Why "Truth" is the Biggest Barrier to Reconciliation
As we approach the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this Wednesday, September 30th, I find myself reflecting on the gap between performative gestures and the reality of my daily life. As a Gitxsan woman, I face barriers every single day. Take this fall season: I should be preparing to hunt moose to feed my family for the winter—a tradition my people have practiced since time immemorial. Instead, I am met with a wall of colonial bureaucracy. While Indigenous people have inherent rights to harvest on our own territories, the federal government still imposes the Firearms Act, requiring licensing and training that are often inaccessible due to systemic poverty, geographic isolation, and language barriers. When I talk about the need for Truth and Reconciliation, I am often met with a wall of questions. I am asked to "prove" why the system is failing, or to provide data on why current policies aren't working. The problem is that we aren't even using the same def...