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National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Special (Revisited)
Episode 35 • Bonus Episode • 29th September 2026 • Neighbourly: Real Stories of Care and Community • CareImpact
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Description

What does reconciliation actually look like in our everyday lives?

For the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we're revisiting a conversation from the Journey With Care archives that feels just as important today.

In this episode, you'll hear Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices wrestle with one question: What does reconciliation mean to you?

Through stories and reflections from Jim Thunder, Jennifer Mason, Karen and Howard Jolly, Jared Ross, Ray Aldred, Joel Calabrese, Melissa Spence, Lyn Dyck, Dr. James Robertson, Wendi Park and others, we explore reconciliation through the lenses of Indigenous identity, residential schools, faith, the Church, treaties, forgiveness, friendship and community.

These aren't voices offering one simple answer. Instead, they invite us to listen, learn and consider what reconciliation might ask of each of us.

You'll hear about the importance of learning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action, examining assumptions we've inherited, listening to Indigenous perspectives, acknowledging painful history, and building genuine relationships with one another.

As we mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we're making a little room to pause, reflect and, most importantly, listen.

Clips taken from the following episodes:

Jim Thunder | Making a Ruckus with Pope Francis

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/jim-thunder-making-a-ruckus-with-pope-francis

Dr. James Robertson | Uncovering the History of the Canadian Church

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/dr-james-robertson-uncovering-the-history-of-the-canadian-church

Jennifer Mason | I'm Not God's Mistake

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/jennifer-mason-im-not-gods-mistake

Karen Jolly | "Maybe I'll Wear My White Buckskin Before Jesus"

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/karen-jolly-maybe-ill-wear-my-white-buckskin-before-jesus

Decolonizing Your Mindset: Small Steps to Engage with Truth and Reconciliation | Joel Calabrese

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/decolonizing-your-mindset-small-steps-to-engage-with-truth-and-reconciliation-joel-calabrese

Melissa Spence | Resilient and Strong

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/s01e05

The Settled Stranger | The Stranger Among us With Guest: Lyn Dyck

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/the-settled-stranger-the-stranger-among-us-with-guest-lyn-dyck

From Trauma to Freedom: A Story of Healing and Redemption | Jared Ross

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/944f3c3c-e727-4801-9513-bd760394ade9

Decolonization, the Bible, and Indigenous Spirituality | Ray Aldred

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/decolonization-the-bible-and-indigenous-spirituality-ray-aldred

Beyond Good Intentions | Guest Host Dr. James Robertson Interviews Wendi Park on CareImpact and CarePortal

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/beyond-good-intentions-guest-host-dr-james-robertson-interviews-wendi-park-on-careimpact-and-careportal

The Estranged Indigenous | Loving The Stranger Among Us With Guest: Howard Jolly

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/the-estranged-indigenous-loving-the-stranger-among-us-with-howard-jolly

A Previous Episode for the Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Learning Everyday: A Powerful Father-Son Story of Reconciliation and Prayer Through Dance

https://journey-with-care.captivate.fm/episode/indigenous-dance-reconciliation-and-cultural-identity-rayne-pasqua-and-kevin-harris

94 Calls to Action

https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

Other Links

Join The CareImpact Podcast Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1PgzJWfkq9/

Reach out to us! https://neighbourlypodcast.ca

Email: [email protected]

About the CarePortal: careimpact.ca/careportal

DONATE! Help connect and equip more churches across Canada to effectively journey well in community with the most vulnerable: careimpact.ca/donate

Transcripts

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Before we kick off season 6, it's the National Day for

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Truth and Reconciliation. And as we were thinking about what we wanted to

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share this week, we kept coming back to an episode from a few years

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ago on Journey with Care, the podcast that eventually became what you're listening

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to now, Neighborly. For that episode, we brought together voices

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from several conversations we've had over the years, and listening back, we felt that

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these were voices worth hearing again. Each

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person brings a different perspective on reconciliation, what it means,

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what it asks of us, and what it can look like in our relationships and

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communities and our neighbors. So as we approach this

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significant day, we're making a little bit of room to pause,

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reflect, and most importantly, listen.

