Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future

by Patty Krawec

Using the Doctrine of Discovery, the governments of the United States and Canada have described the land and its people as “empty.” They use settlers to fill the land, and they use religion or social theories to fill the people. Settler colonialism does not notice what abundance is already there, what good news we might have to share that would help them. So what is my responsibility in these relationships? What is yours? I did not create the policies that shaped what I did as a social worker or the theology that shaped my beliefs as a Christian. But we become responsible for what we do in response. We return to ourselves by picking up our bundles and taking responsibility for the relationships and material conditions we have inherited.

Question maybe