September 14, 2020
Episode 4

Real Reconciliation

Featuring: Jesse Thistle, Assistant Professor, Author

Featured Guests

  • Jesse Thistle

    Assistant Professor, Author

    Jesse is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is an assistant professor in Métis Studies at York University in Toronto and author of the bestselling memoir, From the Ashes.

How we experience learning in our own life has a huge impact on the experiences we create for our students. Find out how a Metis-Cree assistant professor created a philosophy of learning after surviving addiction, homelessness and reclaiming his indigenous identity.

Show Notes:

  • 3:00How “From the Ashes” came to be.
  • 5:52Unpacking the poem “My Soul is Still Homeless”.
  • 10:03Why “From the Ashes” is really a love story.
  • 15:26Constructing identity through language.
  • 18:35To be subjective in your work is way more powerful.
  • 20:38Learning to learn while surviving on the streets.
  • 23:50Applying a different perspective of learning as a professor.
  • 27:56Subjective learning through creative expression.
  • 33:15How educators can authentically honor reconciliation in their classrooms.
  • 38:45Reflecting on a conversation with Gord Downie.
  • 42:15Advice for educators concerned about cultural appropriation.
  • 44:09The power of intention.

Significant Quotes:

It takes courage to love.

Jesse Thistle
11:21

We all have a story and we all deserve empathy. We just need to take time to listen and care.

Jesse Thistle
14:21

I used to not want to share my words with people because that was my only possession, my only anchor to my own identity, and I didn’t want to share that because everything had been taken from me so young. It was a real act of trusting others to be able to share my words.

Jesse Thistle
16:01

What it was teaching me was to learn to learn. I had to, or I would die.

Jesse Thistle
21:24

To be subjective in your work is way more powerful.

Jesse Thistle
29:07

Reconciliation is ultimately about forging new relations. That’s the most important part; that’s the broken part.

Jesse Thistle
34:00

You have to change the way you think and do things. That’s real indigenization. That’s real reconciliation.

Jesse Thistle
36:46

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