In former Federal Cabinet Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould's recently released book, True Reconciliation, she emphasizes that reconciliation is a process that begins with learning and understanding, but must translate into action and change before true reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples can occur.  Given the coincidence that I am releasing my new novel, The Night Class within a month of Ms. Wilson-Raybould's book, I thought I would share the Foreword to The Night Class with readers of this blog, to give you some insight into my journey of learning and understanding reconciliation, and ultimately turning that knowledge into action in the form of a coming-of-age novel, set within a context of reconciliation. THE NIGHT CLASS: FORWORD

SINCE I BEGAN telling friends and acquaintances that I’m writing another fictional novel, this one set within the context of Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, I’ve been met with a lot of silence, raised eyebrows, or comments like: “Have you checked with Indigenous sources?” or “How did you get the idea for your characters?” or “Can you be sure the story is authentic?”

I understand their concerns. They’re all worried that I’m stepping into a racial and political minefield—and I agree with them. But I think it’s a racial and political minefield that somebody in Canada has to navigate, in order to help raise awareness in the non-Indigenous public of the need to take an active role in helping to resolve the longstanding, complex issues related to Truth and Reconciliation.

Before I go any further, I want to make the disclaimer that I am definitely pro-reconciliation! As much as anybody, I want to see the wrongs of the past corrected, and I want to see our Indigenous brothers and sisters treated with fairness and dignity. But, despite that, I have observed that non-Indigenous Canadians continue to have a lot of questions about the political process of reconciliation. Thus, although The Night Class is a fictional coming-of-age story, it is also a political commentary about reconciliation. Will readers (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous) find this story controversial? Will The Night Class generate emotional reactions, some heated debate, and dialog about reconciliation? I certainly hope so, otherwise there’s no point in writing the story.

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself the same question as my friends and family: “Why is this guy crazy enough to tackle this controversial subject?” So, I’ll try to answer that question as briefly as possible, after telling you a bit about my background.

My ancestors were colonial settlers in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, Canada. As young children, my sisters and I often spent summer vacations at my grandparents’ cottage in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley, having to drive through the small village of Lebret to get there. I remember seeing a large building beside the road, with children playing in a playground, and I remember asking my parents and grandparents about the building, which I now know was one of Canada’s residential schools. Their answer was that “this is where the Indian kids go to school.” Since I’d already learned that most Indians (as we called Indigenous people then) lived separately on reserves, having separate schools for Indian kids made logical sense to my ten-year-old mind, and I never thought to ask any more questions about the schools. Non-Indigenous children my age simply accepted those explanations at face value. That was just the way things were for us back then.  

However, as the years passed, non-Indigenous Canadians like myself have had our childhood naiveté systematically broken down by a non-stop flow of disturbing news stories about the ongoing problems in many Indigenous communities—problems and truths that keep repeating themselves time and time again. And eventually, I started asking myself: “Why does this keep happening?”
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 So, I started reading. And no matter what Indigenous topics I chose to read, they all ultimately pointed me in one direction—towards Canada’s Indian Act. And the more I read about the Act, and the more I read about what Canada’s Indigenous people were saying about it, the more appalled I became!
Then, over the past two to three years, I noticed that the words “Truth and Reconciliation” were popping up more and more frequently in the news. So I started reading key documents like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and the final report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee, with its ninety-four Calls to Action.

My reading prompted me to start talking with friends and neighbours about Truth and Reconciliation. But, when I raised the topic, something very surprising happened. Many of them were reluctant to talk about the subject, let alone ask questions or express concerns about what the word reconciliation actually means for Canadians. They were afraid to ask how long the process might take, or whether there is a goal or an endpoint for reconciliation. Most importantly, they were afraid that anything they said might be interpreted in a way that might brand them as racists. And given the current political and racial climate, especially in North America where there are apparently no grey areas, and where being branded a racist is a very all-or-nothing, unforgiving judgment, I don’t blame them one bit for being cautious.

The only way I could get some people to openly express opinions about reconciliation was to link an informal, confidential survey about reconciliation for friends to access via my Facebook page. The results and comments were not only insightful, but they aligned completely with previous polls conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, as well as other reputable polling companies over the past few years. Despite the results of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s 2015 findings and report, and despite the recent multiple revelations of finding the bodies of missing Indigenous children at Canada’s residential schools, reconciliation is still only a priority for a small percentage of Canada’s non-Indigenous population. Even worse, a majority of Canadians rated their level of knowledge about reconciliation to be very low.

