Ours is the age of reconciliation, so called. In the wake of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report on the Residential School system, the term reconciliation is now ritually deployed in conversations about Indigenous-Settler relations across this country—in schools and in churches, in the media and in politics. However, as Indigenous scholars like Glen Coulthard, Chelsea Vowel, Leanne Simpson, and David Garneau rightly argue, the language of reconciliation is in many instances nothing more than a new phase of colonialism. They argue, rightly, that it remains presumptuous to talk about reconciliation so long as the truths about settler relationships with Indigenous peoples continue to be so easily ignored, misunderstood, and flatly denied. Indeed, non-indigenous populations in Canada have much work and learning still to do.
This website serves several purposes, but its most important purpose is to make available some tools for learning about settler-indigenous relations, both historically and in the present day. It also provides a home base for those who join us in our reading series. For more information about the upcoming series or anything else, please write to:
richard@readingtodecolonize.ca or
jocelyn@readingtodecolonize.ca
Or, fill in the contact form below:
Reading to Decolonize 