“I grew up learning to hide who I was as it was ‘safer.’ Before heading off to Kinder- garten in the local English-speaking town, my grandmother told me to say that I was a French farmer so people wouldn’t bother me about being Métis - so I followed the advice - not understanding at the time the violence Indigenous Peoples experience. As I moved into my teenage years and was on the receiving end of homophobic violence I learned to hide, and unfortunately be ashamed of myself.”
– Robert D.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CULTURAL AWARENESS AND CULTURAL SENSITIVITY:
• connect with Indigenous Education Lead/ Consultants in your organization or local Friendship Centre for learning opportuni- ties being offered;
• create relationships and build and nurture these relationships over time to further create authentic partnerships for moving forward in your practice;
• engage in cultural safety training;
• participate in online cultural safety we- binars, specific to two-spirit, Indigiqueer Peoples, or Online Indigenous Education courses; and
• attend local speakers’ events, two-spirit pow wows, and connect with community organizations supporting the two-spirit community locally.
THE CENTRING OF VOICES
“Intentionally creating space for oppressed and marginalized people (e.g., racialized people, women, two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ folks, Indig- enous Peoples, people with disabilities) to share, contribute, lead and to be heard. This also means that dominant groups (e.g., men, white people, able-bodied, het- erosexual people, etc.) might need to step back and listen more actively.” – ETFO Anti-Oppressive Framework
A common misunderstanding with respect to centring voices, is simply to include more voices of a particular group in the space; or, by having a speaker, one can consider the box to be “checked.” These ideas are parts to the whole; individually they can appear tokenistic. True collaboration with others, and scaffolding opportunities over time can feel empowering, meaningful, and can have significant impact in the work of disrupting discrimination and oppression.
Centring voices is about creating oppor- tunities to give space for those who have historically experienced marginalization, to be the central force.
Justice Murray Sinclair, said a child should be able to answer these questions: “Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I?”
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