100 Acts for ReconciliACTION

THE RECONCILIATION JOURNEY can be undertaken through the following strategies:

√ Creating relationships with Indigenous peoples by attending community events (e.g., National Indigenous Peoples Day, Louis Riel Day, Arctic Games, round dances, community meals) and having a critical conversation about relevance and meaning.

√ Learning from local Indigenous Knowledge Keepers in a culturally relevant space (e.g. medicine walks, living with the land, sharing/talking circles, attending powwows, sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, water walks, language camps).

√ Engaging in community outreach projects that have compassion and comprehension at their core (e.g., Project of Heart, Orange Shirt Day, I am a witness, Walking With Our Sisters, Shannen’s Dream, Jordan’s Principle, The REDress Project).

√ Participating in experiential activities that delve deeper into Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations (e.g., Imagine a Canada – National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous Rights Blanket Exercise Workshop – KAIROS Canada, WE Schools – Indigenous Programming).

√ Evaluating individual and collective growth using (w)holistic models that include the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of life (e.g., Medicine Wheel, Indigenous Wellness Framework, First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness).

Source: Adapted from EdCan Network site.

100 Acts of ReconciliACTION

Reconciliation is not about ‘feeling guilty’, it’s about learning the truth.  The following are 100 ‘Acts of Reconciliation’ that Allies can easily do. Many of these are small, everyday acts, that encourage people to think about Indigenous-settler relationships in new ways. We encourage you try each item on the list.

