Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
My name is Russell Green and I am a third-year student at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. I am excited to begin this journey as a contributor to the ReconciliAction YEG blog.
I look forward to using this experience to grow as a person, a Canadian, and as someone who is about to enter the legal profession. Reconciliation and Indigenous Governance are some of the most pressing issues facing our society. Hundreds of years of colonial policy towards Indigenous peoples has created unjust results that need to be rectified. The potential for Indigenous Governance is one small way that historical wrongs can be righted, positive lessons can be learned, and a better future can be built for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.
I was born and raised on Treaty 4 land in rural Saskatchewan. I have a white settler background, and I grew up in a community with an almost exclusive white settler population. Unfortunately, racist attitudes were occasionally plentiful in my community and I have spent much of my adult life trying to unlearn some of the subtle racism that influenced me as a child.
I attended the University of Saskatchewan and graduated with a degree in Political Studies. My studies began to expose me to the intricate historical and contemporary forms of Indigenous Governance on Turtle Island. I have since been attending law school here at the University of Alberta. By exposing me to the rich possibilities for Indigenous Governance, professors such as Hadley Friedland have been important influences during my studies. I look forward to growing my understanding through this process.
I will try and hold one memory with me as I contribute to ReconciliAction YEG. This past summer, I was driving with my father throughout the rich farmland surrounding my hometown. He took me past the rolling hills north of his farm to some teepee rings left by Cree peoples hundreds of years prior. Seeing these beautiful rings in the long prairie grass and sage bushes was a palpable reminder that Indigenous peoples were present on these lands long before the settler population. Indigenous Governance is a potential way to recognize this reality.
Thank you very much for reading,
Russell Green,
A Member of Team ReconciliAction YEG
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