True Reconciliation Research Articles

From Black squares to White guilt: The influence of Black Lives Matter on non-Indigenous views of the Voice to Parliament referendum in Australia

This article examines the impact of the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement on decolonization efforts in Australia, focusing on non-Indigenous Australians’ attitudes towards the Voice to Parliament (VtP). This study utilized surveys (122 respondents) and interviews (11) with predominantly non-Indigenous Australians, conducted before the October 2023 VtP referendum. We found that the BLM movement did not bridge the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Instead, the research highlights a highly polarized environment, particularly evident in the discourse surrounding the VtP referendum. Factors such as the lack of truth-telling regarding Australia's colonial history, media bias, community segregation and political polarization created a complex association between BLM and stances on the VtP. A promising result is that individuals who recognized the link between BLM and challenges faced by Indigenous Australians were more likely to support the VtP. The overall findings indicate that Australia has a way to go towards true reconciliation.

The next chapter: How Ryerson University became Toronto Metropolitan University

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the discoveries of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools in Canada in 2021 have put the spotlight on the treatment of Black and Indigenous peoples across North America. This focus is increasing calls for the removal of names, statues and other forms of commemoration tied to figures from Canada's colonial history. By virtue of its name, Ryerson University — named after Egerton Ryerson (1803–82), formerly the Superintendent of Education and a primary developer of Ontario's public education system, who is also viewed to have paved the way for Canada's residential school system — became a focal point in this broader debate about how to recognise Canada's history and take the important steps forward on the path to reconciliation. In April 2022, Ryerson University became Toronto Metropolitan University, the first post-secondary institution in North America to change its name to address colonialism and better reflect its values of equity, diversity and inclusion. The decision to rename the 74-year-old institution was unprecedented. There was no blueprint, no budget and — for reasons of confidentiality and to manage potential leaks — the marketing and communications teams had to develop and execute strategies and tactics without knowing the official name. As Canadians learn more about Canada's history and the treatment of Indigenous peoples, the pressure on other public institutions to act in a manner with the principles of true reconciliation will continue to rise. This paper shares how the university's strategic communications and marketing teams supported the renaming by developing and executing a comprehensive plan to engage, inform, educate and prepare the community for the launch of a new name and pave the way for adoption. It presents the key components of the plan, strategies and tactics used, evaluation metrics, challenges and how they were met, and critical lessons learned.

STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE IN ANGOLA

This article aims to analyse the ongoing structural violence in Angola and outline the theoretical framework that are associated with it. Despite the end of the long civil war and the glimmer of peace, post-Cold War and political parties´ ideologies have deeply dived the country up to now. The MPLA government has used brutality against the opposition and incited physical and symbolic violence against the Bakongo and Ovimbundu ethnic groups. Indeed, the signing of the ceasefire in 2002 after the death of Jonas Savimbi did not bring true reconciliation in Angola. Political motivated crimes, the use of excessive force and brutality, kidnapping, mass killing and human rights abuse are common in Angola. Hence, the following guidingquestion arises: How can structural violence be fought in Angola? The theoretical research was based on Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic violence. Qualitative, bibliographic, documentary and empirical studies, with the collection of secondary data were carried out. The results can be fundamental in the search for solutions to promote reconciliation, tolerance and social cohesion through the peaceful resolution of conflicts for the progress of Angola and the humanity as well.

German-Polish Reconciliation and Sino-Japanese Reconciliation: Comparative Reflections

Certain parallels exist between the perception of Germany in Poland and Japan in China. This similarity was observed by Chinese historian Yinan He. Poland and China associate their neighbouring nations with a negative, bellicose stereotype that harks back to the Second World War. However, this war is perceived as merely the latest incident in a long history of transgressions. Post-war, both countries came under communist rule, further demonising the former enemy. In the 1970s, both China/Japan and Poland/(West) Germany set aside historical grievances in favour of immediate diplomatic normalisation. In the 1980s and 1990s in Poland, this superficial reconciliation evolved into genuine reconciliation, thanks largely to the efforts of the Catholic Church and the joint membership of Poland and a united Germany in NATO and the EU. Concurrently in Japan, but particularly in communist China, practices of elite mythmaking only served to accentuate historical animosities. In East Asia, there appears to be a mutual lack of willingness for true reconciliation and forgiveness

