Rethinking the relationship between spirituality and reconciliation

A symposium on Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations in Canada

March
8–9
2018
University of Victoria
  • First Peoples House
  • Ceremonial Hall

Watch the keynote

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Prof. Jeremy Webber, Dean of Law at the University of Victoria, looked out at a packed room. Government officials, Indigenous and religious leaders, students and academics, and members of the community had gathered for a symposium on reconciliation between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of the country.…

Summary

The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the survivors of residential schools who testified before it, have helped to expand a national public conversation about reconciliation.

This includes how we understand our own history, the dynamics of individual and collective healing, the on-going social, cultural, political, and economic impacts of Canada’s history of colonization, and how to foster transformed and mutually respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in this country. This conversation, and the work it demands, is complex, multi-layered, and touches all sectors of Canadian society.

Included in this work are unresolved issues about self-government, land rights, resource extraction, environmental protection, the well-being of children and families, gender equality, and policing – just to name a few. Many of these issues continue to be fraught with conflict, and few have been resolved satisfactorily through political or legal processes.…

Program

March 8

The Role of the Sacred in Indigenous Law and Reconciliation

IdeasFest Event, in partnership with University of Victoria VP Research
March 9

Panel 1: Whose Reconciliation? Which Spirituality?

Panel 2: Understanding the Past

Panel 3: Acting in the Present

Panel 4: Imagining the Future