NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY 2017 What’s the future of reconciliation?

Over the past year, Reconciliation Saskatchewan has been hosting engagement sessions throughout the province and asking Saskatchewanians an important question: What does successful reconciliation look like in 25 years?

“We ask people to imagine they’re talking to their grandkids in the future, telling them how reconciliation has been successful and it all started in 2017. In your story, what are the changes that needed to happen?” said Rhett Sangster, director of reconciliation and community partnerships with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, which led the creation of the provincial movement.

“By engaging people from all walks of life – Indigenous, non-Indigenous, business, government and civil society – we can create a consensus around a vision for reconciliation in Saskatchewan. If we can figure out where the bus is going, then we can all get on that bus and start working together.”

The ultimate goal of reconciliation is to renew and maintain a positive Treaty relationship based on recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership. Reconciliation can be a delicate subject, which is why the Office of the Treaty Commissioner feels it has a role to play, using its stature as a neutral provincial facilitator to encourage open conversations.

Reconciliation Saskatchewan was started in Saskatoon through support of partners such as the City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Tribal Council, Central Urban Métis Federation, Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and Saskatoon Health Region. Reconciliation Saskatoon has now expanded its circle to nearly 60 organizations. Reconciliation Saskatchewan has since formed similar groups in Regina, and Lloydminster and Onion Lake First Nation.

According to Sangster, a major goal of Reconciliation Saskatchewan has been to find reconciliation champions.

“In our view, a champion is anyone who has energy to be proactive and make things better. We all have spheres of influence and we all have different ways of doing things, so we like to keep things democratic,” Sangster said. “We’ve had people from churches, people from the business community; it’s been a pretty diverse group coming togeth-

er. I was in Onion Lake recently for the second meeting between Lloydminster and Onion Lake partners to talk about how can people work together better in that region to engage the public, to educate, and work on economic development.”

Beyond the meetings, Sangster said public engagement is important to continue building momentum. He said the public needs to understand the importance of reconciliation and hear the positive stories that are happening instead of the negative.

Reconciliation Saskatchewan puts on numerous public events to raise awareness. Last year in Saskatoon, the group hosted a walk called Rock Your Roots: Walk for Reconciliation the day after National Aboriginal Day (NAD). This year, Reconciliation Saskatchewan is aligning the event with the NAD festivities on Wednesday in Victoria Park. The walk begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by the rest of the festivities.

Currently, there are no other walks in the province but Sangster said big plans are definitely in the works.

“In Lloydminster and Onion Lake, for example, they’ve talked about working together on an events calendar in September and October,” Sangster said. “They have a summit that happens every October around Indigenous economic development on how to bring the Lloydminster and Indigenous community together for business. We’re hoping to dovetail on that to reach a bigger audience,” said Sangster.

“In Regina, the OTC and the City of Regina brought together over 80 community leaders in April to share information about their own reconciliation activities. The group agreed that ‘yes’, they want to work together on reconciliation and they identified some possible areas of focus. In late June, the plan is to meet again to further drill down on what kinds of things the group can do to- gether. It’s about making concrete progress, but also about building trust and relationships.”

Reflecting back on the past year, Sangster said Reconciliation Saskatchewan has achieved some incredible things.

“We recently did a session where we asked people what the most significant change was for them in the past year as a result of their involvement,” Sangster said. “A lot of people in the room talked about how this allowed them to move from feelings of guilt, or fear of saying the wrong thing, or being ignorant, to learning, listening and finding their own personal call to action and own inspiration to try to move forward, finding some of the common language to have discussions on some of these issues.”

Sangster said Reconciliation Saskatchewan has attracted a lot of interest in other parts of the province like the Battlefords, Prince Albert and Swift Current.

“We think we’ve got a great model to use and frankly we’d love to have it going in every community in Saskatchewan,” he said.

PHOTO: OFFICE OF THE TREATY COMMISSIONER Reconciliation Saskatchewan will hold the second annual Rock Your Roots Walk for Reconciliation in conjunction with National Aboriginal Day, tomorrow, starting at 10 a.m. in Saskatoon’s Victoria Park.

PHOTO: OFFICE OF THE TREATY COMMISSIONER During a Saskatoon public school powwow, students held white boards indicating what reconciliation meant to them.

TREATY COMMISSIONER PHOTO: OFFICE OF THE Reconciliation Saskatchewan organizes a variety of events to raise public awareness about the importance of reconciliation. Here, the Reconciliation Flag is raised at Saskatoon City Hall.