The fast track land reform of Zimbabwe read through the lens of Ubuntu

ABSTRACT The Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) of Zimbabwe (2000–2002) has been studied from economic perspectives that emphasise inequalities between landowners and the black majority. Other studies have focused on the violence engendered in the process of reclaiming land. Critical questions have not been raised about the sense of justice, and sensitivity to human lives lost, during the process of land takeovers. Hardened ideological positions of both white landowners and the nationalists over land can be considered to have led to extra-judicial killings, corruption, and loss of livelihoods for land owners and their farm labourers. This article applies the concept of Ubuntu to measure what was lost in terms of humaneness, prospects for true reconciliation, and compensatory and distributive justice from a process that emphasised violence over dialogue. Secondary, internet sources and limited interviews were used to gauge people’s perceptions of the manner of the FTLRP due to land restorative processes that to violate the very idea of dialogue to resolve conflicts encouraged in the philosophy of Ubuntu. The article provides recommendations of what could have been done to preserve the essential elements of Ubuntuism that put value on the otherness of the other persons in any situation.

Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance by James Bernauer, S.J. (review)

Reviewed by: Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance by James Bernauer, S.J. Beth A. Griech-Polelle Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance. By James Bernauer, S.J. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2020. Pp. xxx, 220. $55.00. ISBN: 9780268107017). In James Bernauer's work, readers are drawn into the distinctive elements of Jesuit spirituality: the examination of conscience and the discernment of spirits in order to address and more fully understand the Holocaust and members of the Society of Jesus's attitudes toward Jews. His work challenges the reader to think about how Jesuits thought about the Jews. How did Jesuits perpetrate evil against the Jews, but also how did actions of Jesuits bring about good for Jews as well? By scrutinizing the conduct of Jesuits, the hope is to gain not only a greater understanding of the events of the Holocaust, but also to achieve a type of reconciliation [End Page 420] with the Jewish community. The Kaddish is recited as a prayer of mourning that praises God and the gift of life. From the opening chapter the reader is invited to accompany Bernauer on a pilgrimage. He begins with the work of Pope Saint John Paul II in seeking forgiveness for past sins against the Jews. In calling for genuine brotherhood with the Jews, the Pope made confessions of guilt for Catholics who participated in crimes against Jews, from his visit to Auschwitz in 1979, through his visit in 2000 to Yad Vashem in Israel. In all of these travels, the Pope instructed Catholics that honestly addressing the errors of the past would be a step toward atonement and forgiveness. What the Pope had done was earth-shattering in importance. The Pope had recognized that in order for a true reconciliation with Jews to happen, Catholics would first have to remember what had actually occurred. Readers continue their pilgrimage in Chapters Two and Three, learning about the concept of "asemitism" which was often practiced within the Society of Jesus. Asemitism meant strict separation between Jews and Catholics, accompanied by an indifference to what was happening to Jews in society. This attitude of indifference also did not argue against other forms of antisemitism that were running rampant in European society. It essentially rendered Jews and their problems invisible to Catholics. Despite the separation that "asemites" might have wished for, there were tracts published intimating that Jesuits and Jews shared similar characteristics, e.g., a desire for world domination, wealth, etc. By Chapter Three, one encounters the subtler forms of Jesuit hostility toward Jews, particularly in the realm of fears over the sexualization of culture which were then linked to a supposed Jewish materialist, carnal way of living. The Jesuits were calling for chastity and obedience. The Church, along with the Nazi state, were out to cleanse the German people from the sensual and erotic elements of Weimar Germany. That frequently meant that "Jewish influence" had to be eradicated. The final portion of the pilgrimage brings readers out of the darkness of the previous chapters. Here we encounter French and German Jesuits who realized that they were part of a larger, wider community: the community of the human race. They recognized that one could not remain indifferent. These individuals aligned themselves with persecuted Jews, at times sacrificing their lives in order to save the persecuted. The work then takes us back to the central image of the pilgrimage, where the image of Jesus as a Jew becomes central to our understanding of Catholicism and concludes with the author's proposed statement of Jesuit repentance. The Society of Jesus has come a long way from its early history of banning men of Jewish origin as members to embracing true community with Jews. A 1995 Jesuits' General Congregation recognized the need for special dialogue with Jews, "The first covenant which is theirs and which Jesus the Messiah came to fulfill, has never been revoked. A shared history both unites us and divides us from our elder brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, in whom and through whom God continues to act for the salvation of the world" (p. 118). Bernauer's work on the evolution...

