We are a deeply divided province, but we don’t speak much about where that line of division really occur.
It isn’t the rural-urban split that we most often discuss in this space.
Nor is it the left-right political division between the CCF/NDP and its Liberal/Progressive Conservative/Saskatchewan Party opponents that so dominate conversations on coffee row.
It isn’t north and south nor east and west nor farmers and city dwellers nor unions and business. Nor, thankfully, is there any meaning religious strife in Saskatchewan, despite having a historic, constitutional right to religious-based separate schools and a growing ethnic diversity that might cause tensions in a far less welcoming part of the world.
People in Saskatchewan can have their different beliefs, but drive through any municipality, small town, small city or big city suburbs and you will see neighbours living together in harmony.
Our great divide in Saskatchewan isn’t even rich or poor, although many would rightly argue economic and social status has become one of the many tragic outcomes of this divide.
Saskatchewan’s divide — one that actually started 50 years before we even became a province in 1905 — is between First Nations and Non-First Nations.
And if there is a truth and reconciliation for this province that needs to emerge out of Justice Murray Sinlcair’s Commission released earlier this month, it is that there are legitimate reasons why First Nations have the struggles and that we all must do much better if we are repair this divide.
This doesn’t mean we have to accept everyone of Sinclair’s 94 recommendations — some of which are little more that high-brow platitudes while others are just plain silly.
Apologies from government, churches and even the Pope are good, but they don’t solve much. It’s actions that count. Similarly, will adopting another United Nations resolution saying we’ve wronged First Nations — especially through residential schools — fix one more student who has suffered? Will more legal battles accomplish anything other than make already rich lawyers richer?
And while as a media person I could likely think of a thousand reasons for spending more on the CBC, the use of the CBC as a cultural bridge between remote First Nations people and the rest of Canada would be about the 999th.
We should also recognize how far we have come from the painted lines on the floors of rural bars that physically separated Indians from whites.
Some First Nations have the reserve schools they wanted that they built according to their own needs. Inner-city public schools cater to the needs of largely First Nation student populations.
First Nations people have their own university and many more are graduating from other universities. Many are pursuing skills training jobs, jobs in business and jobs in the health, education and social services fields that are directly contributing to a solution for the problems of their own people.
We perhaps can now even envision the day when First Nations foster care services could do a far better job meeting their own children’s needs than the provincial social services system.
Finally, First Nation people have to themselves accept than not every issue of broken homes, poverty and addiction can be traced back to residential schools or a society of white discrimination.
But what we all must accept is a whole lot of First Nations problems can be traced back to mistakes like residential schools.
It happened right under our noses at the Gordon’s Reserve residential school near Punnichy. There, William Penniston Starr — school director from 1968 to 1984 — became one of the worst predators, eventually in 1993 pleading guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault of nine to 14 year-old former male students.
Those families whose families come from Gordons have suffered the generational transfer of broken homes, alcohol and drugs. And the lingering impact of hat went on In Punnichy is played out in First Nation communities throughout the province — even if what that means is nothing mor than the loss of parenting skills.
This is our truth. This is what we must reconcile.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
