Sarah Buhler is a law professor in Saskatoon who has researched how the justice system works for or fails marginalized groups. In our podcast around reconciliation Sarah discusses the importance of recognizing present-day colonization and justice needs for Indigenous communities. Sarah also speaks from her perspective of a Mennonite settler whose family prospered with the land that was given to them, while Indigenous people at the same time were becoming disposed. For Sarah, the journey of reconciliation is political and personal.

Sarah offers some concrete places for people to enter their own journey of reconciliation First, to learn their own story, to be an ally and work in solidarity with Indigenous groups in the spirit of reciprocity, and to advocate to governments.  She notes, “It is important that our work involves relationship building and commitment to reciprocity because that is where transformation can happen.”

We invited Sarah into our house and around our dining room table to have a conversation around these five questions: 

1.   How would you define reconciliation?

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded her reflections.

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Links from the episode:
CLASSIC (Community Legal Assistance Services For Saskatoon Inner City Inc)
Str8Up - 10000 Little Steps of Healing
Over-representation of Indigenous youth within the justice system
Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan 

Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters
Recording and Editing: Joel Kroeker
Music by A Northern Road to Glory