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Originally Posted by Sliver
IDK. I'm not in favour of a piecemeal approach to reconciliation. Gestures here and there aren't going to help. Is there anything we can do as non-Indigenous Canadians to reconcile the past and move forward with the majority of First Nations in a way that FN people generally agree is reasonable?
So we cancel Canada Day, is everyone happy now? Of course not.
We acknowledge the land we occupy before school assemblies and office tower meetings, is that enough? No, and it shouldn't be.
I need to see a road map that we can all agree to that says if we do X, Y and Z we'll have paid our dues, we will be forgiven, and we can move forward and start healing from the shame. I don't want my grandkids still atoning for this. I'd like to take care of it now, so just need to know what to do. I'm not behind token gestures for the rest of my life based on what the Twittersphere says we need to be doing. This'll get ridiculous and we'll all end up bitter if that's what we do.
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I mostly agree with where you're going here, but I think saying we won't do anything until we have a plan to fix this in 50 years means nothing will ever happen.
In my opinion, the most important part is continual steps that are made with intended positive outcomes. Some may fail, that's ok, as long as everyone is trying and with good intent, progress will be made.
No one knows how to fix this, so we can't go in thinking that's the bar. We just need continual progress. Leave the world better than you found it kind of thing.
The awareness stuff is pretty dangerous IMO. It makes people feel like they are doing something without actually doing anything.
School renaming will teach one group of kids a lesson. Make it longer. Put up a plaque by the old sign, immortalize the lessons learned and the painful history so it doesn't happen again.
Instead of burning down churches or restoring burned down churches, turn them into education sites or move them to education sites. March the kids through some relevant pieces of history. A fantastic example already exists with how the holocaust is immortalized.
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/stop...reness_already
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Before exploring the most effective ways to create awareness, it’s important to understand the ineffective and even harmful effects that awareness can have. When done wrong, an awareness campaign carries four specific risks: it might lead to no action; It might reach the wrong audience; it might create harm; and it could generate a backlash. We will examine each of these risks in turn.
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