• Learn the land acknowledgement in your region.
• Find your local reconciliation organization. If there isn’t one, consider joining together with others to start one.
• Attend a cultural event, such as a pow wow (yes, all folks are invited to these!).
• Purchase an item from an Indigenous artist. For instance, if you are interested in owning beaded earrings or a pair of moccasins, find an Indigenous artist who can craft these items for you and provide you with information about these special creations.
• Download an Indigenous podcast, like Ryan McMahon’s Red Man Laughing or Molly Swain and Chelsea Vowel’s Métis in Space.
• Read an autobiography written by an Indigenous person. A couple of ideas include Augie Merasty’s The Education of Augie Merasty, Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak- Fenton’s Fatty Legs: A True Story, and Mini Adola Freeman’s Life Among the Qallunaat.
• Find out if there was a residential school where you live. Maybe visit its former site.
• Watch CBC’s Eighth Fire or APTN’s series, First Contact.
• See if you can find sage in your area and learn how Indigenous people use(d) it.
• Visit the Manitoba museum, particularly its sections on the Treaties and Indigenous people.
• Learn a greeting in a local Indigenous language.
• Register for the University of Alberta’s online MOOC, called “Indigenous Canada,” for free.
• Initiate a conversation with a friend about an Indigenous issue in the news.
• Support protests by Indigenous peoples. 
• Eat at an Indigenous restaurant like ‘Feast Café Bistro’ or food truck.
• Seriously consider your own position as a settler Canadian. Do you uphold practices that contribute to the marginalization of Indigenous peoples?
• Learn why headdresses are not appropriate to wear outside of ceremony.
• Find a book that delves into Indigenous local histories.
• Donate to the Bear Clan Patrol (Manitoba).
• When discussing LGBTQ issues, always include two-spirit peoples (LGBTQ2S*).
• Invite your local reconciliation organization to hold a KAIROS Blanket Exercise at your place of employment.
• Buy some books for your children that explain the histories and legacies of residential school (see CBC’s list of suggestions).
• Ask yourself if stereotypes about Indigenous people align with your beliefs (for more on stereotypes, refer to Chelsea Vowel’s Indigenous Writes ).
• Educate yourself around the issue of ‘Racial Profiling’ and consider why this is an important issue for urban Indigenous populations.
• Learn your family history. Know where your ancestors came from and when they arrived in Canada. In addition, understand how your family story is part of a larger system that sought to dispossess Indigenous people from their ancestral lands.
• Acknowledge that as a nation, Canadians choose which histories are celebrated and which ones are erased.
• Learn the difference between Indigenous, Aboriginal, First Nation, Métis, and Inuit.
• Support local Indigenous authors by purchasing their books.
• Watch an educational documentary, such as We Were Children or The Pass System.
• Gently counter racist or stereotypical comments with fact-based information whether you are at a party, the office, or the gym.
• Understand and acknowledge that Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was an architect of genocide. Say that aloud with us, “John A. Macdonald was an architect of genocide.”
• Show your support on social media. ‘Like’ pages and ‘share’ posts that support Indigenous endeavours.
• Listen to Indigenous music. If you do not know any, listen to CBC’s Reclaimed. Or start with an album by Tanya Tagaq or Leonard Sumner.
• Find the Indigenous section at your local library.
• Read the TRC. Seriously. Start with the Calls to Action, then the Executive Summary. You can even listen to it online at #ReadtheTRC. Better yet, invite your friends or colleagues to read it with you.
• Attend presentations and book launches of Indigenous scholars and authors.
• Hire Indigenous people for positions at your workplace.
• If you live in an area where there is a Treaty relationship, read the treaty document. It can be found on the TRCM website. http://www.trcm.ca
• Write to your municipal, provincial, and federal representatives and ask them how they are implementing the Calls to Action. Follow up with your school or employer about the 94 Calls to Action.
• Read Marilyn Poitras’ reasons for resigning her Commissioner’s position with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Inquiry.
• Learn about how the child welfare system is failing Indigenous families. Write a letter to your elected representative asking for change.
• Remember when Stephen Harper’s government sent body bags to the Wasagamack First Nation during the H1N1 influenza outbreak instead of trained medical professionals with vaccines?
• Did you know there was a separate and inferior health care system for Indigenous peoples? Read Maureen Lux’s book, Separate Beds (2016).
• Be aware that Indigenous people were restricted from voting in federal elections until 1960. And also understand that First Nations people were forced to choose between maintaining their Status under the Indian Act and going to university or serving in the armed forces, and women lost their status by marrying a non-Indigenous person.
• Do you have access to clean drinking water? You are lucky. Also, ‘luck’ really has nothing to do with it; these conditions were historically engineered.
• In a country that is ‘safe,’ such as Canada, 57% of Indigenous women are sexually assaulted during their lifetimes.
• Find out who was forced out of your area before you moved there, whether centuries ago or more recently with new housing developments.
• Write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask that the government implement the promises he made to Indigenous people.
• Does your child have a school nearby? Realize that it receives better funding that on-reserve schools. By at least 30%.
• Actively seek out Indigenous heroes and role models. How about Dr. Nadine Caron, the first First Nations woman to become a surgeon? Or Mohawk athlete Waneek Horn-Miller? Or a historical figure, such as Thanadelthur?
• Do you have an Indigenous political candidate in your area? Even though they might not be affiliated with your political party of choice, phone or email them and start a conversation.
• Recognize that Indigenous legal orders and laws guiding society existed in this land before the authority of the Canadian nation state.
• When travelling, know whose land you are visiting while on vacation or travelling for work.
• Support Indigenous parents by learning the issues that they are faced with, which are often scenarios that settler Canadians take for granted. For instance, the use of Indigenous names on government documents and how that can be problematic. But also how these ‘issues’ can be resolved by speaking out!
• Check out #NODAPL.
• Acknowledge that current (and sometimes vexed) First Nations politics are governed by the Indian Act.
• Learn about why the opinions of Senator Lynn Beyak are problematic.
• Did you know that in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, territorial law acknowledges Indigenous custom adoptions?
• This year was the twenty-seventh anniversary of the so-called ‘Oka Crisis.’ What do you know about it?
• Ever wonder why only English and French are Canada’s official languages when there are at least sixty Indigenous languages in this land?
• Read about the Daniels Decision and why it is important.
• Learn about Chanie Wenjack’s story by watching this Heritage Minute. Know that his story was shared by thousands of other Indigenous children.
• Did you know that two remarkably successful Hollywood films included Indigenous actors? Watch The Revenant’s Melaw Nakeh’ko and Wonder Woman’s Eugene Brave Rock!
• Watch Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk.
• If you are invited to ceremony – definitely go. This is an honour!
• If you actually want to see the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people change and commit to making reconciliation a part of your every-day ethos.
• Consider the line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Chelsea Vowel has a good blogpost about this.
• Observe what is celebrated and recognized in the monuments, parks, and street names in your city. Think about how public history could be told differently.
• Learn the original names of places in Manitoba. Learn what places were and are important to Indigenous people.
• Discover the world of Indigenous blogging. Zoe Todd, Erica Violet Lee, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Chelsea Vowel are among the best.
• Consider the words that you use. For example, do not call your group of friends a “tribe,” describe a meeting as a “pow-wow,” or call a non-Indigenous leader “Chief.”
• Learn the stories behind some of your favourite music. For example, read about how Lillian Shirt’s grandmother may have inspired the song “Imagine” by John Lennon.
• Visit the website of the nearest First Nation(s) or Indigenous communities. Read their short introduction and history.
• Find opportunities to learn about how Indigenous people experience the place where you live. Look for a local speaker’s series or an online resource.
• Volunteer your time to an Indigenous non-profit organization.
• Support Indigenous media (newspapers, radio stations, social media sites, and TV stations).
• Read the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Our government has committed to implementing it.
• Read the Indian Act.
• Read the report on the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples. also known as RCAP.
• Is there any public art by Indigenous artists in your area? If so, visit it and learn about the artists.
• Read In This Together: Fifteen True Stories of Real Reconciliation (2016) and write down your own “lightbulb” moment when you realized the harsh reality of colonization in Canada.
• Make reconciliation a family project and complete items on this list together. Bring your children to events, learn words in an Indigenous language together, and organize a youth blanket exercise, for example.
• Start your own Heart Garden with messages of support for residential school survivors.
• Start to learn and understand cultural protocol. Know this will change according to Indigenous nation and region.
• Look up and learn about an Indigenous athlete. We have NHL players and Olympians among the mix!
• The Bering Land bridge is one way of telling migration history. But Indigenous people have their own explanation of ancient histories and that needs to be respected. Read about these conversations here and here.
• Look for and share the positive stories about Indigenous people, not just the negative ones.
• Invite local Indigenous people in to your event or organization.
• Give an honorarium if you expect an Indigenous person to contribute their time and effort.
• Cite Indigenous authors and academics in your work.
• Want to incorporate Indigenous elements or policies into your workplace? Hire an Indigenous consultant.
• Ask yourself how to support Indigenous families who have lost loved ones as the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls unravels.
• Encourage the institution you work for or study at to formally acknowledge the territory.
• Make a financial donation to a local Indigenous organization.
• Support initiatives to change the racist names of sports teams. Learn why this is so important to many Indigenous people.
• Read fiction by Indigenous authors. 
• Next time you want to talk to an Indigenous person about their background, ask what community they belong to and learn the name of their people.
• Visit Walking With Our Sisters website and discover if they are coming to your region.
• Read about the story of one missing or murdered Indigenous woman in your region.

Memorize her name and learn about her life.

• Familiarize yourself with Cindy Blackstock’s important work

100 Acts for ReconciliACTION author: Renée McGurry

Learning, Listening, and Amplifying Indigenous Voices