Author Michelle Good on the state of reconciliation and ‘radical hope’

This episode we have a very special guest: award-winning author Michelle Good. Michelle is a writer of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Her books include Five Little Indians and Truth Telling. Her writing takes an unflinching look at our nation’s past and how it still affects the present. So, she’s here today to give us a bit of a history lesson ahead of Canada Day. You’ll hear a conversation between Michelle and Myan Marcen-Gaudaur, Scotiabank’s Director of Social Impact and Reconciliation. They talk about the motivation behind Michelle’s writing, the state of reconciliation in Canada, the concept of “radical hope” and more.  

This episode contains accounts of violence and mention of suicide. 

Key moments this episode: 

3:00 – Why Canada’s colonial history is still very much part of the present 

4:00 – Michelle gives some insight into a very personal chapter of her latest book, Truth Telling 

6:21 – What the relationship between Michelle’s mother and her grandmother can tell us about how challenging it can be being Indigenous in a non-Indigenous world 

8:10 – How colonial perceptions can be passed down to subsequent generations 

9:10 – The meaning behind the chapter titled $13.69 and what it says about restoration for the past 

12:00 – Michelle defines her concept of “radical hope”  

13:20 – How the crisis around missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples is rooted in history 

17:31 – The decimation of the buffalo and the impact that had on Indigenous communities 

21:35 – Why is the truth part of “truth and reconciliation” so important?  

25:03 – How can Canadians move from knowledge to action when it comes to reconciliation?  

27:54 – Michelle reflects on the changes she has seen in thoughts and attitudes among non-Indigenous people in her lifetime