Show Notes
Annie Battiste is a proud Mi’kmaq woman and member of Potlotek First Nations. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan. Committed to social justice and reconciliation within Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan, Annie currently works as a Reconciliation Consultant with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and the University of Saskatchewan. As a frequent conference presenter and community educator, she is creating awareness on the important historical and social issues pertaining to Indigenous peoples, creating bridges in communities through deep reflection on the historical roots of Saskatchewan and its possibilities for new directions in empowerment of diverse groups and peoples in Saskatchewan and beyond.
In our conversation with Annie, she explains that the meaning of reconciliation shifts depending on where we find ourselves and that it is intricately connected to identity. As Annie said, “I think that reconciliation is the definition of the Canadian identity.” Annie also challenges us to think about what reconciliation looks like in the workplace. “I think it’s important for people to really learn about what reconciliation is because it’s going to become a professional competency very soon in the workplace…It’s important because it’s not going away, it’s going to get bigger, it’s going to get better, it’s going to become more beautiful, it’s going to flourish out, and it is on the onus of people to learn it.”
Ben Borne and I invited Annie to have a conversation around these five questions:
1. What is your personal understanding of reconciliation?
2. What experiences have led you to this understanding?
3. Why do you feel reconciliation is important?
4. Does forgiveness have a role in reconciliation? Why or why not?
5. How would you invite people into the reconciliation journey?
Then we recorded her reflections.
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Additional resources to explore:
Two Row Wampum
Treaty 6
Wet'suwet'en blockades
Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Section 25
UNDRIP
TRC Calls to Action
MMIWG Calls for Justice
Beaconnectr.org
ayisiyiniwak: A Communications Guide
Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan
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Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation. We thank Mennonite Church Saskatchewan for additional funding support.
Project Coordinator: Heather Peters
Co-host: Ben Borne
Recording and Editing: Matthew Hildebrandt
Music by Queen Queen Josephine
More from Reconcile. Everyday Conversations
“Action is the part I really focus on in my understanding (of reconciliation) because we can say a lot of things and people can come to a lot of discussion tables, but if you're not actually doing the stuff it is going to be forgotten.”
“I think now though, it's using my voice to create safe spaces, to have tough conversations, but have this conversations in a respectful and safe way. So we can … hear that before you get to reconciliation, you need to hear this ugly truth, right?”
“The chef coat that you see is actually modeled after the Turkish army. And I think there's a lot of a lot of rules and etiquette, and kitchen ways of being that are actually at odds with indigenous culture. So I'm trying to, I guess you could say decolonize that kitchen experience for people.”
In all my conversations with people about reconciliation I have heard that it isn’t an individual journey people are on. The reconciliation path is filled with relationships, teachers, learners and explorers – it is filled with other people. So we have created a reconciliation study guide that accompanies this podcast for you to be able to take to your friends, churches, communities, or neighbourhood book clubs to engage with these conversations together.
“You have to be open to it. You might not want to listen or hear what someone has to say that has a different belief system…. God calls us to love everyone, to listen to their stories. This is what have gotten me started and motivated.”