ReconciliAction

A late Pride month post

“Healing yourself is a revolutionary act.”
—Helen Knott, In My Own Moccasins: A memoir of resilience

In Canada, June marks two important months. First, like most of the world, we celebrate June as Pride month. Second, it is Indigenous History Month and June 21, the traditional day of the Summer Solstice, is National Indigenous Peoples’ Day. My church, the Anglican Church of Canada, calls the Sunday closest to the June 21 “National Indigenous Day of Prayer.”

This makes June a pretty loaded month, not to mention graduations and opening up cottages and general getting ready for summer. And in my local church community, it is also contains our annual campground service. We worship by Lake Charlotte, Nova Scotia, at a campground owned by a member of the church and have hot dogs and ice cream afterwards. 

This past Sunday, I invited a group of Indigenous elders to join us for our worship (Click here for photos). Now, you can imagine, as a church tradition that has a long and well-established history of running residential schools, this is very delicate work, but it’s also necessary. Where I live and work is on territory that was never given up by the Mi’kmaq people. We live by Peace and Friendship Treaties, and friendship requires stepping out in faith towards one another in hopes of moving onward together. It is always humbling to me whenever an Indigenous person says yes to me, because I am deeply aware they are well within their rights to tell me to get lost. 

Dr. Fyre Jean Graveline of LIFE as Medicine introduced us to the term ReconciliAction. Reconciliation is an act and only happens when words and intentions result in action. We were each given a string of orange yarn (orange is a colour representing children and the future) to tie to a hoop of life as a commitment of our own action, or to take the yarn with us as a reminder to reflect more deeply on what action we would like to take. 

While we did not specifically celebrate Pride month on Sunday (that will come later in the summer with our local festival) this concept of ReconciliAction is sitting with me. I don’t see it as simply making amends, although that is necessary, or righting wrongs, which is impossible. It is ultimately about healing for everyone involved. Understanding myself as a bisexual cis-woman is not isolated from how I relate to the land I live on or the Indigenous people who I am neighbours with. When I actively engage in healing relationships with myself and others, it heals more than just me and them. Healing is generative. 

In the picture accompanying this post (you have to click the back button to see) you see me in a peaceful state, surrounded by symbols of healing: the Pride flag, a bowl of water, and drums. ReconciliAction is intersectional. Healing is revolutionary.

Happy Pride, my friends. Wela’lin and miigwech (thank you) to those who offer me such grace as I learn. Let Pride heal us. 

I cannot recommend enough the work of LIFE as Medicine. They provide online and in-person courses on healing and reconciliation between us, the land, ancestors, and descendants. Learn more at www.lifeasmedicine.ca