Learning Reconciliation

Sherry Telford

This quilt block represents some of the key lessons and experiences of my reconciliation learning journey thus far. I first became involved with TRC Bobcaygeon in 2017 when seven members of the group agreed to be participate in research on reconciliation education. At the time I was doing my Masters of Educational Studies at Trent University. A key question in my research was, how can Settler Canadians engaging in reconciliation efforts and education avoid inadvertently perpetuating colonialism? In other words, how can we be sure that our efforts look and feel like reconciliation from Indigenous perspectives? As Potawatomi-Lenapé scholar, Susan Dion notes, even well intended educational efforts can reinforce rather than shift or alter colonial thinking.[1]

The most important lesson I learned from the research is that reconciliation requires relationship – heartfelt, caring, messy relationship. I went into my research well-read and eager. Yet, if it weren’t for my friend and mentor, Liz Stone Niimin Mshiikehn Kwe (Turtle Clan, Anishinaabe from Aamjiwnaang First Nation), I would have completely missed what is obvious from Indigenous perspectives. Namely, that reconciliation without relationship isn’t reconciliation.

Relationship is what holds us together and lack of relationship keeps us apart. On this block, the circles represent Indigenous and Settler people and communities. The green background represents the beautiful lands we all live on, the blue represents the water that sustains us, unites us and for the purpose of this visual, separates us. We are all in relationship with these lands and waters and each other. Some of these relationships are healthy. Some are not. My thinking is that the river has some curves in it. If the river had been designed using colonial engineering it would be a straight line – much like the grid lines on maps demarcating Settler-motivated boundaries between Settler and Indigenous “properties”. The river’s curves symbolize the beginning of relationships between Indigenous and Settler peoples. Like an aging river, the curves will become more pronounced as our relationships deepen.

The medicine wheel in the top left corner symbolizes the Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel/Circle Teachings shared by Nicole Bell, (Bear Clan, Anishnaabe, Kitigan Zibi First Nation). Among other teachings, the medicine wheel reminds us that we learn mentally (white), spiritually (red), physically (yellow) and emotionally (black).[2] By contrast, the western education embodied in our schools focus primarily on the mind with some room for the physical and only nominal consideration of our emotional and spiritual selves. I strongly feel that we ignore these aspects of ourselves at our peril. Indeed, the only way Settler Canadians can be okay with the ongoing systematic and individual injustices perpetrated against Indigenous peoples is by ignoring our hearts and our spirits.

Along with the medicine wheel, Indigenous learning is based on the 4Rs of responsibility, respect, relationship and reciprocity.[3] I love to imagine how transformed we would be if schools around the world also embodied and prioritized these values as norms.

In the lower right corner is the Settler’s Mirror. The Settler’s Mirror reminds us that, as with any relationship, as we engage in reconciliation, we need to look at ourselves. We are both products and beneficiaries of colonialism and its presumptions frame our mindset creating blind spots that make it difficult for us to see when and how our actions and words replicate colonial structures rather than dismantle them. When we look into the mirror of Indigenous teachings and Indigenous perspectives, we see the reality of how Settler society appears to those it affects.[4] We need to be willing to look into the mirror. We need to see ourselves as others see us. We need to ask the hard questions that important relationships demand of us. TRC Bobcaygeon aims to create space to look into the mirror together — to learn with our hearts, our spirits, our bodies and our minds together.

[1] Dion, S. D. (2009). Braiding histories: Learning from Aboriginal peoples’ experiences and perspectives. Toronto, ON: UBC Press.

[2] Medicine wheel/circle teachings vary. The teachings described here are from Nicole Bell — retrieved from http://blog.cpco.on.ca/460-2.

[3] Bell, N. (2013a). Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin. In A. Kulnieks, D.R. Longboat and K. Young (Eds.), Contemporary Studies in Environmental and Indigenous Pedagogies (pp. 89-107). Boston, MA: Sense Publishers.

[4] Barker, A. (2003). Being Colonial: Colonial mentalities in Canadian Settler society and political theory. (Master’s Thesis). Retrieved from https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/2418

Ermine, W. (2007). The ethical space of engagement. Indigenous Law Journal, 6(1), 193-203.