Jan. 24, 2020
A simple shift in thinking could make a world of difference for Indigenous Peoples in Canada
Whether Tanya Talaga is on a book tour or hosting聽a prestigious CBC Massey Lecture (she was the headliner in 2018), she fields questions from her audiences. Among them, says the Toronto Star journalist, is always a query about what the average Canadian can do to help mend our shattered system between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada.
鈥淚f every Canadian were to take one, just one, of the calls to action from the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) and apply them to their lives,鈥 she suggests聽from her home in Toronto, 鈥渢hat would make a huge difference.鈥 With 94 calls to action, our choices are ample.
One aspect of reconciliation
You can join Talaga on Jan. 29, when the award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward visits Calgary as part of 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 Indigenous Knowledge Public Lecture Series. Presented by ii鈥 taa鈥檖oh鈥檛o鈥檖, 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 Indigenous Strategy, in partnership with Alumni Engagement, this is just one of many initiatives that aim to develop authentic relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities both on and off campus.
Knowing that one aspect of reconciliation 鈥渋s the collective journey that honours Indigenous Peoples鈥 stories, knowledge, and traditions,鈥 explains Pamela Beebe, 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 Indigenous cultural education and protocol specialist, 鈥減rompted us to launch a six-part annual lecture series as a step on our path that respects, includes, and promotes Indigenous ways of knowing, teaching, learning, and research.
鈥淎nd we chose Tanya because she is very much on the front line, fighting for the rights of Indigenous people across Canada,鈥 she says. Other speakers for the 2020聽lecture series include , and .
Talaga makes history
Making history as the first Indigenous woman to give the five-part CBC Massey Lecture series in 2018, Talaga鈥檚 sold-out talks examined the legacy of cultural genocide against Indigenous people. With a Polish father and an Anishinaabe mother, Talaga grew up in Toronto but spent summers in Raith (an hour northwest of Thunder Bay) with her grandparents, who were residential school survivors.
Thunder Bay was also the setting of Seven Fallen Feathers, which grew out of an article for the Toronto Star into a 376-page book 鈥 giving Talaga yet another reason for choosing to launch the lecture series in this oft-neglected northern Ontario town. Although the talks spanned Canada, the tour didn鈥檛 include Calgary 鈥 in fact, this will be Talaga鈥檚 first time to Calgary, making it an opportune time for Calgarians to meet the author/journalist/lecturer and leave more informed about our past.
Or, as Talaga puts it: 鈥淲e need to stop denying our history. Now. For the 'new'聽world, so to speak, was already the 'old'聽world . . . we were always here.鈥
Making a shift in how we view our splintered world is what Talaga does with ease, sharing her Indigenous perspective with the hats she wears as a newsmaker, a scholar, a mother.
Collective surviving聽鈥 and thriving
Improving the status of Indigenous people is crucial to our collective surviving 鈥 and thriving. Just look at the staggering facts, says Talaga:聽鈥淭he leading causes of death for First Nations youth and adults up to the age of 44 are self-inflicted injuries and suicide. Every year, one-third of all deaths among Indigenous Canadian youth are by their own hands."
No one in this country should be forced to live without basic human rights.
鈥淓veryone deserves a good start in life. No one should be born into communities without clean water or proper plumbing or to parents suffering from addictions or poverty or be forced to leave their communities to access health care or a better education.
鈥淭he tragedy of all this trauma is that it鈥檚 preventable,鈥 she says, adding that although the road ahead to true equality is long and bumpy, she believes many Canadians are seeing a new path forward.
鈥淥ne of the most positive changes I鈥檝e seen is in our education system,鈥 she says, encouraged by the inclusion of First Nations history in many public and high school curriculums, in nursing and history faculties at universities as well as in numerous journalism programs.
On this path forward, we all need to stand side by side, says Talaga.
Find out what that looks like on Jan. 29 at the Central Library from 6 to 8 p.m.聽.
, the 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 Indigenous Strategy, is a commitment to deep evolutionary transformation by reimagining ways of knowing, doing, connecting and being. Walking parallel paths together, "in a good way," 草莓污视频导航 is moving toward genuine reconciliation and Indigenization.
Learn more about ii鈥 taa鈥檖oh鈥檛o鈥檖鈥檚聽2019-20 Indigenous Knowledge Public Lecture Series.