Relational Honouring in an Era of Reconciliation

I wish to honour all those who have worked tirelessly and continue to work within our post-secondary educational institutions in this Nation to Nation, People to People project called Reconciliation.

We must acknowledge that the work of Indigenizing, reconciliation, and decolonizing within higher education and, more broadly, Canadian society continues not to be fully understood despite clear direction from the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report and Calls to Action. Moreover, the means to advance these conceptualizations to meet the challenges of inclusion of Indigenous peoples, and their knowledges and scholarship across Canadian universities are diffusely varied (Gaudry and Lorenz, 2018) and even troubling (Kempf et al., 2022). Mi’kmaq scholar and educator Marie Battiste in addressing the work of decolonizing; publicly, politically, and institutionally, offers

“… there is no magic bullet, but multiple ways to solve many issues, some by way of academic analyses and research; some political as related to activism, resistance, and lobbying for the merits of various programs, positions; and some by self-reflection and emerging from the chains of the oppressive situations one has been accustomed to” (Battiste, 2017, pp. 70-71).

What becomes evident, if one were to accept this multiplicity of approaches, is that the work of Indigenous and racialized scholars within rigid colonial structures is ‘heavy’, and at a cost (Henry et al., 2017). Arlie Russell Hochschild in her 1983 seminal work on emotional labour reminds us that “emotional labor is the silent work of evoking and suppressing feeling – in ourselves and in others” (Hochschild, 2022, p. 333). Yet, in a new era of reconciliation, in the safety of a like community, these emotional expressions can emerge. I would also like to think that this new chapter involves a new historic period that I coin Nation to Nation, People to People, in the spirit of reconciliation and the monumental work of the 1996 Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples (Dussault & Erasmus, 1996). We must honour the teachings and our teachers.

I have worked in post-secondary education since 1995, first with Saint Thomas University (1995-2000), then the University of Prince Edward Island (since 2002). I have worked alongside countless Indigenous Elders, scholars, Knowledge Keepers, student support staff, and students. I have also worked with many Indigenous communities internal and external to the university. In all instances, as is our way, these selfless higher education warriors have always expressed gratitude to family, community, and their Elders and teachers. These expressions are usually captured in the often-heard term ‘all my relations’. This gratitude extends to the core sacred teachings and the medicines, which also includes humour, compassion and the fire within. It is this ‘relational honouring’ that embodies the desired outcome of Indigenization, reconciliation and decolonization within higher education. A place where Nation to Nation, people to people relations transcend difference conceptually and in practice.

References

Battiste, M. (2017). Decolonizing education: Nourishing the learning spirit. UBC press.

Gaudry, A., & Lorenz, D. (2018). Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: Navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 14(3), 218-227.

Henry, F., Dua, E., James, C. E., Kobayashi, A., Li, P., Ramos, H., & Smith, M. S. (2017). The equity myth: Racialization and indigeneity at Canadian universities. UBC Press.

Hochschild, A. R. (2022). The managed heart. In Working in America (pp. 40-48). Routledge.

Kempf, A., Styres, S. D., Brechill, L., & El-Sherif, L. (2022). A Troubling Place to Start. Troubling Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Education: Critical Perspectives. University of Alberta.

Dussault, R., & Erasmus, G. (1996). The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Ottawa, ON: Canada Communication Group.

Truth, & Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Canada’s Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Vol. 1). McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.