Reconciliation on Residential School land with the arrival of White Nationalists
When news broke of white nationalist groups gathering on the former Kamloops residential school grounds, the immediate reaction for many was outrage and defensiveness. But when you step back from the reactionary noise, another picture emerges: two distinct lines moving toward each other like the poles of a lodge, colliding at a critical cultural intersection.
At the center of this dialogue is a hard truth about colonization. Centralized colonial systems thrive by dissociating us—disconnecting individuals from their communities, from their leadership, and ultimately from their own spirit. Indigenous peoples carry the raw, visible, intergenerational weight of this trauma through residential school legacies. At the same time, white nationalists and modern settlers operate from their own unacknowledged wounds—gripping tightly to nationalistic identities, flags, and resentment because their own culture has long been hollowed out and severed from the sacred.
True healing cannot come from substituting one colonial institution for another or trying to control the political machine. It requires an "inside job":
Confronting the Well of Grief: Letting go of rigid stories and vices used as life preservers, and allowing ourselves to feel the genuine suffering underneath.
Restoring Reverence for Innocence: Recognizing the sacred nature of innocence and the feminine energy that protects and nurtures community.
Respecting Sacred Ground: Acknowledging our lineage honestly, honoring Indigenous sovereignty, and understanding that residential school sites are spaces of deep ancestral mourning—not political battlegrounds for outsiders.
Real reconciliation demands humility, ceremony, and the courage to meet beyond the constructs of empire.
