Editor’s note: Indigenous communities across Canada are learning how to prosper in a new era of co-operation in oil and gas development. Setting aside old grievances, industry, government and First Nations communities are working together to ensure that, as equal partners, Canada’s Indigenous peoples enjoy employment and that sustainable growth trickles down to them.
In communities across Canada, people are coming together in a wide range of activities intended to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens closer together.
It’s a welcome start but it falls far short of meaningful “reconciliation” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
“Reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in this country,” the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada declared in its 2015 report. It added: “We are not there yet.”
Indeed, we are not – even five years later.