I am awake, I am alive, and I think we need to have a conversation … about reconciliation because you see, some think it’s dead. Some think it’s an ongoing process that has already started. Some think its impossible. Some think it’s worth making it happen.

But what most forget is that reconciliation is personal, as it should be for every person living within the borders most refer to as “Canada”. For me, as an Indigenous woman, reconciliation is not hating on sight that woman or man who looks exactly like the bigot that attacked me just yesterday. It is an expectation that I am willing to again believe that respect can be shown to me from such a person and that is a BIG ask.

Yet reconciliation is also expecting more than stereotypes from settler descendants. It is expecting that they become educated enough to realize that there is no such thing as an “Indigenous” or “Aboriginal” person in this country. That those are just blanket terms that include but are not limited to the beautiful Anishinaabe people and Deni people and Haudenosaunee people and many many others and that we are all worth knowing.

It is expecting non-Indigenous people to stop short of making assumptions about those who carry status cards, an expectation that people don’t want me feeling guilty because I have benefits granted to me via treaty. Just as I don’t expect anyone to feel guilty for living on the land settlers received via the same agreement. It is a contract, after all, with both sides receiving something.

Reconciliation is not about shame, guilt or denial. It is about facing up to the reality of our history and the causes behind the poverty and violence and hopelessness known by so many Indigenous in this country and about working together to fix it.

Yes, reconciliation is about working together to ensure everyone residing within Canadian borders has clean drinking water, fresh air to breath, safe schools, and viable communities. In other words, a country filled with communities free of violence and fear so that MMIWG can become a memory of a horrible mindset that took too many.

Achieving this is going to take a lot more than finger-pointing so instead, today, join me. Please. Join me in working to bring about that change, to bring about that vision for everyone because reconciliation starts with you and me recognizing our part in the problem and our responsibility to be part of the solution.

Are you with me?
 

I love you!
HUGSSSSSSSSSS

Sandi

#ibelieveinyou #ibelieveinme #icreatespace #celebrateandsurvive #repairingfeathers