Home - Reconciliation Thunder

Leaders helping leaders promote reconciliation.

Reconciliation Thunder acknowledges that we operate on Treaty 1 territory, the lands of the Dene, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Cree and homeland of the Metis Nation. We also acknowledge those who join us from every treaty territory and unceded land across Turtle Island. We acknowledge and respect the Treaties and the sovereignty of each nation on whose land we gather.

Reconciliation Thunder is an Indigenous Nonprofit organization that serves to address institutional racism in Canadian government, corporate, and non-profit organizations through its service offerings. Reconciliation Thunder focuses on opportunities to educate Non-Indigenous leaders, to increase awareness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, and provide guidance on how to implement the calls to action to create long-term change, breaking down the walls of institutional racism.

94 calls to action

Education is what got us here, and education is what will get us out.

- Justice Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

TIMELINE

Separate worlds

Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples lived in separate worlds prior to contact. Each had different languages, cultures, governments, and societies.

Time immemorial

Doctrine of Discovery

The Doctrine of Discovery, also known as the discovery doctrine, is the legal and moral justification that explorers from European nations used to claim the title to lands used by sovereign Indigenous nations.

The Doctrine of Discovery can be traced to three Papal Bulls (formal statements from the Pope): papal bulls known as Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455), and Inter Caetera (1493).

More info: Assembly of First Nations: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, Statement from the Canadian Conference for Catholic Bishops

1452, 1455, 1493

Two-row wampum Treaty

A treaty made between the Haudenosaunee and early European newcomers (initially the Dutch). It has become an example of a treaty made respectfully between equal partners. The treaty is represented by a wampum belt. On this belt, the two lines of purple beads on a white background represent two rivers. One river has a canoe, the other has a boat. Both rivers carry the two nations along peacefully. In this agreement both nations agreed to recognize and respect the sovereignty of the other nation and further agree that neither group will force their laws, traditions, or customs on the other.

More info: Wampum, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Canada’s History: Treaties and the Treaty Relationship

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Join our community of leaders!

The TRC final report states: “Reconciliation cannot be left up to governments, the courts, and churches alone. There must be dialogue and action in communities across the country. Reconciliation must happen across all sectors of Canadian Society” (pg. 306, Honoring the Truth Reconciling for the Future).

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