"Atikotc eici tepwetamak, eici apitentakwak, kitci kikinowamatisowak kapena ktci mino witciiaiekki mino mantominan acitc ka tepentciketc kitci apak ka ici makopisowak, kitci nimiak tac iimikana, ka ici moseek eka maci awiakok ka ici pikopotowatc.”

 

"Regardless of our beliefs, what matters is to learn to commune with our spirit and with the Great Spirit to free ourselves from our suffering and to dance freely on this path that has not been burnt by the modern world."

– Dominique (T8aminik) Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardif (co-founders of the Kina8at-Together Indigenous Organization)

 

The exhibition ReconciliACTIONS reminds us that reconciliation is an ongoing process, a chain of care and repair, not a one-and-done event. Decolonizing our relationships with one another and drawing new pathways of understanding based on mutual respect is empowering for all of us. Indigenous, settler, immigrant, and refugee alike all play an integral role in enacting reconciliation. Dominique (T8aminik) Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardif explain in the quote above that what matters most for everyone, regardless of beliefs, is that we free ourselves from suffering by learning to dance on the path that has not been burnt by the modern world. We are being encouraged to rebuild balance and harmony into our lives together – a dance free of the shame, self-importance, greed, and noise of modern life. These modern world attributes have clouded our ability to truly see each other, inhibiting the repair of our relationships, individually and collectively. We cannot move forward in reconciliation if we do not listen and dance with patience and vulnerability.

 

ReconciliACTIONS is an invitation to contemplate how we can show up with care in actively carrying reconciliation forward. All persons have agency to create ripples of change, and the Indigenous artists who are included in this exhibition are contributing to this change by educating the public and sharing their knowledge and experiences through their art. As you look at each artwork, consider the artist, their experiences, and what message each artwork might be conveying. Consider how your own actions can be instruments of change in the ongoing process of reconciliation.

 

The year 2023, when this exhibition began its tour, marks the eighth year since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its multi-volume report to outline the inequities, injustices and generational trauma inflicted upon Indigenous peoples in what many now know as Canada, but that many also more broadly see as a part of Turtle Island (North America). This report summarized what can be done to repair and reconcile the harms done historically, as well as identifies specific actions that can be taken to correct ongoing inequities and injustices that are continually harming Indigenous peoples today. The 2015 report included 94 Calls to Action, and in the last eight years, only thirteen of them have been completed – a snail’s pace for change.1

 

As Dr. Eva Jewell writes in 2022 Calls to Action Accountability: A 2022 Status Update,

 

      "…too much of the work of reconciliation has, until now, focused on symbols and not structures. We seem to be stuck in an eternal prologue, trying to define the problems that need to be solved, but with incomplete data, laden with grand but ultimately empty promises from all levels of government, and with all of this covered with a thick layer of orange-glazed “good intentions.”2

 

In the ReconciliACTIONS education guide (linked below), we have included the 94 Calls to Action and their current progress. There are also several discussion questions, activities, and resources provided, all of which are meant as an urgent impetus to seek out and understand specific tangible actions everyone can take to carry reconciliation beyond "good intentions." We hope you will take the time to read, reflect and respond with ACTION after reading about each of the artists in this exhibition, about the 94 Calls to Action, and about YOUR part in enacting change for future generations.

 

– Curators Diana Frost and Ashley Slemming

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1 Calls to Action Accountability: A 2022 Status Update on Reconciliation, edited by Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby, Yellowhead Institute, 2022, p. 6. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/TRC-Report-12.15.2022-Yellowhead-Institute-min.pdf

2 Ibid.