The (im)possibilities of reconciliation: Black/ Indigenous relations and living on the land together in north Turtle Island

The words in the title 'living on the land together' signal that I am not of this land, but I am trying to understand what their ethical and political grounding could mean to me as a Black sojourner. What do they imply for the (im)possibilities of Black/ Indigenous relations on the part of Turtle Island called Canada? What obligation-responsibility flows from Black/Indigenous relations when we try to practice becoming ‘kin’ on occupied land? What do we do about intellectual appropriation without relationship in Black/Indigenous relations? What do these questions tell us about the cultural politics of reconciliation on the way to decolonization as nation, institution and human? This article looks at reconciliation on teh way to decolonization as trauma, pain, hurt, death, emotional/ psychic labor, dislocation, betrayal, not just present-future joy. I begin with an etymology of reconciliation before going on to when I first heard that word at the level of the nation in the South African and Caribbean contexts, and in Black feminist politics, through meditating on bell hooks’ (1993) chapter ‘The joy of reconciliation’ in her book Sisters of the Yam. I use hooks’ wisdom as guide quotes to feel my way through what reconciliation means to me as a Black sojourner from my specific location within Canada’s racial regime as non-HuMan. I use an example of imperiled reconciliation on the way to decolonization in Black/ Indigenous relations of intellectual appropriation without relationship, thinking through Canada’s racial regime and universities as institutions, before I conclude on future (im)possibilities.