Deborah Barndt

October 12 has historically been celebrated in the United States (country of my birth) to honour the mistaken arrival (invasion) of Christopher Columbus on the shores of “North America”. Renamed in many states as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” we settlers must acknowledge the brutal colonization of “Turtle Island” and commit to an integrated process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and with the Earth.

In Canada, we recently commemorated Truth and Reconciliation or Orange Shirt Day on September 30. 

I offered a special invitation to two of my communities who are learning from Indigenous ways of knowing and an understanding of the interconnections of all elements of nature: the Earth to Tables Legacies Project and the Indigenous Solidarity Committee of Seniors for Climate Action Now!