The Apology Cairn is situated in the parking lot at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario where the 1986 Apology to the First Nations peoples occurred. Under the leadership of Elder Art Solomon, volunteers from the Manitou conference worked to create the memorial.
Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has slowly been crawling out from under the cloud of insolvency, the bleak outcome of years of financial mismanagement. I just read about the provincial government, part of the problem, is now part of the solution by buying buildings and parcels of property at the university to address creditors, then leasing them back to the school, which will pay rent. It sounds bizarre but this is better than an important academic institutino for the Northy going under.
I have been on the Laurentian campus many times because we lived in Sudbury for eleven years and there lots of connections with St. Andrew's United Church, the congregation I served. Laurentian was also the place where the United Church of Canada made its first general apology to Indigenous peoples in 1986, with a teepee erected in a parking lot, Lot 15, for the ceremony to take place.The apology was accepted graciously by Indigenous representatives. I wasn't in Sudbury at the time but I was part of Sudbury Presbytery as we figured out the explanatory signage for the cairn erected to commemorate this solemn occasion.
When I saw the list of Laurentian properties sold to the Ontario government Lot 15 was included and the number rang a bell. A little sleuthing revealed why.
What would have happened, and might still, if this lot was sold for another purpose? This was a significant moment for the United Church and the apology was the first by any denomination. I'll be honest in saying that a cairn in the middle of a parking lot didn't strike me as adequately reflecting the occasion. I imagine thousands of students and others have parked in that lot without ever being aware of this step toward Truth and Reconciliation, long before that phrase was coined.
Next year, 2026, marks the 40th anniversary of the Apology. I hope the United Church congregations of Sudbury and the Region will mark the occasion in some respectful way.
1986 Apology to Indigenous Peoples
Long before my people journeyed to this land your people were here, and you received from your Elders an understanding of creation and of the Mystery that surrounds us all that was deep, and rich, and to be treasured.
We did not hear you when you shared your vision. In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ we were closed to the value of your spirituality. We confused Western ways and culture with the depth and breadth and length and height of the gospel of Christ.
We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel. We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you, and we, are poorer and the image of the Creator in us is twisted, blurred, and we are not what we are meant by God to be.
We ask you to forgive us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ so that our peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.
The Right Rev. Bob Smith General Council 1986 The United Church of Canada
Will Kunder, executive secretary of the Manitou Conference of the United Church of Canada, speaks in 2015 on the site at Laurentian University where an apology was issued for his church's role in the residential school system.
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