Disconnection and the yearning for connection have long propelled my writing.
As a settler Canadian, I am currently exploring my implication in disconnecting the Indigenous peoples of this country from their home lands.
Heather Menzies
Seeker
Probing the ancestral roots of disconnection first took me to Scotland.
Reconnecting with my ancestral land and dispossession from it prepared me for the work I’m doing now.
Writer
My current blogs share a transformative journey that I have been on since 2018: dismantling the colonial settler in my mind and opening space to embrace my responibilities as a treaty person.
It’s teaching me about reconcilliation, including with the earth.
Speaker
I have spent decades speaking authoritatively to large national and international audiences.
Increasingly, I am drawn to the connections of smaller groups and talking circles.
Heather’s Blog
Our Long Struggle for Home: The Ipperwash Story
It's been quite the journey these past four years -- learning about my treaty heritage and the responsiblities associated with it. As part of this, I worked with some Nishnaabe members of the Stoney Point Reserve as they told their story of reclaiming their ancestral...
Ancestral Homeland as healer & teacher
I want to share what I learned as I prepared a keynote speech to a United Church regional council AGM, and also share a link to it so you can see the images. I became even more convinced that the trauma of displacement and dispossession that my forebears experienced...
Decolonizing the environmental movement? Review of “Decolonizing Prehistory”
The how of seeing reality fundamentally conditions the reality we work with. So to me, seeing nature solely through the lens of Western science is part of the problem. This book, reviewed here, reminds environmentalists (and others) of another, more deeply historical...
Heather Menzies awarded Order of Canada
Heather Menzies awarded Order of Canada to honour her contributions to public discourse.
His Excellency presents the MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF CANADA insignia to Heather Anne Menzies, C.M.
Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, presided over an Order of Canada investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall, on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. The Governor General, who is chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order, bestowed the honour on 35 Members and 10 Officers.
The Order of Canada was created in 1967, during Canadas centennial year, to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. Since its creation, more than 6 000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order.
Photo Credit: MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, OSGG.
I am listening and trying to learn what healing our treaty relations with each other and the earth might mean. I am sharing this journey with you, building on Reclaiming the Commons praised by Noam Chomsky as “an admirable, even noble vision”.
Heather Menzies received the honour of the Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction.
Jury Statement:
“In this eloquent memoir written from the heart, Menzies takes the reader on a fascinating trip to the Scotland of her ancestors to examine and retrace life on the Scottish Commons.
With a light and at times poetic touch, she offers her insights into how the venerable wisdom of sharing and caring for the land might be applied today.
A unique combination of memoir and manifesto, Reclaiming the Commons urges us to become participants in changing our world for the common good.”
~ Dr. Richard T. Clippingdale, Suzanne Evans and merilyn simonds
Read more about the city’s Book Award and Announcement.
Ottawa Citizen featured the winners, so read more.