Unsettling pathways: how some settlers come to seek reconciliation with Indigenous peoples

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the pathways taken by some settlers toward engaging in activities whose stated aims include reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Drawing on in-depth, one-on-one interviews with forty non-Indigenous Canadians who attended at least one Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada event each, we analyze how participants came to be involved in the TRC, and how they came to care about Indigenous issues generally. Guided by a synthesis of Paulette Regan’s [Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010)] pedagogical framework for ‘unsettling the settler within’ and Mark Warren’s [Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)] theory of the ‘seminal experiences’ that lead some white Americans to pursue racial justice, our data analysis reveals six facilitating conditions commonly encountered by settler Canadians on their ways to seeking reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. These conditions include: unsettling lessons on residential schools and other colonial policies and practices, meaningful relationships with Indigenous persons, witnessing social injustice in Canada or abroad, prior social justice activism, personal experiences of marginalization, and the influence of role models. Participants also reported several common challenges, which, depending on how they are managed, may inhibit or promote deepened commitment to reconciliation activism. Theoretical and practical implications are explored.