Heather Menzies, is an adjunct professor in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies.

Springing the trap of settler guilt by placing myself in a larger narrative, I first went to Scotland to learn how my ancestors had lived with the land they had inhabited since Neolithic times. I returned with a sense of reconnection that helped me better understand the indigenous connection to the land here in Canada. And this gave me the courage to take on my responsibility as a 5th Generation settler colonist in Perth County, Ontario, including the successive betrayals of the 1827 Huron Tract Treaty culminating in the Ipperwash Tragedy of 1995. Struggling with this seems to be helping me find my voice as a treaty person.
I hope I can use this voice to advance reconciliation between settler and Indigenous Canadas and an equally necessary reconciliation with the earth.