Ben Borne Reconcile. Everyday Conversations

Ben Borne was born and raised in Saskatoon within a German Mennonite home. He is also a descendant of Yellow Quill First Nation located near Rose Valley, SK. In this episode Ben talks about understanding how his own identity and reconciliation are connected. In an extremely personal conversation Ben speaks about the realities of growing up denying his Indigenous heritage and the journey he has been on to reclaim this part of himself.

Ben invites others to also search themselves, to understand their place within the reconciliation journey. He challenges people to move beyond listening towards action. While he admits that reconciliation is not the perfect remedy for all the traumas that have been experienced, he notes that "reconciliation re-frames the conversation. It helps bring compassion and empathy where it is desperately needed”.

We invited Ben to our house to have a conversation around these five questions: 

 1.   How would you define reconciliation?

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded his reflections.

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Links from the episode:

White Buffalo Youth Lodge

Friendship Inn

SIGA

Towards a New Relationship: Toolkit for Reconciliation/Decolonization

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

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Reconcile. Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

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Project Coordinator: Heather Peters
Recording and Editing: Jo Kroeker
Music by A Northern Road to Glory