Priorities, Narratives, and Collaboration: Insights From Evolving Federal Mandates on Food Systems in Canada

Whether it is in a post-election period, a cabinet shuffle, or prorogation of parliament, the speech from the throne and mandate letters signal a government's priorities as they relate to emergent issues and long-standing public policy challenges. While the speech from the throne has been regularly available through parliamentary and government records, federal mandate letters have only been made publicly available more recently, and little research has been done on their role in shaping change. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the authors explore how the overarching narratives presented by the current federal government have evolved across the period from 2015 to 2021. The authors then compare these narratives with the mandated commitments to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) during the same period. Through this comparative analysis, the authors highlight how the overarching narratives that emerged in later mandates, in particular the need to address systemic inequity, diverge with the commitments delivered to the Minister of AAFC. Part of the reason for identifying the divergence between central narratives and the current AAFC mandate is the hope that better alignment is possible. This includes making a new food policy environment in Canada; One that is equitable, prosperous for all, supports true reconciliation and Indigenous sovereignty, and ushers in a brighter future for the next generation and our planet. To conclude, the authors present alternative food systems frameworks that could help better achieve the more just and resilient world that the federal government narratives outlines.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Gives Municipalities the Opportunity to Defy their Status as "Creatures of the Province"

This paper analyses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) inclusion, or lack thereof, of Municipalities as a critical power structure in the process of decolonization and resurgence across settler-colonial Canada. The TRC only called upon Municipalities five times, suggesting that they have little importance to the process. This indicates that it is up to the Federal and Provincial governments to address the calls to action, to which they would only be able to apply a top-down and “one size fits all” approach. This approach is insufficient because many diverse subgroups of Indigenous people live across Canada. So, who will effectively help develop policies, resources, and urban planning for the local Indigenous communities? That would have to be municipalities, unlike what the TRC is suggesting. Municipalities are more capable of providing a grass-roots approach to urban planning and policymaking when addressing the calls to action, something the other levels of government can not do, therefore, defying the ideology of being known as “Creatures of the Province” and signifying their importance to the process. Throughout this paper, I identify how municipalities can effectively take on the calls to action by recognizing and including the unique Indigenous identities within urban spaces, a requirement in accomplishing true reconciliation, decolonization, and Indigenous resurgence.

The quest for convergence in Hungarian-Romanian relationships: A multi-actor approach and the transferability of good practices

Hungarian-Romanian relations are difficult to assess because they involve a vast set of actors: from diplomats to civil society, from political parties to churches. If convergence in foreign policy is to be achieved and if genuine reconciliation is to take place, all these actors have to be taken into consideration and have to engage in a concerted manner. Bilateral relations between Hungary and Romania benefit from a dense network of cooperation initiatives, but they are neither sustainable, nor integrated into a vision aiming for convergence and reconciliation. Political will, joint historical research projects and youth bi-ethnic socialization are critical in creating a bilateral relation supported by true reconciliation.

Co-Designing Change

Co-Designing Change

Forgiveness Therapy as A Religious Conflict Resolution of Violence Conflict (Carok) in Pamekasan Madura

This research efforts to answer the problem of conflict resolution models were used by Madurese society to resolve carok and why forgiveness can overcome carok conflict. The research tries to understand how the forgiveness stages between the parties involved in the case of carok in Madura? This research used a qualitative method to explore the power of forgiveness in the resolve of carok in Bujur Tengah Village, Batu Marmar, Pamekasan. In collecting data, the researcher used observation, interview, documentation, and triangulation techniques, while the analysis techniques used were data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. This research shows that the forgiveness model becomes a conflict resolution capable of controlling anger and retaliation to achieve true reconciliation. That is because the forgiveness mechanism has extraordinary power to rebuild the relationship or restore the effects of trauma from the victim's family. The forgiveness mechanism of forgiveness in the case of carok cannot be separated from the role of Kiai to resolve the disputes of land swap overland (village treasury) between two parties. The Kiai carries out many stages to accelerate the achievement of reconciliation; namely restoring security conditions, embracing the families of carok victims, strengthening friendship to prevent counter-conflict, the tabayyun process by presenting conflicting parties, accelerating dialogue, and holding reconciliation studies.

