In honour of National Aboriginal Day, we are featuring a blog post from Sui-Taa-Kii (Danielle Black) a woman from the Siksika First Nations, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Plains people, Treaty 7. Sui-Taa-Kii talks about reconciliation and what that word means to her along with
The word reconciliation has always been interesting to me. The things I question are what is reconciliation, and how do we define that? Is it choosing as a country to begin honestly educating Canadians on the true history of these lands? Or, is it something we have to dig deep into ourselves to understand? I believe we are still exploring what reconciliation is to us as Indigenous Peoples before we continue creating a relationship with others based off of understanding and honesty.
At times, it can feel like we are being rushed to heal ourselves, or to identify what it is exactly that is hurting us, when we still need the time to reconnect to our way of life, and what will keep us strong throughout this journey. Reconciliation is felt when there is a celebration of who we are as a people. Reconciliation is when you hear your language, and are inspired to learn it yourself. Reconciliation is being aware of the miseducation about your people, but opening the doors to allowing others to learn.
For me, growing up in the city was hard because I was disconnected, and everything that surrounded me only showed me the negatives of my people. It was confusing, especially when the Indigenous people I knew were everything opposite to the negative things being told me. Pieces were missing to the story, but ones that were okay in the past to be left unfound. That is changing today, and it is changing because of the youth who demand to see change. As I grow into a young woman, I realize the things I experienced when I was younger were because of a history of miseducation which was missing our perspective from our history books and curriculums.
It wasn’t until I was 22 that I understood the impacts of Residential Schools and how it affected my family, my people, and even myself. I still explore how that has shaped who I am today, and how it will be unfolding throughout my life. Thankfully, I have come to a place where pride surrounds me with people who amplify that feeling within myself.
Pride and resilience, that’s what I experienced when I went to the reconciliation conference on Treaty 1 Territory for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth held by Canada Roots. I was there representing the Treaty 7 Film Collective with my friend Curtis who was representing Indigenous Resilience through Music which are both grassroots groups founded in Calgary by Curtis and me.
We were there to speak about creative resilience and different ways to share your story from traditional and contemporary perspectives and the tools available. Youth from all across Turtle Island came to gather and share their knowledge with each other.
The place that we met was at a high school in the North End, an area known for its violence, as well as its attempts at healing the community. To hold a conference about healing, in a community working towards healing, is big. Interestingly, despite being a reconciliation conference, everyone attending encouraged each other to step away from that word, and find new ones to replace it such as resiliency and decolonization.
I was happy that we were honest enough to say to each other that we can’t use a word that we don’t fully understand, and that’s okay. I was humbled at the conversations we had together, even the ones that were sometimes hard to have. There was an endless variety of workshops and discussions that happened every day we were visiting these lands. I could sit here and write what they were about, but my suggestion is inviting you to sit down with us and have those conversations yourself. They are important and needed, and I invite the non-Indigenous to do their part.
What I found most interesting was that the common denominator that connected all of us was our disconnect. Whether we grew up in the city, or on the reservation, we understood that we aren’t alone in this.
We found a connection, as we realized that all of us were working towards the same goal, to find ourselves back to a place where we aren’t constantly faced with losing everything we are. Earlier I said we need to figure out what sustains us to keep us strong throughout this journey, and after this experience, I believe that it is our support and love for each other. The care we automatically have for one another because we understand each other’s feelings. We were there because we wanted to share the wealth, but not in the sense of money, but the things our people have always been rich in: knowledge.
If you are an Indigenous youth reading this, one thing I want you to know is that it is not your responsibility to do this alone. Our communities didn’t believe that a person shouldn’t do anything on their own, and we continue that today. If one person leaves the circle, it becomes broken, we need all of us to make it whole. We’ll figure out what reconciliation is and what that looks like, but we’ll do it together. Our ancestors did everything they could do to protect us, and now we do the same for our children, and for each other. We need these conversations to continue, and I hope that we see more conferences like this in the future. If they continue, I also hope that you, the non-Indigenous communities, enter through our open doors, and learn from us what reconciliation looks like.
