I believe that we have to go back to the truth, back to the first contact. When the Europeans first came, the aboriginal people of this new world at the time were impacted. They are still being impacted over 500 years later. Most certainly, the Europeans were looking for riches for their crown back in the Old World, and most certainly, the indigenous people were being used to destroy each other by the French and the English.
I believe that for something like that to be acknowledged by Canada and the provinces would make some difference. I believe that the hierarchy of any government, whether it's federal, provincial, territorial or local government, means that we are working in a triangular system, and even here today it is a square. We need to make a circle. A circle will have a continuum to proceed with the tools that are needed for us to work together. This is how we can look at reconciliation.
I, for one, as an individual, have had to face the truth, and I have had to reconcile myself with the issues I have experienced. As a child growing up, I thought that was the normal way of life, because of the education system in my years at school. Bullying in schools has a very negative impact on school children today, and that is just one example. Bullying is not just happening in the schools; it's happening at home. When children grow up, they again do lateral violence. Lateral violence could happen at this table or at any other table in Canada.
That is the truth for me. Reconciliation is very important, and I believe, as Shuvinai says, that we have to come back to the teachings. We have to come back to the Inuit traditional knowledge and the way that the culture and the language were passed down from generation to generation.
I believe this committee is taking a step forward, and I appreciate that.
I want to give Shuvinai a chance to speak.