By Debbie vanHoeve

With a twinkle in his eye, he packs up and says ‘it’s culturally embarrassing to use a GPS to get home’.  Pastor Norm McCallum, a Woodland Cree, endears many who meet him.  He tells about the direction God has called him to in Calling Lake, Alberta.  He speaks of his own healing and redemption through the power of Christ.  His easygoing sincerity carries a message that leaves a deep impression on all who hear him.  While visiting Southern Ontario he has many speaking engagements but would like to see Six Nations.

Enjoying the autumn colours we drive just 25 kilometers south-west of the City of Hamilton.  Six Nations is the most populous Native reserve in Canada and represents the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga and the Tuscarora.  Located in Grand River territory its land base covers 46,000 acres.  There are 24,000 members with 12,000 ‘on reserve’ members.  Pastor Norm wonders how they get along.

We cross the Grand River in Caledonia and pull up to the former Douglas Creek Estates.  In 2006 this was the site that became the flashpoint for unsettled native land claims.  The town still struggles to recover.  We skirt the opening between the empty plywood shack and the hydro tower straddling the street.  A lone new home, now ramshackle, sits amid weeds and smashed street lighting.  Next to the house on the street is a mobile trailer foam sprayed with insulation.  Likely it won’t be moving anytime soon as it has no wheels and sits flat on the pavement.  Piled railway ties block the adjoining subdivision with concrete barriers beyond that.  Pastor Norm is sad to see what happened and what remains.  We drive out past a burned out tractor trailer.

We visit a few convenience and craft stores along the way and are warmly welcomed.  A cashier figures we’re not locals when I ask where to go for lunch.  There appears to be only one restaurant in the village; a Chinese restaurant.  We turn by the Bingo Hall into Ohsweken.  The restaurant is quiet.  The waitress says it’s busier on cheque days.  After enjoying our won ton and friendly service, we stroll along the plaza.  There is a healing store selling smudge pots for purification.  The local radio station is closed but  pipes pow wow music outside.  Pastor Norm is burdened as he recalls the pull of the music and the path it led him down.

Across from the Welfare Building and the Social Services Building is the Band Office.  Council is meeting so we can’t go into the chambers but we look at the photos and the names of past Chiefs.  The Secretary gives us maps and names of local churches.  We cross the river to the Tourism Centre and meet helpful staff.  We visit with the lady in the gift shop.  She converses easily with Pastor Norm and talks about shoplifters who took several pair of moccasins.  She sells T shirts that say “We were first”.

Where there could be fruit and vegetable stands dotting the countryside, there are smoke shops; they say eighty exist on the reserve.   They sell name brand tobacco and all the paraphernalia to roll your own.  They sell putters too but it’s not about golf.  We find out later, it’s about color coded low grade or light cigarettes.  Some signs say ‘we don’t sell contraband’.  Regardless, bootleg is big business but the cost to society appears great.

We drive down the Line passing an occasional contemporary home interspersed with all manner of dwelling; wood frame homes, cement block, shacks, trailers, burn outs.  We stop at a few churches but they are all closed.  Office hours are not posted.  Perhaps Monday is the pastors’ day off.  We stop at Gord’s Gas which has been closed a long time.  If it were still pumping gas, it would be 20 cents less per liter than off the reserve.  They say you have to show your Native Status card to buy at that price.  We find people in the Laundromat who direct us to the plaza owner.  He is also a farmer so we chat briefly between fields.  He is in the middle of soybean harvest.  We find the home of a local pastor.  Scripture is posted on the front porch and carport.  It feels like home.  There’s no answer but we leave a calling card under his car windshield wiper.

It’s a brief visit but Pastor Norm is happy we came.  It confirms to him that these people need a Saviour foremost.  In comparison to Calling Lake, Six Nations is better off materially, but spiritually, the same emptiness exists.  Six Nations has more paved roads than Calling Lake.  It certainly makes for better accessibility.  As we drive away, the question remains, accessible for whom?

Norm sharing at Bethel Reformed, Brantford, Ontario