National Indigenous History Month as a Mirror rather than a Museum
Indigenous Knowledge
This reflection piece argues that National Indigenous History Month should be an opportunity not only to deepen our understanding of history, but also to examine how it shapes our everyday choices.
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Bata Shoe Museum, Canadian Council for the Arts, CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, City of Toronto, David Suzuki Foundation, Fasken, Genome Canada, George Brown College, GTAA, Humber, IMCO, Kids Help Phone, Luminato, McMaster University, MLSE, OICR, Ontario Presents, ROM, Sankofa Square, Sick Kids, TD Bank, TTC, UHN Foundation, United Way Greater Toronto, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, University Pension Plan Ontario, York University
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Every June, National Indigenous History Month encourages Canadians to learn more about the histories, cultures, and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. Organizations host events, individuals share articles, and social media fills up with acknowledgments around the importance of learning about the past. These efforts are valuable, for sure, particularly since so much of Indigenous history has been absent from mainstream education and public discourse; however, I’ve often wondered whether many of us approach this month in ways that unintentionally create distance between ourselves and the very history we’re seeking to learn from.
As I’ve observed many allies, non-Indigenous people, and organizations over the past month, and as I reflect on the past 30 days as an ally myself, I find myself fixated on the notion of a museum on the one hand and a mirror on the other. To be more clear, we often treat history like it were a museum—when we visit a museum, we observe, read descriptions, examine artifacts, and leave it having learned something new. The experience is inherently external as we stand outside of it or in front of the exhibits looking in. The stories belong to another time and to other people. Put another way, the stories inform us, but they don’t implicate us.
A mirror serves an entirely different purpose. A mirror doesn’t just ask us to observe; it asks us to reflect. Standing before a mirror inevitably prompts questions about ourselves: How do I appear? What am I contributing? What responsibilities do I carry? If history functioned more like a mirror rather than a museum, National Indigenous History Month would become something more than an opportunity to increase our knowledge—it would become an opportunity to examine ourselves.
This distinction matters because reconciliation is ultimately about relationships in action, not simply information gathering. Knowledge, while essential, can’t be the destination. It is the starting point from which reflection and action must emerge. The purpose of learning history shouldn’t just be to better understand the past; it should be to better inform the choices we make in the present.
Perhaps this is why I have become less focused on exploring or understanding what Canadians learned during National Indigenous History Month and more interested in asking what and how people changed because of it. Did our understanding alter the way we approached a difficult conversation? Did it influence who was invited into a decision-making process? Did it encourage greater humility, curiosity, or accountability? If the answer is no for you, the reader, then I would say—respectfully, and with love, as these are the only places I ever want to express from—that history is something you consume rather than something you let change you in any material way.
Quite literally, every generation contributes to the history that future generations end up inheriting. This means that long after this month's commemorations have ended, today's decisions will become tomorrow's historical record. Future Canadians won’t only study the policies that governments adopted or the public statements organizations issued, they’ll also consider whether people recognized their responsibilities at the individual level and acted upon them.
National Indigenous History Month, therefore, offers an invitation that extends beyond remembrance. It challenges each of us to consider not only what we know about the past, but how we’re allowing that knowledge to shape the future. And so if history were a museum, it would ask us to look carefully at what came before us and, if history were a mirror (which I believe it should be), it would ask a more difficult question: When future generations look back at this moment in time, what will your choices say about the person they’ll perceive you to have been?
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