Sit with Me, by This Dialogue Fire

AT THE WATERSHED MOMENT IN CANADIAN history when the Truth and Reconciliation report was issued, the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair positioned truth as mandatory and a precedent for reconciliation, articulating the fundamental principle that without truth there can be no reconciliation. This phrase has become like an anthem in the raised voices of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike. The urgent demand for truth has become a Call to Action in itself. The problem with anthems, though, is that they tend to become rote like an absent-minded genuflection, a premeditated land acknowledgement, reduced to the sound of the words without mindful consideration or intention to follow through. These public gestures are simply a tipping of the hat without any commitment toward substantive recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples to implement jurisdiction in our territories.

Truth is more than fact. In Canada, truth must be unearthed from beneath the myth of Canadian history. That history must be understood in a deeply contextual way if we are to move beyond positional and confrontational relationships and into functional ones dedicated to substantive change. We must step away from the window dressing of reconciliation.

We must come to a place of understanding that the colonial history of Canada was genocidal in nature, functioning as an imperative embedded in the very heart of colonialism.

The conversations, academic and otherwise, about colonialism articulate its complexity and we see work in its derivatives: postcolonialism, neocolonialism, settler colonialism, and so on. Each of these iterations, and more, generate important and elucidative study. At the same time, I find, it distracts from the fundamental meaning of colonialism, and it is critical that its ugly heart not be lost in the study of it. Colonialism is:

The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

That’s it. That’s all. This is the unvarnished, grasping truth of the intention of colonizing European nations that set their sights on the riches of the so-called New World. Human settlement was only secondary to the economic goal. The colonizing settlers are simply the drones in the beehive of colonial ventures; their value limited to how well they enrich the various states who financed the colonial venture.

I often visualize what I refer to as the “colonial toolkit”: a collection of implements used to activate the aims of colonialism. All the implements in the toolkit were, and are, employed to remove us from our lands, disempower us in decisions about our lands and resources, dismantle our highly effective social institutions, and dismember our families and communities. To accomplish these colonial goals, there were, for example, policies established that mandated the starvation of Indigenous Peoples to force their submission. To dismantle traditional family structures, social institutions, and community systems, we saw policy and law mandating the wholesale removal of children for placement in residential schools, for the sole purpose of deconstructing them and reconstructing them in the image of white men.

To understand the brutal circumstances Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island continue to endure, we must reach under the myth of Canadian history. We must embrace history in the way Indigenous Peoples experienced it as it truly unfolded. Only then will non-Indigenous Canadians begin to grasp the true horror of what we were subjected to and how the seeds of that horror continue to sprout and take hold in our lives today.

It is also important to understand that history does not only refer to events almost lost to the mists of time. History is also contemporary. Contextually, the history of relations between Indigenous Peoples and those who settled here must be understood in the context of first contact but also in times as recent as last year. The history of Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations is on a continuum from the beginning to now and must be understood that way if non-Indigenous Canadians are ever to grasp what the prerequisites to substantive reconciliation in fact are. To participate meaningfully in reconciliation, non-Indigenous Canadians must not only be supportive but must also insist that the resources (natural, political, and financial) required for substantive change are generously and enthusiastically provided as needed and articulated by Indigenous Peoples. Non-Indigenous Canadians must use their privilege to leverage real change. It is simply not enough to wear an orange shirt or issue empty land acknowledgements. The non-Indigenous population of this country must not only talk, they must also act.

These are not academic essays, neither are they exhaustive. They are my personal take on this new world brought to us by colonialism; a world in which we still struggle to survive. These essays examine the brutal intentions of colonialism that continue to harm us, whether that be in the form of starvation policies, residential schools and their child welfare descendants, the acceptance of brutality against our women, the dishonesty of government, or the insufficiency of monetary compensation.

I encourage readers to start with the first essay as it provides a historical foundation that informs the subsequent essays.

I also encourage readers to consider Indigenous reality in the true context of these histories to deepen their understanding and call upon their own compassion and responsibility to engage in these conversations beyond the last page.

During momentous occasions, many Indigenous people engage in the ceremonial practice of lighting a spirit fire to engage the Ancestors, so to speak. The fire remains burning, day and night, until the occasion is complete. These essays are intended to spark dialogue; to provide a deeper view of both early and contemporary history through the lens of Indigenous experience. Let us, together, light a dialogue fire. Let us keep the flame alive until truth overturns the colonial lie.