Collective Memory and Nation-Building in Africa

Based on documentary analysis, this article argues that lessons of violent conflicts are rarely appropriated positively for nation-building in the context of post-conflict African societies. The article further stresses that the reasons often projected as causes of ineffective nation-building, such as multiple ethnicity and neo-colonialism, are unjustifiably projected as causal factors. It argues that diverse ethnicity remains a dormant destructive force until operationalised for political gains through misappropriation and deployment of collective memories. In the African context, post-conflict societies adopt the mixed approach of selective amnesia which emphasises amnesty, reconciliation, rehabilitation and reintegration as necessary for nation-building. Experience, however, suggests that the operationalisation of this approach is always marred by inconsistencies and repression. Consequently, repressive mechanisms suppress violence and achieve relative stability. True reconciliation which is critical for nation-building is never achieved. Among loser ethnic groups (hereafter loser groups), resistance to selective amnesia and simultaneous preoccupation with collective memory of victimisation, discrimination and injustice continue to reinforce sentiments of group exceptionality and separatist impulses rather than national consciousness. Therefore, cautious expression of citizenship among segments of the loser groups continues to attract mutual suspicion and distrust from leadership of post-conflict states. It is concluded that the challenge of social contradictions in post-conflict societies is serious because neither the state nor loser groups positively deploy memory of conflict for nation-building. A new reconciliatory approach drawn largely from lessons of history is recommended for post-conflict nation-building efforts in post-conflict African states. Positive appropriation and deployment of memory for nation-building ensures amnesty and restoration without repercussions; and remembrance without resentment.

Guilt – Forgiveness – Reconciliation – and Recognition in Armed Conflict

The paper argues that in our usage of moral language we relate three concepts: guilt, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This assumes that we can distinguish between external actions and internal executions, because guilt as well as forgiveness and reconciliation are realities that first affect our inner humanity. When a relationship has been damaged by culpable actions (sometimes even by both sides), forgiveness is the precondition of reconciliation. As long as people accuse each other, there can be no talk of true reconciliation. Although these are attitudes, that is, inner engagements, reconciliation also becomes outwardly recognizable as peace. However, these relationships can only be explained well in the connections of individual persons to each other. When political communities confront each other, our moral sense becomes fuzzy, because it is not so easy to say how such collectives (e.g., peoples) are to be determined in their inside and outside. Who can and may forgive, if other persons have become victims of culpable actions, but cannot forgive themselves? Here, then, the difficulty of individuality and collectivity is added. The essay pleads for maintaining the conceptual conjunction between individual and collective forgiveness. However, this should not be done at the price of a complete socio-ontological dissolution of collectives. Therefore, one must also be cautious about rash universalistic appropriation of the Other or the other group, because this is usually accompanied by a failure to recognize and endure the selfhood of the Other. Before it comes to a “false” reconciliation in this way, it is better to at least recognize each other – also in diversity. This should also be reflected in the rules of conflict, which must above all be oriented toward ensuring that conflicts are not carried out in such a way that the manner in which the conflict is carried out makes reconciliation impossible. But in both collective and individual reconciliation, the person does not have the outcome of the process entirely in his or her own hands. Reconciliation is not a technique, but a relational event that is carried out in an “open space.”

Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury

Reviewed by: Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury April Spisak Salisbury, Melinda Hold Back the Tide. Scholastic, 2021 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781338681307 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781338681314 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-10 Alva, sixteen, has tiptoed around her father for years, since she is certain he murdered her mother. She has plans to finally escape him and their small Scottish town, but just as she's finalizing her details, a series of horrifying attacks draws her back in. Her father's role as caretaker of a loch suddenly becomes far more important than Alva ever realized, as one key part of that job is to make sure the water level stays high enough to keep monsters trapped underground. Overuse of the mill means that these creatures are now free, and they behave according to their nature, which is to kill some humans and transform others into their kind. Alva can't leave now, so she becomes a hero she never believed she could be, rousing the town to courage and putting herself at risk to save others. One key catalyst in her own growth is a new understanding about her father, a brutal moment of clarity about what he was actually doing all those years ago, given even more pathos by the fact that one of them only has a few more days to live so there is no chance for true reconciliation. The story is well told and the pace is impeccable, but the true beauty here lies in Salisbury's subtle, nuanced ways of highlighting the classic notion that monstrosity is not limited to monsters. [End Page 275] Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

In grace we may forget

This article defends the active role Barth gives to God’s grace as humans forget and remember. Barth holds humanity’s ability or inability to recollect memories, especially traumatic ones, as divinely willed for the sake of reconciliation with the past. Arguing this as consistent with Barth’s broader theology of time and eternity, the article defends this as a correlation of Mandela’s conviction that “True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past.”1 Like Barth, Mandela advances from a motive of reconciliation in the recollection of past horror. Though, for Mandela, humanity must “come to terms with the past” so that “we can bury those evil experiences”2 we must first remember. Recollection, however, is not for the sake of revenge or retribution, but for the goal of forgiveness, reconciliation, and ultimately blessed forgetting. Mandela and Barth thus share the conviction that by grace we may remember the past, through grace we can forgive time’s evils, and in grace we might someday blessedly forget time’s horrors.