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I acknowledge that I have resided on the ancestral lands of Treaty 1,

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the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree,

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Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the national homeland of the Red River

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I also acknowledge that our water is procured from Shoal Lake 40 First

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Nation. I acknowledge that the social work profession, my

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chosen degree, has played an active role in destroying the cultural traditions of

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the Indigenous peoples of Canada. I am committed to discontinuing this practice

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and restoring those traditions as I enter into my career. I acknowledge that the

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education I received on the history of Canada has come from a colonial perspective,

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and I am committed to learning from different perspectives.

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Colonization is not a thing of the past but is still present in the structure

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and systems of Canadian society. I continue to learn and share what I

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have learned with those in my community, both now and with the future generation, in

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the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation.

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Hey, welcome back to Journey with Care. I'm your host for today, Johan. We're so

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honoured to have you with us on this very important episode commemorating

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the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. So hopefully today

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we can explore the profound significance of reconciliation with our Indigenous

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brothers and sisters across Canada. So in this special

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episode, we'll hear from some inspiring voices who share their deeply

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personal and thoughtful insights on what reconciliation means to

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them. We're going to play some clips from our past conversations that

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we've had. We'll walk through the experiences, challenges, and

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hopes of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals and their

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families. Because this day is not only about reflecting on the

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past, but also actively participating in a future where

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reconciliation is at the heart of our communities. So we feel

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it's crucial that we come together to listen, learn, and engage in

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these conversations. We'll honour the resilience and strength of the

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Indigenous peoples, acknowledging the trauma imposed by colonialism,

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and commit to walking alongside them in a spirit of genuine

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partnership and respect. Reconciliation is a journey that

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requires humility, intentionality, and the willingness to face

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uncomfortable truths. So as we listen to our guests, let their

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words inspire you to strive for meaningful change in your life

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and in your community. By embracing reconciliation, we bring to life the

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call to love our neighbors as ourselves, promoting healing,

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restoring dignity, and nurturing relationships. This process can

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be challenging, But it's vital for fostering a world that reflects the

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fullness of God's kingdom. So here we go. First, let's

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hear from Jimmy Thunder, an OG Cree MBA graduate who is

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currently serving in the Premier's Office here in Manitoba. We interviewed him in

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episode 7 of season 1, and we asked what

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reconciliation means to him. Here's what he had to say.

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I would say Reconciliation is when 2 parties come

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together, come to an agreement of a wrong being done,

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and have a renewed commitment to rebuild a relationship

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and to make amends and to commit to a better relationship into the future.

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Jimmy also works in partnership with Circles of Reconciliation. Here

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he shares a practical step that we can all take to participate in

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reconciliation. What we were seeing is that there's a lot of

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people who have this now renewed interest in learning about reconciliation and

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learning about our history. But it's just amazing to realize

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that we don't even have a common base yet to begin with. We're

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not even at square one together. And so a great starting point

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is to look at the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, not

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only the final report and all the research that's been done, but even just

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start at square one and just look at the 94 Calls to Action. How many

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Canadians do we have even today that don't know what the 94 Calls to

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Action are, what's in there, what are the themes, and

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much less which one of the Calls to Action can they commit to working on?

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And a lot of misconceptions are that the calls to action are directed towards the

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government, but it's actually meant for each member of Canadian society.

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There's even a whole section for the church, isn't there? Exactly. Yeah, there

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definitely is. Let's go through all of these calls to action one

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by one every day for 94 days, and let's commit to

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reading each and every one of them. And not just ourselves, but let's challenge

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all those around us, everyone in our networks, our organizations. Let's get people to

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read these and And to commit to action on them.

