Truth Before Reconciliation

Dear sister and brother white settlers,

(FN friends, I sense you have way better things to do than deal with the endless task of educating white people so I hope you don’t waste your time and energy here; having said that, anything at all that you wish to correct, criticize or share — without reading this even — is 100% welcome. What I say below may cause anger or be triggering in other ways which is definitely not my intention. None of it would be surprising to you, I suspect, but I bet almost all of it will be surprising to many of my settler peers. Hence I’m addressing it to the white folk, with respect and peace, though anyone can listen in and contribute.)

We are about to hear a lot about Truth & Reconciliation again as Canada holds its first national day of observation honouring the topic.

The thing is, in order to *reconcile*, first we need to *recognize*. This means seeing the truth, letting it be part of our cognition, if you will.

My aim here is not to add guilt or shame — these feelings do not improve matters and might even offer an excuse to avert our eyes because it’s too uncomfortable — slip on an orange t-shirt and call it job done.

Rather my aim is to understand the truth in order to foster meaningful change.