Dr. Alycia Fridkin
I didn’t learn about residential schools until my second university degree. I remember feeling surprised and unsettled that something so significant had been largely absent from my education.
I grew up in Ontario and had studied anthropology, where we talked about Indigenous Peoples and cultures around the world. Yet I had learned relatively little about residential schools, colonial policies in Canada and their lasting impacts on Indigenous Peoples.
That realization became the beginning of a much longer journey of learning.
Over the years, I began studying more about Canada's colonial history, residential schools, the Indian hospital system and the ways institutions and policies have caused lasting harm to Indigenous individuals, families and communities.
As a Jewish person, this learning also made me reflect on my own people's history and on the importance of societies acknowledging difficult chapters of their past.
During my travels in Germany, I was struck by how visible Holocaust remembrance was. Museums, memorials and public art created opportunities for people to encounter this painful history in their everyday lives. It made me think about how we could better acknowledge the truth of residential schools and the cultural genocide in Canada, and about the role we can play as professionals working in areas such as communications in ensuring those stories are remembered.
For communications professionals, there is an important lesson here.
What we communicate matters, but so does what we leave out
Communicators help shape how people understand organizations, institutions and even history. As communicators, you make decisions every day about which stories are told, whose voices are included, what language is used and how difficult information is presented.
That presents the profession with both an opportunity and a responsibility.
I have worked in Indigenous-specific anti-racism in health care for almost two decades, and one of the most important things I have learned is that reconciliation is about the repair of relationships.
That means being willing to acknowledge uncomfortable truths alongside the process of relationship-building. It means taking the time to get to know one another, and listening before developing messaging. It means recognizing when we don't have the knowledge or lived experience to speak on behalf of someone else. And it means building genuine relationships with Indigenous Peoples rather than engaging only when we need a quote, campaign or statement.
Indigenous colleagues have often reminded me that truth must come before reconciliation. We cannot rush to the positive story without first understanding and acknowledging what came before it.
As I have heard Elder Gerry Oleman from St'at'imc First Nations say, before we can say goodbye to our problems, we must first say hello to them.
That idea has stayed with me, and I believe it has particular relevance for communications professionals.
What can communications professionals do?
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, provides an opportunity to reflect on the experiences of Indigenous children who attended residential schools, including Residential School Survivors, their families and communities.
But the responsibility as communicators extends beyond one day.
Here are some of the lessons I have learned throughout my work in Indigenous health that communications professionals can bring into their organizations:
Be transparent about challenges as well as successes.
Communications in the spirit of reconciliation means not only highlighting what an organization is doing well. Being willing to acknowledge mistakes, gaps and harms can demonstrate accountability and help build trust among Indigenous partners.
Invest in relationships from the beginning.
Reconciliation is fundamentally about repairing relationships by working together. Take the time to build meaningful relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities, understand Indigenous Peoples’ priorities, and create processes based on reciprocity rather than approaching engagement as a transaction.
Think carefully about language.
Language communicates respect and understanding. Practices such as capitalizing Indigenous and avoiding possessive phrases such as "our Indigenous communities" can recognize Indigenous Peoples' distinct identities, Nations and right to self-determination.
Communicate with humility.
We do not always have the answers. Good communication can include acknowledging what we don't know, listening to people with lived experience and committing to continued learning rather than trying to position ourselves or our organizations as experts.
Make land acknowledgements meaningful.
Rather than treating a land acknowledgement as an afterthought that doesn’t extend beyond a sentence, take the time to learn about whose lands you are on, and reflect on how the organization's work and partnerships connects to Indigenous Peoples and lands.
Include Indigenous Peoples meaningfully.
When communications involve Indigenous Peoples, consider who is helping shape the strategy and narrative, not simply who appears in the finished product. Meaningful involvement means creating opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to influence decisions and compensating people appropriately for their expertise and labour.
Communications can help build trust
Communications professionals are often the people organizations turn to when something needs to be explained, acknowledged or understood.
We can encourage organizations to listen to Indigenous Peoples. We can ask whose perspective might be missing. We can challenge language that unintentionally reinforces stereotypes or assumptions. We can advocate for transparency when the easier option might be silence or focusing only on successes. And we can help ensure that Indigenous Peoples are influential partners and decision-makers in communications that concern them, rather than simply subjects of those communications.
None of this requires communicators to have all the answers.
It requires curiosity, humility and a willingness to keep learning.
Truth and reconciliation is a long-term process, and communications can play a role in this endeavor. Your profession can contribute to creating greater understanding, stronger relationships and more accountable institutions.
This is work we can all carry with us not only on September 30, but throughout the year.
Further reading
For those interested in learning more about meaningfully involving Indigenous Peoples in decision-making, I encourage you to explore RIPPLES of Meaningful Involvement, a framework developed to support more meaningful and influential involvement of Indigenous Peoples, here: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/iipj/article/view/8309/6793
About the author
Dr. Alycia Fridkin works to address Indigenous-specific racism in the health care sector and has a background in Indigenous health policy and anti-racism education. She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from UBC focused on the meaningful involvement of Indigenous Peoples in health policy. She lives in the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples in Vancouver.