Two years ago I made a post of FB about climate change, looking for honest opinions from the people I know. I replied to it again today I see the issue of climate change being directly tied to today, our first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and also Orange Shirt day.
A central component of Indigenous culture, maybe even the core, is the concept of Relationality. What does that have to do with climate change and Orange Shirt Day you ask? Relationality is about connectedness, our connection to each other, all other life forms that share this planet, and most importantly the land itself. For Indigenous people, their connection to the land is sacred and forms their spirituality.
Indigenous people exist in unison with the land. The land is not something to be managed, controlled, manipulated or some thing to be used to satisfy us. The land does not belong to us, we belong to the land.
So when we think about Orange Shirt Day, and think about Reconciliation, we also have to think about Relationality - our connection to each other and our connection to the land. If we want to move forward with Reconciliation then we also have to move forward with Relationality as both ideas are bound up together. We have to change the way we be, change what our relationships are. We have to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, with doing things that are not easy in mind, body or spirit.
In Indigenous author Shawn Wilson's book Research Is Ceremony - Indigenous Research Methods he talks about the way Indigenous researchers look at the world. It is not a stuffy academic book and is a good book to read if you're curious about the Indigenous worldview or the perspective Indigenous people have of the world. There is a whole chapter on Relationality, and it is worth reading a few times. I think for most people it will take reading a few times anyway to begin to understand and appreciate this concept of Relationality. In writing about Relationality, Wilson quotes his friend Lewis who says:
"The land is paramount for all Indigenous societies. Their relationship to that land, their experience on that land shapes everything that is around them... land is another word for place, environment, your reality, the space you're in." Lewis goes on to say that "Indigenous peoples and their traditions and customs, they are shaped by the environment, the land, their relationship; their spiritual, emotional and physical relationship to that land. It speaks to them; it gives them their responsibility for stewardship."
Today, and tomorrow, and every day into your future, think about Relationality and your connection to this place we all share together. Think about stewardship.