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Next up, let's revisit our conversation with Dr. James Robertson of Tyndale

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University in Toronto. We sat down on episode 11

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in season 1 to talk about his book Overlooked and the church's relationship in

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history with the Indigenous peoples. In this clip, Dr. Robertson

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shares an illustration of what it means as a Christian to engage in

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reconciliation.

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Let's say we've had a friendship for years, and if I

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have been perpetually and constantly doing something that harms

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you— maybe not intentionally, maybe not physical, but I'm using

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insensitive language. We can put it right down to, to a baseline. Like, I'm just

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saying something about you or to you that you don't appreciate.

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You know, you're like, okay, at first, well, you know, this is James, I'm gonna

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let this go. But eventually, because we have a relationship, you bring it to my

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attention. You're like, listen, this is how it's going. Well, now I have a choice.

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You know, I can be like, well, I didn't mean it like that. And we

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can have all those fake sort of, I'm sorry that you feel that way, those

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terrible apology apologies that are just reiterated. Mm-hmm. For me,

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if I'm going to follow that Nazarene carpenter, that

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super cool God of mine, human, that lived

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2,000 years ago, I don't have an option

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other than to be like, I hear you. You're right. It is now

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my choice to value our friendship

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or my desires. And what Christ has taught me is that our

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friendship matters more in the economy of God. And therefore, my

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rights, my desires, which we've heard so much of in, in the

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past few years and people reacting to that, um, and what, what

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saddens me is, of course, a lot of Christian voices are hopping on that as

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well. But if we are followers of Christ, I mean, it's

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right in Philippians 2. Like, he didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped,

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but he humbled himself to the point of death, death on a cross. At the

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very least, I can look at my sister in Christ and say, you

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know what, I'm sorry, you're right. I will do better going

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forward. Please forgive me. And then that gives you the chance to say, I do

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forgive you. Dr. Robertson then shared some of

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his concerns with reconciliation becoming a buzzword rather than

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facilitating change. Here's what he had to say.

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I think the damage to reconciliation now is one, it'll become trendy and like all

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trends, it'll go away. And this cannot go away. Right. And 2, the words

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Things are better, but there's no sense of community. There's no actual

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respect for Indigenous perspectives in a way that will

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actually facilitate change. And of course, the word for it, which I think is a

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great word for it, both biblically and realistically, the word reconciliation.

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That's what concerns me about the trajectory of settler and Indigenous

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relations.

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Moving on to an earlier episode, episode 10 of season 1.

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Our season 1 host Melvina sat down with Jennifer Mason, an

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Anishinaabe woman who's one of Melvina's fellow co-workers at Inner

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City Youth Alive here in Winnipeg, sharing what reconciliation means to her.

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Jesus is at the center of everything because of how

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real he is for me, and so everything always comes back

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to my faith. And so for me, it stems

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from You know, I grew up in a home where

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Jesus was in the home, but what I learned was

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to know Him well, to be a good Christian, meant that I

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couldn't be me. It meant that I had to learn how to look

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like someone else, to act like someone else, to be like someone else in order

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to be a good Christian. And it's been a really long journey, but

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for sure, actively, at least the last 10 years, God has just showed me

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that all of that was wrong and taught me how

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to love myself and that in that I am

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Indigenous. He has intentionally made me

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Anishinaabe and all that that entails,

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and that He didn't make any mistakes. It wasn't, oops, I did

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this, you got to figure out how to make it better. And, you know, He

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intentionally chose for me to be Anishinaabe. And he has been

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teaching me that. So my journey of reconciliation,

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it began with decolonizing my mind because

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what I was taught was done so well. Yeah.

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That I rejected all of the things that were

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associated with me being Indigenous, with being First Nations.

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And he's like, nope, I knew what I was doing when I made you,

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and I want you to be proud of that. And so, yeah, he's taught

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me to love myself and to be proud of the fact

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that I am Anishinaabe.

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Our next clip, we hear from Karen Jolly, a pastor

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and Indigenous community leader who was our guest on season 1, episode 14.

