Learning to Listen: CNAC's Reconciliation in Practice

Learning to Listen: Reconciliation in Practice is a podcast series by the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada (CNAC), exploring the organization’s journey towards truth and reconciliation. Hosted by Monika Goodluck and Petra Eperjesi, the series features conversations with CNAC staff, facilitators, and consultants about the challenges and changes in their practices. The episodes cover the importance of Indigenous knowledge, community consultations, and how CNAC is rethinking outdoor education to build ethical, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous peoples and the land. With a commitment to accountability, CNAC invites listeners to join them on this ongoing, transformative journey.

Transcript

Monika: 0:03

Hello and welcome to this special series in the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada podcast called Learning to

Listen: 0:09

CNAC's Reconciliation in Practice. I'm Monika Goodluck.

Petra: 0:14

and I'm Petra Eperjesi, and we're your co hosts.

Monika: 0:19

Learning to listen is all about our gradual and ongoing journey with truth and reconciliation as a white settler led organization working to support outdoor play and learning on stolen indigenous land.

Petra: 0:31

Our guests include past and present CNAC staff and facilitators as well as consultants and collaborators who support us. These folks have first hand experience with what this journey has been like, the good, the bad, the easy, the hard. You'll hear about how and why CNAC work culture and practices have changed, both in the office and on the Land, and what we've learned about consulting with indigenous peoples.

Monika: 0:59

So here's what we hope listeners will get from this series. We hope current and prospective forest and nature school practitioners feel inspired to join us on this journey. We hope our partners will feel that they can build even deeper relationships with us. And we hope that indigenous listeners and other listeners of the global majority, whether as practitioners or partners will feel like we're engaging in this work with authenticity and intention. I also want to mention that we're also developing a French language version of the series.

Petra: 1:34

Thanks. Monika CNAC has been doing a lot of learning, most of it hard and uncomfortable, and what we're not trying to do with this podcast is pat ourselves on the back or give listeners the sense that we're done, we've arrived and the work is complete. We are trying to do this work in a humble way, and we hope that all listeners will come away with a clear understanding of what we do and why we do it this way now, and one big thing we've learned is that we've caused harms, so part of our accountability is to share in this podcast about some of our mistakes, the lessons we've learned, the changes we've made, and what we still need to do to repair harms and build more reciprocal and equitable relationships with indigenous peoples and other racialized communities.

Monika: 2:25

Yeah, and all of this is woven through this series, including episodes about the community consultation project that CNAC undertook and what we learned about the dangers of defining equality indicators for forests and nature schools, as well as episodes about the intentional changes we've undertaken in our practitioners course, so that it more strongly centers indigenous knowledge and voices land and play as natural teachers and the importance of relationships.

Petra: 2:53

On that note, several episodes feature practitioners talking about how they nurture ethical relationships with the Land and the First Peoples of the Land when working with children outdoors. The stories shared in these episodes bring to life the promising practices we gathered during the community consultation project.

Monika: 3:13

Finally, the series ends with a look ahead to where we're going, how we hope to be in the world, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming years.

Petra: 3:21

Putting reconciliation into practice has really been about learning to listen. We hope you enjoy this podcast, but before we go, let's tell you a little bit more about us and our relationships with CNAC. Let's start with you, Monika,

Monika: 3:35

Thanks. Hi everyone. I'm Monika Goodluck. Pronouns she and her, and here at CNAC, part of the professional learning facilitation team where I co-guide for the nature school practitioners in building their capacity to support outdoor play on stolen Indigenous land. I currently live on land covered by the Toronto purchase treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the credit First Nation. I am a refugee settler here having come to Canada as a child, and I most resonate as a global citizen with Russian and Nigerian origins, many travels across the planet and several languages that I speak. I'm a black, mixed race cisgender woman, embracing my middle age and constantly, constantly growing as a parent of three children. I love living in a big city, and I'm grateful that I get to support others, while I also learn and grow in my own reciprocal relationship with Land and indigenous ways, especially in this urban setting, a lot of my personal and professional life has been strongly tied to equity, inclusion and social justice, work and engagement, and I especially love to facilitate connection, community building and conversations in the name of individual and social transformation. So being involved in this podcast is a great fit for me. Over to you, Petra,

Petra: 4:51

Thanks, Monika, so my name is Petra Eperjesi, pronouns, she/her. I'm a white, cisgender settler on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg, currently called Ottawa, Ontario. My maternal grandparents and my father immigrated to Canada from Slovakia. I moved to Algonquin territory in 2014 to be part of starting the Ottawa Forest and Nature School, which became part of CNAC that year, I've been the lead educator, administrator, program coordinator, partnership builder, curriculum developer, course facilitator and facilitation team manager, and I'm now the director of learning with CNAC. In short, I make my living by working on and with the Land, and I'm learning to do that in a way that is less harmful and more reciprocal, because of and in relationship with friends and colleagues at CNAC, I have three sons, and modeling for them a loving and attentive relationship with the land is one of my most important goals as their mother, I feel most successful as a parent when my children are helping and playing in the garden, chomping on veggies as they go. Working in the garden with my husband is also one of the ways I feel most connected with him and most connected with my parents and grandparents, who were and are all people who tended lovingly to their gardens.

Monika: 6:22

We love that we get to do this together, and we hope you'll love learning to listen this new podcast series here at the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada.

Petra: 6:31

New episodes will be released weekly. So subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review. Tell your friends!

Monika: 6:41

Thanks, everyone. Bye.