In an appendix to Ambassadors of Reconciliation, Vol. II: Diverse Christian Practices of Restorative Justice and Peacemaking (Orbis Books), which I co-wrote, I explored the question of how principles and practices of restorative justice might be applied to historic and continuing violence, as is the case regarding indigenous justice in Canada.
In this article, I am proposing that settler Mennonites, through “restorative solidarity,” embrace historical “response-ability” concerning the colonial legacy. This entails:
- Doing our own work to build empathy with indigenous communities victimized by historic and current injustices;
- Listening to how they are “identifying harms, needs and responsibilities” (and investigating our complicity); and
- Working with them to “make things as right as possible, which can include covenants of accountability, restitution, reparations and [ideally] reconciliation.”
This is a sidebar to the feature story, "Facing history with courage"
See also: Definition: ‘Settler’
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