Frankly, this is a shame, and I think it needs to change! How can we encourage First Nations and non-Indigenous people to engage in a dialogue about reconciliation, and to start moving that process forward, when a large part of the non-Indigenous population is afraid to talk about the subject? How can we increase awareness of reconciliation issues, when it isn’t even a high priority for most non-Indigenous people? And most importantly, how can those of us who are non-Indigenous, help to raise awareness in our communities of the need to get reconciliation moving forward in a meaningful way?
 Given the recent residential school revelations, which includes a ground search at the school that was located at Lebret, the need for moving Truth and Reconciliation forward in Canada is even more pressing. So, as a writer, I decided to use fiction as a vehicle to raise awareness in non-Indigenous people, and also to raise awareness in Indigenous people that much of the non-Indigenous population is either afraid to engage with them in meaningful dialog, or doesn’t care about the issue. My aim is to raise awareness through storytelling, in a way that is entertaining, but also in a way that tells the story through characters representing the reality of Canada’s ethnic mosaic. As such, The Night Class is both a coming-of-age story and a political commentary. It necessarily contains a certain amount of political incorrectness in order to raise awareness of issues and generate dialog. There is a long history of political commentary in fiction, beginning in ancient Greece and re-emerging in the sixteenth century. Like an independent media, these types of stories serve a necessary need in any society claiming to have free speech.

Thus, I hope this book will be difficult to read in places. The Night Class exposes biases and prejudices present in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, with the intention of eliciting strong emotional responses and discomfort from both groups. I’ll be presenting examples of racist attitudes that I grew up with, many of which still prevail today. I do not endorse those attitudes. Instead, I wish to expose them for what they are—myths and misconceptions about our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
While writing The Night Class, I did my best (as a non-Indigenous person) to research and make the experiences of the Indigenous characters in my story as realistic as possible. I also did my best to reach out to consult with members of the Indigenous community, to obtain critical feedback on the first draft of the manuscript. However, this is where I experienced another surprising phenomenon, when nobody I approached in the Indigenous community seemed motivated or interested in reading the manuscript and giving feedback. I was asked a pointed question by one young Indigenous lady: “Why are you the one to tell this story?”

On one hand, I completely understand that Indigenous people feel a deep need to reclaim their history, and to tell their own stories and truths along the road to healing and reconciliation. Non-indigenous people have been appropriating Indigenous stories and cultures for hundreds of years now. But, on the other hand, the experiences I described above have left me feeling like reconciliation is currently a one-way street, where there does not seem to be a lot of interest from the Indigenous community in engaging in frank, open dialog with an average, non-Indigenous Canadian about the process of reconciliation. Given that the definition of the word reconcile is to resolve differences and restore harmony between people, it’s difficult for me to see how any path towards Truth and Reconciliation in this country can resolve differences or restore harmony without frank, two-way dialog, even if that dialog is sometimes uncomfortable for all parties involved.

Consequently, it is my hope that The Night Class provides a lesson in how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples must learn to look at themselves and their approaches to reconciliation, how both groups must learn lessons from our past, and how we must make it a higher priority to learn to work together as one team in the present, if we all hope to move forward and live together in peace and harmony in the future.

At the end of the story, you’ll find something that is a bit unusual for a work of fiction—a short list of recommended readings, for those of you who are interested in learning more about the issues raised in The Night Class. The list includes important documents such as the UNDRIP and Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s findings and Calls to Action. I would particularly like to recommend three books: 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, by Bob Joseph; Indigenous Relations, by Bob and Cynthia Joseph; and From Where I Stand, by former Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. Together, these three books provide valuable insight for non-Indigenous people, into the First Nations’ perspective on the Indian Act, and on the process of Truth and Reconciliation in general.  

I hope you enjoy The Night Class and its cast of characters. And, if you also learn something that helps to raise your curiosity or your awareness of reconciliation and Indigenous issues, and causes you to think more about those issues—even better. Finally, if you enjoyed the story and it’s messages of the need to build trust between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and the need for teamwork and compromise in rebuilding our nation, please use social media to recommend The Night Class to your friends and neighbours. We won’t achieve reconciliation in our country unless we spread awareness of these complex and important issues to all Canadians, and until we all realize that now is the time for concrete action on the part of each one of us, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, to make reconciliation become a reality in our country.

Alex Jones
December, 2022
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