The start of 2023 has seen an increase in the public's desire to understand more about Reconciliation between the Indigenous population of our country and Canada, itself. That's according to Portage Urban Indigenous Community Coordinator Cornell Pashe.

Pashe provides an update on the progress that he feels is being made and what remains to be done. He includes the news that reported unmarked graves in British Columbia.

"A lot of it is just teaching about Reconciliation and what Reconciliation is to Portage la Prairie and just society," says Pashe. "Ever since the findings of Kamloops, our Coalition has been busy teaching what Reconciliation is; talking about the treaties, the impact of residential school, the trauma from residential school, the Indian Act, and dispelling myths about Indigenous."

Pashe explains it's a wave of public teaching that's currently taking place among organizations that require it.

"A lot of people are asking what the land acknowledgment is because many people want to start out their meetings with it," continues Pashe. "But what does that really mean? So, we spent a lot of time teaching what that land acknowledgment is, the meaning of land to Indigenous, the meaning of land, and the concept of what the land meant to the crown. When they signed the Treaties, there were differences between what it meant to Canada and what it meant to the Indigenous."

He notes, at the start of this year, Red River Polytechnic was looking to include a learning portion of public education on what Reconciliation is to their Early Child Educators. Pashe says he then decided to step up and provide that input.

"So, I've been teaching a lot with the circles for Reconciliation and the 29 Themes," adds Pashe. "There were treaties, the Indian Act, the 60s Scoop, and the past system. There were 29 Themes, so since January, I've been busy teaching those Themes to that class. For me, it was an opportunity to publicly educate the next generation. When you teach that to those students who did not know about the history, and the impact and what residential school was, to me, from their assignments and the feedback from them, it's really made a difference."

Pashe says he's glad to part of this education process. He stresses it's a continuing work in progress. 

"The more you do, the more people want to know more," notes Pashe. "That, for me, made a huge difference in knowing that you're telling the story, but doing it in a good way."

While he notes there's always more that can be done, the positive manner in which they're promoting the cause is encouraging, along with the impact of what they're doing and the way in which they're telling the story.

"To the Urban Indigenous, it's been a long time coming, to understand why they are where they are, and to understand the impact of what residential school has done," continues Pashe. "It's been a learning process for everyone. So, it goes both ways." 

He says the biggest challenge is truly getting across the hard truth. Pashe says the intergenerational trauma simply has to be understood, which requires even more decolonization. 

"We're not there yet," notes Pashe. "When we work slowly to understand it, like we're doing today with public education, we're preparing ourselves to work toward something that we first have to understand. At the same time, we have to acknowledge it, and it goes both ways -- for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous. That's where we're at. Right now, we're trying to understand the impact of what it's done, but at the same time, try to live the truth. There's still a lot of hard truths that have to come out from from the past." 

He adds he wishes things were where they're now at a couple of years ago. However, Pashe acknowledges that the pandemic impacted their vision of the goals they wanted to accomplish. He says we're getting there. 

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