Reconciliation In Action

The conversations happened over the dinner table. Nine people with different life experiences joined Heather Peters and Joel Kroeker for a meal.

The result is the Saskatchewan Mennonite Central Committee’s podcast Reconcile. Everyday Conversations.

“The whole idea with the podcast is that it’s really invitational and so people would feel invited into doing Reconciliation within their lives at the point that they were at,” said Peters, project coordinator and the peacebuilding coordinator for MCC Saskatchewan.

“We tried to interview people who are at a variety of different life places and have a variety of different life perspectives.”

Through nine episodes people share experiences with starting their Reconciliation journey, their projects and their hopes for the future.

In the first episode Tara Anderson discusses her understanding of reconciliation and how it has evolved over time. Peters said it was a great place to start because it highlights the distance people can cover as they engage in Reconciliation.

In this first season, the podcast focused on settler perspective of Reconciliation because the MCC has heard from Indigenous leaders calling the settler community to action, Peters said.

“Now that we are done these nine episodes, we are interested in another season,” she said.

“This time we would like to have more focus on Indigenous voices and have Indigenous people define Reconciliation and how they would invite other people on to this journey as well.”

While the podcast talks about the journeys of others, the act of being part of this project has shaped Peters’ work with Reconciliation.

“I would say that before I started I had a very clear definition of what I saw Reconciliation as,” she said.

“Now I feel like it has become far more nuanced, and complicated and beautiful actually that people can engage in this journey on so many different levels … it’s not even just about how we define it anymore, but how people are being nourished by it.

“It’s just been a really beautiful journey to be part of that.”