When Jenny Davis was about to meet an Indigenous elder for the first time through her work at Toronto’s High Park Nature Centre, she was nervous.
Davis, the centre’s special events co-ordinator at the time, said she’s embarrassed looking back at her internal monologue when meeting Donna Powless, director of the Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society.
“I was saying, ‘just act natural. This is such an important person. I just have to act natural,'” she said. “Obviously, I’m not acting natural if I’m saying to myself, ‘Act natural.'”
The two were meeting because Powless would soon be leading the Nature Centre’s first Indigenous family nature walks — a collaboration that’s still happening eight years later.
By now, nearly 11 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report and 94 calls to action, most of us have learned at least some of the truth about the impacts of colonization.
But as a non-Indigenous person, Davis said she understands how fear of making a misstep can leave people unsure how to participate even in small acts of reconciliation.
Elin Sandberg Miller, co-author of Everyday Reconciliation: A Guide to Action and Change for All of Us, said she understands that uncertainty.
“It’s not always easy as a non-Indigenous person to do the right thing, to say the right thing, and so then we don’t do anything because we’re worried of overstepping boundaries,” she told Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild.
“A lot of people feel guilt, and they don’t know what to do with that guilt.”
Sandberg Miller, originally from Sweden, points out that the Sami people in her home country have suffered similarly under colonization.
But both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people say there are countless ways to contribute to reconciliation, from supporting Indigenous artists by streaming their music to volunteering to help protect sensitive ecosystems and species.
“Once you begin, you can see all the ways reconciliation can be part of your life,” Davis said.
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Derek Aronhie:nens Montour, who is Mohawk from Kahnawà:ke, located across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, said part of the work of reconciliation is about “trying to shift and change the way we see things.”
He said that’s part of what he and Sandberg Miller are trying to do with their book. He encourages people to get to know some of the many Indigenous authors and filmmakers out there.
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“That’s what I think Canadians need to do is try to put on a different set of glasses,” said Aronhie:nens Montour. “It could be something as simple as starting to listen to more Indigenous YouTube artists because those push up and start to make Indigenous music more popular.”
Jenny Davis encourages other non-Indigenous people to attend one of the many Indigenous ceremonies that are open to the public. These include powwows or the sunrise ceremonies held to mark summer solstice, usually coinciding with National Indigenous Peoples Day every year on June 21.
“What I’ve experienced is that the elders who are leading these public ceremonies are so incredible at making sure we know what we should do,” said Davis. “If you can get there, just really trust that these elders or grandmothers will lead you.”
Aronhie:nens Montour said some Indigenous people find themselves doing a lot of labour to help educate others.
Indigenous people didn’t create the colonial system, he said, “so, really, reconciliation is a non-Indigenous task.”
But there’s a ton of good-quality, easily accessible information that people can use to direct their own learning, he said. A good place to start, according to Aronhie:nens Montour, is by considering who lives near you.
“Which Indigenous nation had the land first in that surrounding area? But once you learn that, pick another nation.”
Echoing the need for personal initiative, Sandberg Miller noted that while many didn’t learn about these issues in school, “it’s not too late and that’s the good thing.”
Sandberg Miller said she’s learned a lot just from listening to the personal stories of individual Indigenous people, including that of her co-author, Aronhie:nens Montour.
“I think for many non-Indigenous people, when you read about a residential school, you read land rights being violated, you read the treaties and how the obligations were not fulfilled, and it’s still so abstract,” she said.
“But to hear it first-hand from someone who has grown up on a reserve and who has been impacted so deeply at the personal level by all those decisions, it changes how you see it.”
Done in a way that’s informed by Indigenous land practices, an act of service to the environment and the other beings living there can also be a form of reconciliation.
Lena Ouse-Hicks is part of a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people called Friends of Tryon Creek who are restoring native plants to a forest in Portland, Ore.
Tryon State Natural Area was once rich with Western red cedar, salmonberry and hazel. But with the arrival of settlers came new species, like ivy, a popular evergreen climbing vine that Ouse-Hicks said almost took over the forest completely.
“The wonderful thing about the native plants here is they are so resilient,” said Ouse-Hicks, who is a member of the Coast Miwok tribe. “You see that through just the areas where you pull a little ivy and that next year … those native plants come up when they’re just given that space.”
Ouse-Hicks said caring for the land is more than ecological repair. “I think inherently it should be environmental restoration as a means of cultural restoration. To me it’s one and the same.”
In Toronto, an effort to reconcile human impacts on a revered animal relative unfolded from a fateful day in 2021 when Carolynne Crawley came upon a snapping turtle laying her eggs in a high-traffic area of High Park.
“She called me and she said, ‘You’ve got to come and help me keep people away,'” said Jenny Davis.
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The encounter inspired the two women to co-found Turtle Protectors, an Indigenous-led program whose staff and volunteers raise awareness of urban turtles among visitors to 11 Toronto parks, protect turtle nests and run a hotline to field reports of vulnerable or injured turtles.
It’s an especially meaningful effort given the turtle is part of the Anishinaabe creation story, which says the first woman to arrive on Earth was given a home on a great turtle’s back.
Davis said prospective volunteers must complete a workshop with Crawley called “Indigenous ways of knowing,” and a second one called “Turtles 101.”
Elin Sandberg Miller said everyone has a role to play.
“It could be that you talk to your elected representative and ask them what they are doing about the 94 calls to action. You can talk to your children’s school teacher about what they’re teaching. You can intervene when you hear someone say something racist or hear prejudice,” she said.
“There’s so much you can do on a daily basis, that we can all do. And if we don’t, that’s a choice too.”
