Valley of the Birdtail: How two Manitoba communities came together to build a road toward reconciliation – National Observer

November 29th 2022

There’s a common question posed to the co-authors — one Indigenous, the other not — of Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town and the Road to Reconciliation. It goes something like this: how does a non-Indigenous person deal with the fear of acting on reconciliation?

Andrew Stobo Sniderman, the non-Indigenous co-author of the book, finds the question absurd. Non-Indigenous Peoples created the mess of colonization, and so it’s their responsibility to take us out of it, Sniderman said the morning after a book tour event in Ottawa last week. Douglas Sanderson, the Indigenous co-author, has a more charitable view: he thinks Indigenous Peoples should teach their non-Indigenous counterparts how to walk with them because “it’s a relationship.”

“Whose job is it to ask somebody on a first date? If one or the other doesn’t do it, is it wrong?” Sanderson said.

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/11/29/news/valley-birdtail-2-manitoba-communities-reconciliation