Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
What is
real reconciliation? This collection of essays from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors from across Canada welcomes readers into a timely, healing conversation--one we've longed for but, before now, have had a hard time approaching.
These reflective and personal pieces come from journalists, writers, academics, visual artists, filmmakers, city planners, and lawyers, all of whom share their personal light-bulb moments regarding when and how they grappled with the harsh reality of colonization in Canada, and its harmful legacy. Without flinching, they look deeply and honestly at their own experiences and assumptions about race and racial divides in Canada in hopes that the rest of the country will do the same.
Featuring a candid conversation between CBC radio host Shelagh Rogers and Chief Justice Sinclair, this book acts as a call for all Canadians to make reconciliation and decolonization a priority, and reminds us that once we know the history, we all have the responsibility--and ability--to make things better.
Synopsis
The release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) findings and recommendations in the spring of 2015 was an immensely important day for the people of Canada. It marked the hopeful beginning of change--a change of thinking, a change of opinion, a change in understanding. But how do we begin?
Chief Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC, says that the most common statement the commission heard from the public was: "I didn't know any of this, and I acknowledge that things are not where they should be, and that we can do better. But what can we do? What should we do?"
This collection of fifteen true stories of real reconciliation by both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Canadians is in response to that question. Written by journalists, writers, academics, visual artists, filmmakers, a city planner, and a lawyer, each of these writers expound on their 'light bulb moments' regarding Canada's colonial past and present. They look at their own experiences and assumptions about race and racial divides in Canada under a microscope in hopes that the rest of the population will do the same.
With an afterword that is essentially a candid conversation by renowned CBC radio host Shelagh Rogers and Chief Justice Sinclair about their time working with the TRC, this collection is one of the many ways to begin the work of reconciliation in Canada. Metcalfe-Chenail hopes that these voices will inspire other Canadians who want an open dialogue and to maintain the conversation long after the buzz of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report has faded.