“Reconciliation turns on this concept: I want to be your friend and I want you to be mine and if we are friends then I’ll have your back when you need it and you’ll have mine.”
This has to be my all-time favorite Murray Sinclair quote. Wait, no…”The truth will set you free. But first, it’s going to piss you off.”
That’s the one. Sigh. There’s so much truth in that statement.
It’s really hard for me to articulate how I’m feeling right now, please bear with me. I don’t have a particular relationship with Murray. Yet I feel like I’ve lost someone so very important that I’m not experiencing the totality of all that.
I don’t know that we will ever really understand the importance of everything that Murray did for Indigenous people. For Canadians. We will not understand how his requirement that Everybody be treated with dignity and respect no matter where they come from, has changed us for the better. His requirement for love and kindness was evident. And these are not aspirations. These are things that we must do now. It’s not something we can talk about to plan to do in the future. It’s something we do, it’s how we live. Murray’s entire life, when you really think about it, was one big act of generosity. This is evident in Niigaan’s work with us. As the series evolved, kindness and generosity became the overarching theme. Reconciliation is not that hard. We just have to want it.
Wab Kinew, another one of my heroes said yesterday:
“Now that we’ve been left to ourselves as Canadians, how are we going to take it from here?’”
And that’s exactly what went through my mind. It’s like “well, What do we do now?” I think we do exactly what we were doing before. Only better. We carry the work on.
As Ryan McMahon said, it’s strong hearts to the front.
“If you have a strong heart, come to the front of the line. If you don’t, get in line, and we’ll get there. Show up. Be on the ground. Give your energy. Every single choice you make is reconciliation: there is no handbook.”
Remember that. Every. Single. Choice. That Ryan’s a smart guy, Murray would say. He also said..
All Canadians must be part of this journey, whether they are connected to its history or not.
And if you somehow thought you were off the hook…
“I really don’t care if you feel responsible for the past. The real question is do you feel a sense of responsibility for the future because that’s what this is all about.”
We carry the work on. We honor him and Niigaan by doing that. Murray recently gave an interview to a reporter about his memoir and his retirement and he said he was just trying to be the best version of himself. I think that’s a pretty good plan for us moving forward. The best version of ourselves.
“We must all dare to live greatly together.”