Indigenous community opens arms to newcomers

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This article was published 28/01/2016 (3721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG’S indigenous community figures it can help Syrian refugees put down roots in the city and ease negative stereotypes that work against both groups.

The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre is tonight hosting a public meeting on what an indigenous welcome to Syrian refugees could look like.

The centre, located at 45 Robinson St., posted a “call to action” on social media a week ago, and expects individuals and representatives from the city’s major indigenous and immigrant groups to attend.

Facebook invitations for the meeting that runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. were posted last week under the heading Welcome to Turtle Island. The event will wrap up with an indigenous round dance.

“Sharing space is part of our identity as indigenous people; it’s a big part of our culture and our values to share what we have,” the centre’s acting executive director, Maeengan Linklater, said. “The focus of the meeting will be to start the process, with a dialogue, a discussion.”

With a goal in mind to forge lasting links with immigrant and refugee resettlement agencies, indigenous groups will look at resources, programs and space they can share with the Syrian community.

An estimated 3,000 out of the 25,000 Syrian refugees Canada plans to take in are expected to settle in Manitoba, the majority of them in Winnipeg.

Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, a key agency that links immigrants and refugees to settlement services, reached out to the local indigenous community before Christmas.

Agency co-ordinator Abdikheir Ahmed said he first called the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg and found himself immediately plugged into the friendship centre as a logical first step.

“A couple of things interested me. The first one was, as newcomers, we don’t have a lot of information on indigenous people. When someone is approved for immigration, the orientation doesn’t include adequate information about indigenous people. The second thing is we have to be able to coexist together, peacefully and to share resources,” Ahmed said, adding that doesn’t always happen. “When immigrants get here, they pick up on stereotypes that indigenous people are poor, that they’re drug addicts and violent… I want indigenous people to play a role to provide a different picture to newcomers, so they can learn first-hand from indigenous people before they pick up the negative stereotypes.”

Thirty years ago, the indigenous community performed a similar service for Filipino immigrants, said the centre’s board president, Garry McLean.

“The whole idea was, since the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre was the oldest organization in Winnipeg, we’d welcome them,” McLean said. “And we can teach them the beauty of our culture and not what they may have learned from the history books.”

McLean and Linklater made the point Syrian refugees will face the same social and economic barriers as indigenous people.

“In Winnipeg, the urban aboriginal community still faces social challenges in the post-Indian residential school environment, but people here have a proud history of helping to access programs and services as a self-governing community,” Linklater said.

One of the first in Canada to be formed, the friendship centre dates to 1958. The need then was to fill in service gaps for a tiny community of 5,000. Today, with more than 70,000 people, Winnipeg is known as the indigenous capital of Canada, with the largest urban population in the country.

In the intervening half-century, the indigenous community founded its own social agencies for services from employment to housing.

“When the Syrian community is settled, they’ll start by having access to the same assistance and shelter rates, the same as everyone else, and they’ll predominantly be in the inner city (and North End). They’re going to be our neighbours,” Linklater said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca