditions in educational capacities is key to bridging the divide between Indigenous communities and the rest of Canada.
"We have a lack of indigenous educators, divisions, and a long history of Canadians being taught to feel superior to Indigenous peoples, and Indigenous peoples being taught that their ways are savage and inferior."
"Part of that [reconciliation] is bringing in traditions that have been ostracized in the past."
Listen to the full conversation.
This segment was produced by The Current's Sujata Berry and Willow Smith.