The Reason You Walk

 “Reconciliation is realized when two people come together and understand that what they share unites them and that what is different about them needs to be respected.” So writes Wab Kinew in his recently released memoir The Reason You Walk (2015, Penguin Canada, p. 211).

Wab Kinew has had careers as a hip-hop artist, journalist, broadcaster, writer, aboriginal leader, university administrator and is currently running for the NDP in a Winnipeg riding in the April 19^th provincial election. He is well known for his work on Canada Reads and for hosting the CBC series 8^th Fire. His memoir tells the story of all of this but most importantly tells the story of his relationship with his father Tobasonakwut Kinew especially in the last year of his life.  Tobasonakwut Kinew was a residential school survivor who later became a respected Anishinaabe leader.

When interviewed on the CBC Wab said that his family’s journey helped shape his views on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliaiton process. He is also an Honourary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).

In 2010, Wab did a piece for CBC for the launch of the TRC in which he returns with his father and his 5 year old son Dominik to the site of the residential school where his father was taken as a child.  Tobasonakwut talks about his time there and shows pictures to his grandson.  Together they find the grave of Wab’s grandfather. It is a very powerful piece which you can view on youtube.

Kinew reflects on it in The Reason You Walk. “The response to that piece was a powerful lesson for me in bridging gaps between communities .  Indigenous people said they felt the story did justice to their experiences.  Non-Indigenous people said it helped them relate to the residential school experience better than black-and-white photos alone did.  Seeing my son with his grandpa, they were delivered to a place where they asked themselves what they would do if their children disappeared, or what would happen if all the children in their neighbourhood vanished. To me, getting viewers to ask these questions is the beginning of building empathy, and empathy is the beginning of reconciliation.” (p94)

In an extraordinary act of reconciliation, Tobasonakwut who had with Phil Fontaine presented Pope Benedict XVI with an eagle feather in 2009, decided to adopt his good friend Catholic Archbishop James Weisgerber as his brother. “Ndede [father] described his vision for the adoption ceremony.  He wanted to forge a lasting bond between our families and our communities, demonstrating how Indigenous culture offered a way forward in overcoming the pains of the past.  If successful, it would repudiate the attempted cultural genocide in a much stronger way than words ever could.”

He goes on to write, “The adoption ceremony is also a peacemaking ceremony.  It asks families, communities, or even nations to set aside their differences and commit to a rapprochement.  It is hard to hate someone after you take them as a brother or sister.” (p127)

Wab’s father asked him to conduct the ceremony to empower him as a leader. Wab describes the ceremony including the use of the traditional pipe.  He explains that “the pipe is a model of reconciliation.  The bowl is feminine.  It is of the earth, and it receives the stem.  The stem is masculine.  It is placed into the bowl, but also grows form the earth.  Each has integrity on its own.  When we place the bowl and stem together, the two elements form a new unified entity which is stronger than each on its own.  This is how we might think of reconciliation – two disparate elements coming together to create something more powerful.” (p129)

The Reason You Walk has many such beautiful images.  The book is very readable and offers much insight into Anishinaabe culture, language and history as well as a vision of reconciliation and the way forward for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who live on this land. And Wab Kinew is a young man that you should know about.  He talks about all the mistakes he’s made as well as the good decisions and how his community has helped shape him into a leader.

In his eloquent epilogue Kinew writes, “Whether we are young or old, whether our skin is light or dark, whether we are man or woman, we share a common humanity and are all headed for a common destiny.  That should bind us together more strongly than divisions can push us apart.  So long as anything other than love governs our relationships with others, we have work to do.” (p268)

In upcoming blog posts I’m going to looking at how some of the TRC Calls to Action are being implemented as Canada gets to work. This could be an extraordinary time in our history with lots of new stories.