I'm slowly making my way through the essays in In This Together – Fifteen stories of truth and reconciliation. The most recent is about an indigenous social planner in Vancouver.
Kamala Todd got tired of hearing people say that Vancouver was a young city and set about on a mission to ensure that her peers working for the city and many others would understand the long and rich history of people living in this area.
I've been guilty of the same thinking. When I first moved to Calgary I thought it was a young city without depth in place and culture. I thought that the province where I was from (Newfoundland and Labrador) and its 500 plus year history was superior in culture. How silly my limited viewpoint seems now. How fortunate that through curiosity and the increase in Indigenous storytelling, I've gotten to learn about the thousands of years of history across what we now call Canada.
This willingness to share wisdom and to work together to create the future of our places is what inspires me about reconciliation. I admire the forward momentum present in it. It is building on the strengths and the possible of what our country has been to propel it into the future.
Being a Force for Good 