Canadian Indigenous leaders, Governor General meet with King Charles

The King, Queen wave from Buckingham balcony King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave to supports from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

King Charles met with Canadian Indigenous leaders and the Governor General on Thursday.

The audience at Buckingham Palace included Assembly of First Nations Chief RoseAnne Archibald, Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed, who will all be attending the coronation on Saturday.

"Today was a historic day for Indigenous peoples, for Canada, and for our relationship with the Crown," Governor General Mary Simon said in a statement. "Days before his Coronation, His Majesty King Charles III showed his commitment to reconciliation in a meeting with Indigenous leaders."

Simon is the monarch's representative in Canada and the country's first Indigenous Governor General. She is said to have played a pivotal role in organizing the engagement, which she called "the first of its kind."

"The King understands the importance of walking the path of reconciliation with Canada and Indigenous peoples," Simon said. "Discussions like these are vital. They will start slowly, and grow, forming the pillars of a renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples that is based on respect and understanding."

The King is hosting visiting dignitaries this week in the run-up to his coronation on May 6. Simon and the three Indigenous leaders are the only Canadians he is officially meeting prior to the event.

"One of the issues that is important to us is that nation-to-nation relationship that we have had and continue to have," Archibald told The Canadian Press. "It was also an opportunity for us to connect to the King on things that matter to him, things that also matter to us and that we can work together on."

The meeting reportedly lasted an hour and also included conversations about the environment, entrepreneurship, repatriating cultural items from British museums, and missing and murdered Indigenous women. While there have been calls for the monarch to apologize for the harms of Canada's colonial legacy, the three Indigenous leaders said the meeting was focused on building a positive relationship that could pave the way for tougher future conversations.

"The challenges around the colonial history and a lot of the associated issues with that, I don't think that the King has thought that those aren't going to be on the table," Obed, whose organization represents Inuit people in Canada, told The Canadian Press. "But certainly we will have to proceed as best we can in light of the real limitations that all of us have in doing things for our respective institutions."

King Charles previously met with Canadian Indigenous leaders during a May 2022 visit to Canada. In a closing speech in Yellowknife, he said he was "deeply moved" by stories from the residential school survivors he had met.

"To be able to sit down as First Nations, Metis and Inuit and share with him who we are and what our priorities are as a people, and identify the ways that we can work together into the future, is really important to us," Caron of the Métis National Council said.

The participants invited the monarch to visit their communities and agreed to have another virtual meeting before the end of the year.

"I will continue to encourage all Canadians, as well as the Crown, to take action on reconciliation," Simon said. "I have great hope for an improved Crown-Indigenous relationship in the coming years."

In a joint-statement, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Métis National Council characterized the meeting as being about deepening relationships.

"His Majesty the King shared information about his interests and priorities, including climate change and Indigenous knowledge, housing and moving forward on issues related to reconciliation," the statement said. "All leaders recognized the positive nature of the discussion and felt that the meeting was more than symbolic but was in fact a sincerely meaningful meeting and the start of a new relationship with this new Monarch."

With files from CTV National News Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Omar Sachedina and The Canadian Press