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We're going to hear from her husband Howard a little later. But here's Karen Jolly

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being asked the same question. What does reconciliation mean to you?

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I think probably the biggest thing, fixing something that has been

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broken, and it carries into many

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different places, right? Like, but probably the strongest thing is

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relationships. When relationships are broken,

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there needs to be a time where you bring

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people together. You talk about what's happened and then

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you try to fix and mend that

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relationship then. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you

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become best friends. Yeah. But it, it just means

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that there is nothing between you and the

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other person, but that you can be on friendly terms.

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Not necessarily best friends, but at least you've

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talked about The thing that has come between you.

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And I guess even as— when you think of the

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country we live in, and I don't

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know how we're going to fix what's been broken in our country.

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That one is a bigger question.

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Moving ahead to season 2, Tim, who is part of our executive team here at

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Care Impact, was our guest host and interviewed Joel Calabrese,

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a dedicated community leader and scholar with a deep interest in

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theology and Indigenous reconciliation. He's working alongside of

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NAITS, North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies.

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He also brings his experience as an archaeologist to share his

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perspectives on reconciliation. In this clip, Joel shares a

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few things we could as Christians and as the church do to

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participate in reconciliation.

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Here are a few things. Do your own personal

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reflection and, and do some archaeology on your theology

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and dig into your own theology and put some context and story

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to it. You know, who told you that? Where did it come from? Why do

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you believe that certain kind of thing? Particularly with things that disturb you

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and bring up that unemotional response.

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It seems like a lot of church communities Do a book study

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once a year or a few times a year, have different book groups. There are

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a lot, you know, significant amount of Indigenous

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authors following Jesus that you could incorporate. Your

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church should be doing that, particularly in Canada. In this land that

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we now call Canada, this is something that has been—

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it's part of how we think about things, this aspect

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of reconciliation. with the R-E in parentheses,

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because I don't know if there's ever been conciliation to be

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R-E'd to. So Richard Twiss's book,

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any of his, Mark Charles's book on the Doctrine of Discovery

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would be a good one as well. And they have questions in them that you

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can go through as a group. They're built for group discussion.

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So get everybody in the church reading some of those. And if they

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are not even part of what you are thinking the church

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leadership is thinking about, Incorporating into their church, I think that needs to be discussion.

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Hmm. And I think that's sort of an internal thing the church can do.

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And I've talked about the personal individual reflection

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kind of stuff of archaeology of theology. But I think

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just start celebrating with people. Go to

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powwow. There are gatherings and celebrations and

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dance competitions and things like that. And try to get your

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church group, your whatever community to go,

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whatever community is willing to go. This, this is an obligation for

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everybody across Turtle Island is to build that relationship. This is the

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land we're on. These are the treaties we're part of in any of those things.

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Let's take a hop back to episode 5 of season 1 with Melissa Spence,

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This is also our most listened to episode on the podcast so far.

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Melissa is a pastor's wife living here on Treaty 1 in Winnipeg, and

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Melissa was asked what reconciliation means to her.

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So reconciliation to me is reconciling to

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God the Father and learning to

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have that image, to, to take on his image

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in how we live our lives and see ourselves. So it's all

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about identity in Him and what Jesus has

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done for us. So Jesus is a prime example

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of what we on Earth, here on Earth, should be, where

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His Kingdom is. The Kingdom is us, and we

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need to be reconciled to Him so that God could be

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glorified. It's actually the Lord God, our Father,

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who actually started the reconciliation process. And when He

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sent His Son to die for us. So in my

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mindset before, I used to think that the Lord

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sent His Son so that He could love us again. But that's not the

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case, that He actually sent His Son because

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He loved us, not to make Him love us.

