In 2015, when the TRC released their final report, I had an awakening. Perhaps it’s what a lot of settler Canadians are going through right now… a deep sorrow at the realization that I have been completely uneducated, unaware and (as a result) complicit in the continued genocidal behaviours of my country and culture.
(I know. If you’re a settler like me that might sound harsh. That sounded harsh to me too, 6 years ago when I was only just waking up to it. But It doesn’t now. )
That was the beginning of a journey that I am still very much on… I am in the process of un-conditioning my colonial brain. There’s a tangled mess of colonial values embedded in me… so everything I make or think or say is steeped in it. But one by one I’m pulling out the weeds.
And my efforts are working.
It’s slow, and hard work that requires dedication, deep humility and continuous self analysis.
But it’s working.
I’m getting better.
So today I just wanted share a few links to resources that might be helpful for any settlers who might be looking for a place to start their own journey:
Media Indigena Podcast (weekly current affairs roundtable hosted by Rick Harp. It’s a great way to hear a variety of Indigenous perspectives on news headlines… and stories that are not headlines but should be)
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (this is a beautiful book written by an Indigenous scientist who poetically weaves together scientific knowledge and Indigenous wisdom)
TRC report summary (400+ page summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report from 2015)
