In search of peace, at home and globally

"I'm not better than anyone. No one is better than me." Lillian George of the Wet'suwet'en Nation began the First Nations program for the World Peace Forum with a declaration of equality. George was addressing a crowd of international delegates gathered in Vancouver June 23 to 28 to discuss and promote peace.

A guest speaker for the First Nation's Wolf Sessions, George said everything starts with the individual. "Be at peace with yourself, be at peace with those around you."

Panelists for the Wolf Sessions included community activists, academics, hereditary chiefs and elected leaders. The event co-ordinator, Dalannah Gail Bowen, hopes the members of diverse nations can strengthen the Aboriginal community through dialogue.

"If you don't have peace within your community, with the people that you live with, how could you possibly extend it globally?" Bowen also believes that a united community can bring about change.

"Whether we're talking about poverty, whether we're talking about abuse, the fact is that there are people experiencing these situations all over the world and what we need to do is identify ourselves to become a collective and speak up," Dalannah Gail Bowen.

A key focus of the conference was the role of the matriarch in both healing and governing. Community activists led a discussion about the missing and murdered women along the Highway of Tears. Mothers and sisters of the women who disappeared on the road between Prince Rupert and Prince George expressed their frustration with the lack of police and government response. They described how the local Aboriginal community organized their own searches for the women. Matilda Wilson of the Gitxsan nation manages the pain of having lost a daughter by advocating for Aboriginal women.

"If we're working towards peace, we first have to stop all the murders and violence." The women who co-ordinated the Highway of Tears Awareness Walk this March say the tragedy has created unity in the Aboriginal community .

Speaking on the subject of leadership and transformation, Chief Stewart Philip also emphasized the need for solidarity. He described the early attempts of Aboriginal people to come together to fight for land rights.

"The government responded with funding programs that served to divide us." He outlined recent achievements in British Columbia, such as the New Relationship agreement. Leaders from many First Nations organizations worked together to negotiate a plan to improve social and economic conditions in B.C.

South African academic, Tamasane Tseliso, studies Indigenous family systems and he was inspired by the close relationships between Elders, adults, and children. Tseliso said the colonial education in South Africa taught the Indigenous people to look down on their ancestral way of living. He hopes Indigenous South Africans can follow the example of First Nations people and learn to take pride in their culture.

"Slowly people are beginning to really appreciate who they are, and that they have something to offer. For a very long time we looked on white South Africans and idealized them."