DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS or CELEBRATING NUANCED
Updated: Aug 11
The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
— Elie Wiesel
Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.
— Philip K. Dick
If you’re Canadian and you haven’t yet heard about Chief Aaron Pete or his Nuanced podcast, I hope you check out his stuff soon. Not only does this young man have an interesting backstory and a great trajectory but he’s currently having some of the most interesting and important public conversations in the country — ones that so many others (other chiefs, folks with decades more experience and with the highest credentials, the shield of tenure, or just far larger platforms) seem incapable of. He’s out here, unaffraid of making mistakes or not having all the information, and actually trying to learn and inform the public. He’s busily engaging civilly with those with whom he strongly disagrees and shying away from no topic. By my assessment, in just a handful of podcasts Pete has illuminated, broached, and occasionally gotten to the bottom of so many issues that, in my experience, cannot even be brought up, never mind discussed, in a university setting or by someone in government (so all the people who should be talking about all of it.)
Tim Theilman
- Former Indigenous rights lawyer and MLA candidate for Victoria–Beacon Hill
Á'a:líya Warbus
- Filmmaker and professor at Capilano University, Director of Cultural Communications for Stó:lō Xwexwilmexw, and Conservative MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake
Karen Restoule
- Director of Indigenous Affairs at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Senior Advisor at Oyster Group, and host of the Breakthrough Nation p odcast, focusing on economic reconciliation and governance
Bruce McIvor
- Founder and senior partner at First Peoples Law LLC and adjunct professor at the UBC’s Allard School of Law
Dr Frances Widdowson
- Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and Associate Professor in the Department in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University
CULTIVATING SILENCE
I find Chief Pete’s work so impressive because I’ve tried having such conversations — even in an Indigenous Education course at UBC during the Year of Truth and Reconciliation with subject matter experts and enthusiastic learners — and, to my surprise, no conversation was possible. From there I’ve tried, and also failed, to have these conversations elsewhere in person and online over the decade since. Any discussion tends to stop or go irreparably sideways when anyone seeks any specifics or wishes to consider comparisons. I hope you’ll agree it’s pretty hard to think clearly or understand anything at all without either; or, at least, I don’t know how to. Still, activists and advocates are enthusiastic to make the most sweeping and vulgar statements, especially when there’s no evidence of such or even strong evidence to the contrary. Endlessly, they try to exterminate any context or just half the truth so they can frame as extraordinary that which was the norm. They do so comfortably, understanding that we’ve established over decades a framework that says anything but applause is maximally offensive, tantamount to a personal attack, and potentially career ending or even criminal. This is the recipe that has yielded a public discourse and now pseudo-historical record as terribly tainted and topsy-turvy as it is.
