I have no idea what "reconciliation" means.

I just know I'm not allowed to ask what it means.

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Says who?

Feb 7, 2018 at 6:03pm

Are you talking about the reconciliation with BC First Nations or reconciliation in general? Nothing wrong in educating yourself!

What you're allowed to do

Feb 7, 2018 at 8:51pm

You're allow to do your own research. You clearly have access to the internet. You aren't entitled to the emotional labour of marginalized people who are already working hard just to survive. Excercise your right to access to information and do some typing into your favourite search engine. Ignorance isn't an excuse anymore.

Reconciliation

Feb 7, 2018 at 10:34pm

It means the restoration of friendly relations.

You don't need...

Feb 8, 2018 at 8:15am

... to believe in tribes, nations, injury, right, wrong, up, down, etc. etc. It's all relative. This is just the latest Priestly Harangue. People don't realize it, but this "reconciliation" stuff is pushed heavily in the Anglican, United Churches.

It's a religious guilt-trip, that's all.

My understanding

Feb 8, 2018 at 12:56pm

Is that many if not all aboriginal descent Canadians feel pretty raw about how they and/or their immediate relatives were treated in the system, by non-aboriginal employers and educators, and by the government that has dragged its feet settling negotiated treaty rights for over a century.

And that, to get square, we have to reconcile with each other. That would include honestly facing up to the racism inflicted by the powerful, such as trying to extinguish languages, failing to protect them from generations of highly stigmatizing racist jokes and stereotypes, and continuing to neglect living conditions in the rez, which depending on where you are, can be very shitty.

E.g. the police rarely come around, so you are at the total mercy of rapists and bullies, the water mains are frozen and your roof leaks, yet the band administration is constantly flying out for vacation with what you can only assume was the grant money.

It's not your fault per se. I think that all of us are being asked to understand it and to realize that, to get past anger and into real equality, it takes effort and a process. And that's how we'll reconcile.

5 11Rating: -6

dick-tionary

Feb 8, 2018 at 1:10pm

Reconcilation - to reconcile. In this case, to reconcile the crowns assertion of sovereignty with indigenous title. There are two conflicting legal realities, one is that Britain asserted sovereignty over the place now called Canada, and the other is that such an assertion was unlawful - including under their and our laws - and so isn't actually enforceable. These legal realities need to be reconciled - somehow modified so they can coexist.
You're completely allowed to ask, you just have to do so without being a racist.

15 7Rating: +8

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