The Words Of The Wilding Family
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The Words Of The Wilding Family |
Vancouver, Canada -- Bill Chu, founder of Canadians for Reconciliation, spoke to the Vancouver Chapter of UPF on February 28 about his many years of work to redress present and historical injustices between Canadian society, First Nation natives, and Chinese. Canadians for Reconciliation is a peaceful non-partisan grassroots movement committed to developing a new relationship with Aboriginal and Chinese people, one that signifies a deep apology for past injustice to both communities, a willingness to honor truth now, and a resolve to embrace each other in the new millennium.
The Interfaith Summer Institute at Simon Fraser University wrote about him in 2008, "He is a first-generation immigrant from Hong Kong arriving with no idea of what happened between the Indigenous nations and Canada. Over the years he is responsible for listening to many Aboriginals, for founding CFR in 2001, for taking approximately 1500 non-Aboriginals to Mt. Currie, for inviting natives to participate in the Chinese New Year parade for the last 13 years, for writing or responding to some Aboriginal issues and for initiating the 2004 historic banquet attended by 600 aboriginals, Chinese and Canadians."
UPF is honored to appoint Bill Chu an Ambassador for Peace.
Note: The Mt. Currie Indian reserve in British Colombia is among the most populous -- and poorest -- of Indian reserves in Canada. A banquet on October 23, 2004 brought together 600 First Nations Peoples, Chinese Canadians, and many others in Vancouver's Chinatown. This unprecedented evening helped people rediscover their common past, as well as helping people who suffered from fires and floods in some aboriginal communities. Songs, stories, visions, and food from both Chinese and First Nation cultures were featured. A Christian, Bill Chu is passionate about the "ministry of reconciliation" that St. Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19. "Our challenge is to consider whether the sad history and condition of others should be acknowledged," he wrote in a recent article in BC Christian News, "whether the brokenness that marred our relationships with each other should be healed and whether the perpetrators should be restored to wholeness again."