September 30 Truth & Reconciliation

This day feels very personal to me.

I grew up living off the land on a trapline in Northern BC, surrounded by Indigenous families who we didn’t simply call neighbours, we called them family.

Indigenous people aren’t a story I learned about once a year. They’re friends. They’re people I’ve worked beside, laughed with, learned from and cared deeply about throughout my life.

And that connection continues today.

So many Indigenous people from our community walk through the doors of The Crooked Spoon and support this little dream of mine, and that means more to me than I can say. I’m also incredibly fortunate to work alongside some wonderful Indigenous women, including Rhandi Wiebe and Trina Davis , who are part of our Crooked Spoon family.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned more about Canada’s residential-school history and I’ve also learned something equally important: I don’t have to pretend that I know or understand every part of someone else’s history to respect the people who lived it.

Those aren’t my stories to tell.

I can listen.
I can learn.
I can respect that people’s experiences and family histories are their own.
And I can use the little corner of the world I’ve built to acknowledge a day that carries tremendous meaning for many Indigenous people.

This September 30, The Crooked Spoon will be open, and we’ll be making a special Orange Dream cookie in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Food is simply how I bring people together. It’s how I show love. And this little kitchen has become one of the places where I have a voice. We don’t have to have lived someone else’s story to treat it with compassion.

Sometimes reconciliation can begin with something very simple: listening to one another, respecting one another, and choosing to sit at the same table.

That’s what I want this little orange cookie to represent.