Taking Action on Reconciliation
The Brown Homestead is within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples, and Niagara remains home to many Indigenous people. We are pleased to recognize and celebrate their friendship and the continuing historical partnerships that makes it possible for us to be here today.
Today marks the second annual observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. The federal government created this holiday last year to honour the children, families and communities victimized by our country’s residential school system and to recognize the ongoing impact of generational trauma that resulted from it. It is also known as Orange Shirt Day due to the custom of wearing an orange shirt as a reminder that Every Child Matters.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, 2021
For us at The Brown Homestead, it is a day of both reflection and action. Last year, our team spent part of the day discussing the often overlooked partnerships between the early Loyalist settlers and Indigenous nations, and the impact of those relationships on the Brown family and this historic site. We also spent the day working as a team on the Norton Cabin, built around 1817 by Mohawk Chief Teyoninhokarawen, which was moved to the Homestead in 1997 to save it from demolition.
As the holiday approached this year, we have spent time together reflecting on the meaning of the day and discussing how to commemorate it. We found ourselves doing so with some uneasiness, though we were hard pressed to define it. Then, last week, we saw a tweet by journalist Michelle Cyca gave us pause.
The tweet and its accompanying comments, and our ensuing discussion that followed it are an important reminder to maintain focus. Establishment of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was necessary and overdue. Wearing an orange shirt is a valid symbol. But when we ritualize the commemoration of an issue, we risk losing focus on it in favour of a memorable symbol.
Despite these small steps and the warmest, best intentions of many Canadians who want meaningful change, this is just the beginning of a longer journey. And as Cyca points out, neither the holiday nor the shirt offer absolution. They can’t. History will not be undone, but it can help us to understand. By understanding the Truth of our own complex and flawed past, we can see more clearly how to create a better future, and perhaps perhaps we can achieve, not absolution, but Reconciliation.
Here at The Brown Homestead we will still observe September 30th, orange shirts included, but will do so with the understanding that the work continues on October 1st, 2nd and thereafter.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, 2022
As a heritage organization, we believe in the honest exploration of history from multiple perspectives, even when it is challenging. We are committed to doing so in community with everyone who shares that history with us.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action issued in 2015 offer a framework for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians to come together to help repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation. While they mainly address the federal government, we recognize that the government is merely an agency of the citizens of Canada and that individually and collectively, we are also called upon to find within them opportunities where we can take actionable steps to do our part to participate in a national process of reconciliation.
To that end, we have begun to develop an organizational Reconciliation Action Plan. We have reached out to our Indigenous partners, inviting them to review our notes and participate in refining and formalizing our plan. Once we have finished, we look forward to sharing it.
Like the Homestead’s Mission, Vision and Values, the Plan will serve among the guiding principles by which we operate on a day-to-day basis, in terms of both our internal organizational culture and our community outreach and programming activities. It too will be a living document, cultivated by our experience and in conjunction with our Indigenous partners. We believe that this will allow us to be part of meaningful and lasting change, and participate in a revitalization of the Tawagonshi or Two Row Wampum Treaty (1613) which guides our nations to live together peacefully with balance and respect.