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In religion, it teaches you that, that we have to

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work for His love and that It just comes out in that story of the

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prodigal son. Like, we call it the prodigal son, but I think I'd rather

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call it the sons, the elder and the prodigal. And

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so I was kind of like that elder son who had

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everything that the father had. I was living in his household,

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and he was the oldest son, and he had

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double portion of the inheritance, but he didn't see

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that. And so he was working, and why, why, you know,

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you see this whole conversation

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with The elder son and the, and the father, when

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they're talking about the prodigal son, like, you didn't kill the

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fatted calf for me. And he— and the Lord said, everything I have is

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yours. Yes. And he could have just killed the calf whenever he wanted

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to. Yeah. And so reconciliation, I

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think, is just understanding that Jesus

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died on the cross for us, rose Was buried and

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rose again so that he could reveal the Father to us.

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In episode 20 of season 2, Wendi sat down with Lynn Dick,

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Executive Director of the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference.

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Lynn discussed being a settler And then his experience fostering

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children with Indigenous heritage. Here's what he had to say.

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So your path into fostering was through respite, and you got a feel,

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and obviously it tugged on your heart that maybe this is

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something that I could offer in a parenting role and

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provide a safe and nurturing home. How was that leap

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from just general fostering to Going

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cross-cultural, with Indigenous people being overrepresented in

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the child welfare system, what was it like for you to,

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to go there? Well, that was actually fairly

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intentional on our part. When we looked at getting involved with

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fostering, we felt that we were being led to do

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this with Indigenous people, with Indigenous kids, because we saw such a,

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such a great need there, and we wanted to learn

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We already were looking at it at that time already. There's got to

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be something to this. There's got to be something that

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we as— like now we're learning the term as settlers—

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but that we can do to start to build some of this

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reconciliation, right? This was before the TRC was

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even a thing. But we just felt like God was saying to

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us, you guys got to put yourself out there and do something like this.

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When we had our first placement, it was, it

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was like trial by fire. We had a

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2-and-a-half-year-old little guy that came to, to be with us,

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and he was just— wow. He was like,

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he was a whirlwind, right? Like, he came in and energy

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galore. He had some disabilities that

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arose from being FAS, so he was ADHD and

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different kind of things like that. And, you know, when you first

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go into some of these things, you have this idyllic thing of, oh, we're

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gonna really— Just love the child, right? We're just

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gonna love the child and it's all gonna be wonderful. And it was

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like, oh my goodness. We started to say

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that, you know, this little guy was our spiritual exercise,

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right? And if you think about it, when you think of doing any kind of

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exercise, if you want to build a muscle to get stronger, you put resistance to

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it. Right? What do we learn through different trials? How does that—

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how do we learn to be resilient in another area? And that was what we

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were learning here. This was— we were learning something here. We were

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learning about a family, about a situation. We got to be

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his parents for 3 and a half years

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until he was able to transition back to be with his

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mother and with his other brothers and sisters. It was a really neat

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process. And did you learn a lot about his

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Mm-hmm. I mean, one of the things that it allowed us to do was to

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become part of the community. We got to learn and get

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to know the social workers who, the majority of them were

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Indigenous. We get to learn about his community that he was part of,

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go to the celebrations, to the powwows. Because one of the things that

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we wanted to make sure was we didn't want— I

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hope this sounds not too strange, but we didn't want him to become white.

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We wanted him to be able to be part of,

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you know, our lives, but to gain an understanding of

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who he was, what his heritage was,

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and that he could be proud of that. To, to help him to learn those

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things, and in the process, we were learning as well.

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Next, we hear from Jared Ross, who shared his story walking through trauma.

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And even though he's a young adult, he talks about the implications that

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residential schools had on him and his family. I sat down

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with Jared to share his story in a 2-part series in episodes 4 and 5

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in season 2. Really inspiring story, but here's what he had to

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say about what reconciliation means to him.

