Speaking Our Truth A Journey of Reconciliation [Hardcover]

This nonfiction book examines how we can foster reconciliation with Indigenous people at individual, family, community and national levels.Holding each other up with respect, dignity and kindness.Canada's relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by Survivors and their families. Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action.&#9733 Smith includes messages of resilience from community leaders and elders and devotes an entire chapter to interview with young people as they express how important it is for them to contribute to the healing of their communities. Indigenous podcaster, Ryan McMahon says, 'Reconciliation is asking myself who my Ancestors were the day before they went to residential school, then doing everything I can to return to that.' Smith's book is an effort that returns, offering diverse voices that invite the world into the reconciliation experience. Absolutely necessary. You are holding a medicine bundle of hope and of witnessing the resiliency and the beauty of Indigenous and Metis people who have survived numerous attempts at genocide. I am grateful to Monique Gray Smith and Orca Book Publishers for creating a treasury of hard truths for everyone this book finds. We are witnesses together who can all do our part in the great healing ahead. I am in awe! Mahsi cho! I learned a great deal from [Smith's] book, and I did re-examine much of what I thought I knew&#8230This is a book that definitely has a place in middle and high school libraries, and it would be a useful supplementary resource for tl³