Today there are painful stories emerging in our country that are hard to process. More unmarked graves have been found on the sites of former residential schools. Similar horrific stories have been true again and again in so many countries where there have been so many acts of cruelty in the name of “progress”.
We have to process this information with intention and care so that we have the capacity to make repairs and we don’t risk doing further harm. Sitting with the story of the latest unmarked graves, I wondered where (if anywhere) my voice, as a settler, should be in all of this. This is what emerged – a resource to help those who have privilege and have to face harm done to process the information and do the right thing.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is not my intention to centre the discomfort of those of us of settler lineage above those impacted by these horrific stories. The pain and trauma of Indigenous people needs to be at the centre of the narrative (and we have to move our discomfort to the side). However, if we who are of settler lineage don’t get better at processing this information, we’ll keep doing harm, so this graphic is specifically for those with privilege.
P.S. If you want to use this resource in your communities, you have permission and can download a PDF version at this link.