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So I think like the Reconciliation part, like, the way that I

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live my Christian life is like I try and go by the Word and what

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it says, you know. So ministry of reconciliation out of 2 Corinthians

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5:18 about, you know, the Lord reconciling

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people to him, but also at the same time we carry this ministry of reconciliation

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and we're just pleading, come back to God, you know. And I

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think that's just the way I viewed reconciliation was just like, okay,

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that's what I want for my people. as well. And seeing that vision and also

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just the Revelation scripture

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that I mentioned, I was just like, the Ministry of Reconciliation to me just means

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like, you know, I want them to be healed from this

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trauma that came from residential schools. I feel like if we go through that

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and also just walk through that healing of what happened, but

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also just not carrying that shame anymore, I feel like we'll

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just see such a huge revival that comes out of the First Nations people. There's

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so many young people who are still walking through what I did

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and not getting the gospel in such a true form.

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And I feel like once they understand on the

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healing process, but also understanding the true gospel, I feel like the youth are

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the key to reach out to every youth in Canada. And I

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feel like this revival would just start from the First Nations people.

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Another interview that Tim led, he sat down with Ray Aldred, an

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author and status quo from northern Alberta and director of Indigenous

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Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. And he

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shared his perspective on the Common Law and treaties and their relationship

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to reconciliation.

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But they have essentially set the table for reconciliation in Canada. And I

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immediately, as you were making those comments, I was thinking of the ancient practice I

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learned about called solha, which you're probably familiar with, where the one who is

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offended actually sets the table to sit down and eat with the person who's

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offended them. And I was very moved when I heard you speak

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to that. I don't know if there's more you want to unpack or you can

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correct exactly how I'm understanding what you were talking about, but even the

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funding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, you were saying, was being done by

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funds that belong to Indigenous people. Yeah, it came out of their

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settlement. Were the residential schools. That's what paid for it.

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The treaty among the Six Nations with the

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newcomers, it's called the Common Bowl.

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Aspects of it are called the Common Bowl. We all eat from the same bowl.

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One of the privileges of living in this land is that to be

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fed, to be fed by Mother Earth, to be able to

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enjoy the bounty of Mother Earth. This is to share with everybody.

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The idea though was that everybody should share, not that some should

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have all of it or others shouldn't have all of it. And it's not a

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merit-based kind of a thing. It is

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what it means to live in connection with the earth, to be

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able to be fed. A friend of mine said

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Indigenous people were advocating for universal Medicare

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long before Tommy Douglas did. This part of their thinking

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in the, in the making the treaty. This is why they would always say

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that this, when they were making treaty in one place, they said this needed to

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apply to everybody, all the First Nations and all of Canada,

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when it was talking about providing the medicine

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chest, as it's called in some of the number of treaties.

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So the idea is that human beings are sacred,

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they're sacred beings. So We should be

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respectful of them.

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On our second last clip, we're going to hear from Wendi, our beloved host and

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co-founder of Care Impact. This was taken from episode 13 of

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season 2, where the tables were actually flipped here. Wendi was actually being

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interviewed by Dr. James Robertson, whom you heard from earlier, a little bit on

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organizations and the church working together for the purpose of reconciliation,

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something that she's really passionate about.

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There's so many good organizations. There's tons of

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assets in all the cities across Canada, tons of programs and

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oodles of resources being thrown, thrown at these nonprofits, and a lot

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of them doing good things, but they just don't communicate,

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particularly with the church. And when we wanted to go into

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saying, hey, I think we are feeling called, look at the research on

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residential schools and the tie with the church. We've got to do something.

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We've got to— like, nobody's talking about it in the sanctuaries, at least in

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my tradition and in the circles I was in. Why isn't anybody talking

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about this? I was warned by very

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prominent leaders saying, oh, that's nice, but just don't

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go there. That just gets messy. Yeah. Just talk about children and

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families, but let's not go into the TRC or

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reconciliation because that's just another thing that's more political. And I'm like,

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Reconciliation is the gospel. Reconciliation is so

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central to the Bible. And yet somehow we've tailored

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that out in whatever denomination. It's been easy

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to tailor it out. We curate our own narrative, right? We

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curate our own theologies and to our convenience, because

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that hurts. Like, I've seen people squirm. But

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fortunately, God gave me the gift of making people squirm. And I don't mind that

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because I think we need to go there. It's not a condemning thing. It's just

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like— If we're gonna find healing, let's not pathologize the Indigenous.

