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Mandate
The Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee (QAAC) is a
standing committee of Canadian Friends Service Committee, the peace and
social justice arm of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada.
Our work is grounded in leadings from the Inner Light.
Quaker Peace Testimony is based on our belief that there is that of God
in everyone. We cannot have peace without justice. QAAC believes Aboriginal
Peoples in Canada do not have justice. The Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee
believes that Friends need to develop and nurture relationships of trust
and mutual respect between ourselves, others in Canada, and the Aboriginal
Peoples of Canada.
The Goals of QAAC
- to raise Friends' awareness of the concerns of Aboriginal Peoples, and to stimulate their active participation in supporting those concerns;
- to work with Aboriginal Peoples to educate ourselves and the wider Canadian society;
- to provide small grants to Aboriginal groups working for self-empowerment;
- to focus on issues of Aboriginal concern such as
- land rights and self-determination;
- spirituality: acknowledging the right of peoples to worship in the way of their own cultures and faith traditions;
- images in the media and educational institutions;
- Aboriginal rights as defined in the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and as protected under the Canadian Constitution.
- to engage in dialogue with governments, corporations and international organizations such as the United Nations;
- to cooperate with coalitions engaged in the work of securing Aboriginal Peoples' rights.
History of QAAC
"After some 500 years of a relationship that has swung from partnership to domination, from mutual respect and co-operation to paternalism and attempted assimilation, Canada must now work out fair and lasting terms of coexistence with Aboriginal people." - Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996
Since the times of William Penn and John Woolman, Friends have been listening to and involved with concerns of Aboriginal Peoples. Canadian Friends continue to carry concerns through Monthly Meetings or through the Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee (QAAC). The formal beginnings of QAAC were prefaced by a minute recorded by Canadian Yearly Meeting 1974:
"...a confrontation between the Ojibway people of the [Kenora] area and various levels of government...has occupied our hearts and minds. We are concerned that active violence not erupt; and equally concerned that long standing grievances be understood, and all measures of settlement of those grievances be encouraged..."
Friends then went to Kenora to be a presence and to hear first hand the long standing grievances concerning land rights, housing, medical care, education, Native spirituality, child welfare, and mercury poisoning.
Friends have continued to listen and respond to the ongoing concerns of the First Nations of Canada. These include: self-determination; spirituality; land rights; fishing and hunting rights; health; housing; education; child welfare; extraction of natural resources; hydroelectric projects; protection of burial grounds; weapons testing; and the tourist industry.
See A Long Journey With No Easy Answers for more historical background on the Aboriginal Affairs Committee.
