In creating this video, we spent much of our time trying to navigate how we, in our positionality as white settlers, could be respectful and demonstrate allyship without taking space,
words, or ideas that rightly belong to Indigenous persons. We chose first to affirm our own personal commitments to Indigenous communities. From reading the National Inquiry into the
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (NIMMIWG) report it is blatantly obvious that Canadians have stood by for too long and failed to incorporate decolonial practice into
public services, government, education, and all other services. As such, we thought it would be important to demonstrate our understanding of the necessity for all Canadians to commit to
supporting the resurgence of Indigenous people, beginning with ourselves. We chose to include Jaclyn’s daughters in our video for a number of reasons. First, we understand that the task of
retelling history from a place of truth in respect to Indigenous persons will require educating the younger generations differently than we were educated and this responsibility falls partly on our
educational system, but primarily on parents as well. The inclusion of Jaclyn’s children is meant to be representative of the necessary re-education process that must occur beginning with us and
our children. Second, we felt that the impact of having four women and girls standing in protest and in solidarity with all the women and girls who went missing would communicate our deep commitment to Indigenous communities and to the process of decolonization that is necessary in order to stop the genocide of Canada’s Indigenous people.
Finally, in determining how we would end the video, we felt that a full seven minutes of us, as white settlers, talking would give the impression that we are talking over Indigenous
voices, or at the very least, not taking them into consideration. It was for this reason we chose to include a poem written by Astokomii Smith, a member of the Siksika first nation, called I am
Ten Years Old. The choice of this poem was deliberate for a number of reasons. First, we wanted to include Indigenous voices into our presentation. Second, we wanted to highlight the many
children that were victims of the missing and murdered crisis. We felt that filming Jaclyn’s ten- year-old daughter in our video as this poem was being read, partly by her daughter, partly by us,
would drive home the severity of such tragedy that Indigenous communities have faced. The filming of this video was challenging because we consistently wanted to demonstrate not only
what we have learned from the NIMMIWG report, but how our actions will be different as a result of reading this report, and it is difficult to communicate our hearts in this way. We hope
that all those watching this video might be able to see a glimpse into our deep lifelong commitment to change and decolonization.
Smith, A. (2018). 

I am 10 years old. Retrieved, October 29, 2019, from http://www.our-story.ca/winners/writing/6443:i-am-10-years-old

By Jaclyn and Aurora