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Let's not pathologize the one that can't keep the job or the homeless, the

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cycle of poverty. Let's pathologize the church and see, okay,

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where is this stemming from? Hmm. And why aren't we

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effective in our ministries? Why is it us and them?

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Why can't it be we? And I wanna see a lot more

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collaboration, we-ing, if you call that, with

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people. But I think we can do a lot more togetherness.

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To close out our episode today, we're going to hear from Pastor Harold

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Jolly, Karen Jolly's husband, whom you also heard from earlier.

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This is taken from the episode The Estranged Indigenous from the Loving the

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Stranger Among Us series, which is episode 32 in season

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2. Harold shares both from a pastoral and

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Indigenous perspective of what reconciliation means.

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There's, there's a brighter day coming, and even in the midst of

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darkness, you know, in the midst of chaos, uh, there's this call

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to, to trust God and that he, he's working in all things

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for good. And so there's this hope, and there's this

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idea too that all the things that happen matter to God.

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So in talking about them, there's something in it that we're not just

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talking about it to make people feel guilty or, you know, or to talk down

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to people or to hurt people. But there's something in it that as we talk

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about those things that we're trying to bring reconciliation,

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that we're trying to bring unity. The way that I think of it is like

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we're trying to break forth the Kingdom of God. Yes. You know, that the Kingdom

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of God would be present in this world. And the idea of that happening is

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the reconciliation that happens. And I think that there's something very

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powerful about Acknowledging the pain and

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about tears being in that, and also too, people

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coming together and saying, will you forgive me or forgive my

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people? And a person saying, I forgive, you know, I forgive.

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Not just superficial, but in light of all that's happened,

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I choose to forgive. So for example, not

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superficial would look like what day to day?

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Oh man. I guess just the hearing of stories, just the

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embracing of each other, just building friendships, close

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friendships. I have close friends that are Caucasian, you know, and very close

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friends that are Caucasian. And I work with people that are Caucasian.

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They're very encouraging. And I think that we acknowledge

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the history and we talk about it and we work through it together.

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So— And you go golfing. I go golfing. You go golfing with them too. Play

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hockey. Yeah, yeah, spend time. Spend time with them. I think that's huge. Yeah.

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Oh yeah. Just enjoying being around each other.

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Listening back to those voices a couple of years later, I think the question is

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still worth asking. What does reconciliation require

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of me? And maybe this week, the first step is simply to

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listen. Listen to an Indigenous voice or story you haven't

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heard before. Listen to something you didn't know and pay

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attention to what it might change in the way you see your neighbors.

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Reconciliation isn't something we can wrap up in a single day or a

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single podcast episode. It's something we continue to learn

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and live out in relationship with one another. And with that,

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we're also closing the chapter on this season of Neighborly.

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When we meet you here again, we'll be kicking off season 6.

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Shannon and I have been doing a lot of thinking about where Neighborly is headed,

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and we're excited to share some of that with you. And we got a little

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bit of news to share as well, but you'll have to tune in. Until then,

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thanks for listening and for making room for these stories.

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The stories we share here remind us that care does not have to be perfect

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to be powerful. It just has to be present. Neighborly is an

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initiative of Care Impact, a Canadian charity equipping churches,

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agencies, and communities with technology and training To care better together.

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This episode was produced by CareCreatives Company, a social

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enterprise of Care Impact. If you're building a podcast and want help with

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strategy, editing, or full production, visit carecreativesco.ca

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to connect with us. I'm Johan. Thanks for listening,

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and be that kind of neighbor someone will never forget in a good way.

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Sister, take my hand.

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