Restorative Justice Community Champion: Tyler George
‘Restoring the Circle Again’
Tyler George is headperson for Ochapowace First Nation. They currently hold the law and justice portfolios for the nation and co-chair the lands and natural resources department. Tyler is two-spirit and was the youngest person elected in 2023 for their nation.
Tyler recently partnered with John Howard Society of Saskatchewan’s record suspension services program to provide services for over a dozen people on their First Nation. Their passion for restorative justice comes through in their strong commitment to see families flourish and individuals heal.
Tell us about your work, Tyler.
I oversee our peacekeeper program, which is our own form of First Nation policing. I work with our Youth and Elder Justice committee, which focuses on restorative justice practices, and our Justice committee, who develops policies and laws for the nation.
I also sit on the trilateral working group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls, comprised of representatives from Canada, U.S. and Mexico. I have also chaired the National Indigenous-Federal-Provincial-Territorial Roundtable on violence against Indigenous people.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
A lot of our people experience harm from addictions end up in the justice system because of the trauma that they experienced from residential school. My role is about understanding and wanting to see reconciliation within that understanding. It’s about hearing peoples’ lived experiences and their stories to heal and help us move forward. I feel passionate about this work because it doesn’t only impact the families I work for, it also impacts my family. One of my family members is struggling and all I can do is love and support them. That’s what I want to do for our people, so understanding and loving our people for who they are is what gives me the best reward for the job that I do.
What are you looking forward to in your partnership with John Howard?
We want to provide for our families opportunities to sustain themselves and work towards a good future and record suspension helps with that. Sometimes our people don’t have the resources to pay for a suspension. Through this partnership, we’ll work with John Howard to provide record suspension services for between 12 and 15 people from our nation. You have the expertise and we have the resources through the justice department of the nation, so we’re very excited for the partnership.
What do you want others to know about the importance of restorative justice work?
We’re not just trying to restore one person, we’re trying to restore the circle again. We often talk about how everything’s connected; it’s part of our law and when one thing goes off, it can disrupt that circle, whether it be the family circle, the friend circle or the person as a whole. I think that restorative justice is trying to move on that path in a good way.
I think in a lot of people want to see harsh punishments, for people to be locked up, that they shouldn’t be around our community. But when we consider reconciliation, it’s about healing. We might not know someone’s story or what they’ve been through, but until we understand and know, we have to believe that all of our people deserve the opportunity to explain and to also come back and be part of our circles again.
