22 About Reconciliation
Seneca College
The phrase “truth and reconciliation” is subject to overuse in Canada right now, and awareness as to what reconciliation really means for all of us is sometimes lacking. As you embark on Skoden you are invited to think about what reconciliation with people who are First Nations, Métis, and Inuit means to you personally and professionally?
Listen to the podcast interview, linked below, with the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. If listening to a podcast is not accessible to you, the print interview linked further below provides very similar information. These interviews took place shortly before the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30, 2021). Recognizing this day came about in fulfillment of Call 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action. Murray Sinclair says in the interview that the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is about atoning for what was done and ensuring it never happens again and that the first step in reconciliation is to learn the truth about Canada. Perhaps engaging with the Skoden materials is for you an act of reconciliation. See below for what to consider as you listen or read.
As you listen and/or read the interview(s) consider:
- What needs healing in yourself that stands in the way of reconciliation with the people, the land, and the way of life that was here before colonization?
- What barriers to reconciliation do you see systemically embedded into Canadian society?
Listen: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is 1 step on a long journey, says Murray Sinclair
