The Meeting of Multiple Words and Worlds

Abstract

As a newcomer to Canadian culture, I present an interpretive rendering of my encounters with settler and Indigenous relations. It is my humble attempt to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action ([TRC], 2015) for newcomers, by providing insight into what newcomers might experience in response to the complexities of Indigenous and settler dialogues. Newcomers are diverse groups, on the fringes of Indigenous-settler relations discourse, and outside of the protocols to enter such dialogues. Therefore, I ask, where and when can newcomers, temporary or long term, enter the dialogues in meaningful, respectful ways? I came to recognize that as a newcomer the more appropriate course of action would be to wait to be invited into the conversation; but that does not absolve me of the responsibility to inform myself about Indigenous-settler relations and confront my discomforts with how I am implicated in these relations. This led me to inquire, can newcomers be of value in the ways multiple ethnic groups live together, in a good way? Using a hermeneutic and mythopoetic lens I present a series of vignettes that attempt to grapple with these questions, to contribute to the discourse of responses to the Calls to Action (TRC, 2015).