About a month ago, I posted a picture of a piece of beach glass with the question “What do you see?” It came with a promise to thread everyone’s thoughts into a collective piece as I know tremendous things can be built when we come together. (You can go back and read the finished piece in the caption from the post on May 23rd.)

Many of us who live in Treaty 29 territory (the traditional homelands of the Odawa, Potawatomi, Chippewa and Lunaapeew Nations) hear the watery rhythms of Lake Huron (Naadowewi-gichigami) and spend time on it’s shore finding bits of glassy treasure and wondering over fossils found. We find joy and leave frustrations there… very different things living in the same space.

This past month, for many people around the world- and for Canadians themselves- the idea of Canada as two things emerged. Highlighted against the stereotypical backdrop of Canada as a compassionate and friendly country, stands its complicity in the genocide of Indigenous people. Two very different things living in the same space.

Like the sentiments in the Beach Glass Collective, beautiful and whole stories are built when the voices of many are heard and when we recognize our times to hold quiet and listen.

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