Metaphorical Reflections on the Colonial Circus of the Drunken Indian and the Kidney Machine

This paper represents the need for First Nations community workers to share their narratives of experience and wisdom for academic review. A growing number of mature Indigenous social service workers are returning to Canada’s learning centers where they are articulating observations and insights to Indigenous experience in colonial Canada. It is imperative that post-colonial academic literature include these contributions. True reconciliation between Canada and First Peoples is only possible if those stories of resilience are reflected back from the experience of historic trauma and unresolved intergenerational suffering.

The Trap of an Official Apology: the Power of Civil Society in Promoting Reconciliation

More than 70 years after the end of the Second World War, warring nations have not completely achieved true reconciliation. For decades, official state-sanctioned apologies have been considered a useful tool to help rebuild broken international bonds, but their effectiveness in fostering national reconciliation remains debatable. On the contrary, more and more studies seem confirming civil society’s role in facilitating people’s reflection upon the most rending aspects of their own past. With civil society involvement in the discussion of Second World War responsibilities still limited in Japan, this paper recalls the experiences of Germany and Italy and the difficulties they encountered in shaping a constructive discussion on war responsibilities and reconciliation to argue that the Obama-Abe exchange of official visits in Hiroshima and Pearl Harbour in 2016 represents a crucial step forward in relaunching the debate on the Japanese Second World War narrative. In particular, this article claims that the wording and the images used by Shinzo Abe and Barack Obama could become, if well framed by national media and the official debate, “agitators of memory” pushing civil society to further and more deeply engage in this crucial discussion for the future of Japan.

Reconciliation and Environmental Racism in Mi’kma’ki

There has been more talk but not enough action on reconciliation since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report in 2015 containing ninety-four calls to action (Truth and Reconciliation Canada 2015). Indigenous people have not experienced the reconciliation intended in the actions that Canada has agreed to implement. Indigenous people and all Canadians need to hold Canada accountable to these actions for true reconciliation to manifest in Canadian society. The TRC calls to action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) hold particular meaning and hope for me, as a survivor of Indian Residential Schools (IRS), and many other survivors who have gone through the TRC process. Truth is the first step toward reconciliation; understanding is the second step, and remediation is the third. Water is sacred. Protecting the water and asserting our rights in the Peace and Friendship Treaties are my responsibilities as a Mi’kmaw woman and rights holder. They are also an integral aspect of my healing journey. When I acknowledge Canadians’ habitation on the unceded lands of the Mi’kmaq, I mean that acknowledgment from the core of my spirit, the spirit of my ancestors, and my future generations. I am living that acknowledgment.

Ecological Conversion and Its Pastoral Ministry as a Stipulation for True Reconciliation

KRZYSZTOF SMYKOWSKI – ks. dr nauk teologicznych w zakresie teologii moralnej, adiunkt Katedry Bioetyki Teologicznej w Instytucie Teologii Moralnej KUL, członek Zespołu Ekspertów Konferencji Episkopatu Polski ds. Bioetycznych, członek Lokalnej Komisji Etycznej do Spraw Doświadczeń na Zwierzętach w Lublinie, autor publikacji z zakresu teologii moralnej i bioetyki.

Huta Pieniacka: Interpretations of a Major Site of Wartime Massacre in Ukraine

The article tells the story of the conflicting narratives of the memory of Huta Pieniacka, a village in Western Ukraine that was burned down together with its inhabitants in 1944, during World War II. The Polish-Ukrainian rivalry over the territory overlapped with the anti-German resistance of Soviet and Polish partisans and factional rivalry among various guerrilla formations, which eventually led to the gruesome massacre. Today this entangled history is differentiated into competing one-sided narratives, claiming an exclusive privilege of suffering for a particular group as a powerful resource of political mobilization and legitimization. For the Soviets, the murdered villagers served as vindication of the USSR's rule over Western Ukraine as the regime that crushed the Nazis and their Ukrainian nationalist allies (who were held responsible for the massacre). For the Poles, the victims in Huta Pieniacka symbolized the Polish nation, which was driven from its historical territory by Ukrainians (both nationalists and citizens of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). In the Ukrainian nationalistic narrative, Huta Pieniacka plays a marginal role as a conflict between alien forces – Polish national activists and Soviet and German invaders – while the main attention is given to the glorification of national freedom fighters. A true reconciliation process requires an open public debate and acknowledgment of the complexity of the historical past, which implies acceptance of responsibility for the conflict (at different stages, to a different degree) by all sides.