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
Reconciliation challenges everyone, not just governments & institutions. Meeting my Treaty Kin is my story of taking on this challenge: grappling with colonialism’s hold on my own thinking & opening my eyes to the healing potential of reconciliation, including reconciliation 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
Thanks for empathizing as I confessed
Thanks for empathizing, book-launch audiences, when I confessed: I’d thought I could sidestep all that colonialism baggage by calling myself treaty ally and kin, not realizing the baggage was inside me. The power dynamic of colonialism and white superiority was like a...
Buffy Sainte Marie: a cultural worker’s response
I’ve been touched by people’s response to my memoir with its theme of challenging my unconsciously colonial ways of thinking to make space in my mind and heart to fully appreciate, honour and respect Indigenous ways of thinking that have prevailed here since before...
Responding to Clifford Cardinal’s Land Acknowledgement Challenge
The trick about taking the reconciliation challenge is taking responsibility for colonialism without feeling so personally responsible that you freeze and do nothing. Here’s a video of me responding to Cree-Lakota playwright Clifford Cardinal’s Land Acknowledgement...
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.