Indigenous Communities and MCoS Celebrate International Day for Elimination of Racism in Saskatchewan

Rosenberg explains the organization has launched a program called Intercultural Connections and Anti-Racism Engagement (ICARE), which aims to build relationships between Indigenous, newcomer, established immigrant, and settler organizations and community members. ICARE uses an intersectional decolonial lens to address racism, oppression, and colonialism.

“We’re trying to build the capacity of our communities and organizations to be able to address racism in a more meaningful way,” Rosenberg says. “What is it that we as people, as individuals and collectively, can do to make changes? That’s really the perspective we try to bring to our anti-racism work.”

MCoS has been promoting ICARE in various centers throughout Saskatchewan, including Prince Albert. Rosenberg and her team recently held an event in the area that shared the impacts of racism from an Indigenous perspective, as well as a newcomer’s experience with racism.

Rosenberg believes that more people are ready to discuss racism now than ever before. She cites the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the discovery of graves at residential schools as factors that have awakened Canadians to the brutal realities of colonialism.

“We’re now beginning to understand how our history has impacted Indigenous people in ways that are both physical and emotional,” she says. “Are we creating spaces that are safe, that are culturally appropriate? Do we have policies that might seem exclusive to some people? Those are really the questions that we need to be asking.”

Rosenberg emphasizes that communities across Canada must come to terms with the displacement of Indigenous people and address extractive practices that exploit resources and are against Indigenous values and laws. She urges Canadians to take internal action and shine a light on their faith, sports, and arts communities.

“We’re all at different stages of understanding and develop - ment, but all of us can do that internal work,” she says. “We can then take that flashlight and shine a light on our faith communities, our sports organizations, our arts communities… wherever we might be engaged.”

Rosenberg says MCoS’s ICARE program aims build relationships between Indigenous, newcomer, established immigrant, and settler organizations and community members, they hope to create a more meaningful and inclusive approach to anti-racism work.