The words "Treaty means that your identity is bigger than just you" are used both literally and metaphorically. "It's tempting to start the story of a long journey, even a journey of realization, with the arrival rather than the first, uncertain, steps. But it's really those first steps that prepare for everything else." "First steps are what this book is about," writes Matthew Anderson in his preface, and understanding Treaty is an essential first step. Treaty - what it meant to the First Nations and to the Newcomers who originally entered into it, and what it could and should mean for all of us today - lies at the heart of this book. Treaty is key to the shared narrative, shared spirituality, and shared respect for the land that Ray Aldred says are necessary for our peoples - Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike - to walk well, to live well together on the land because Treaty still is, or should be, a lived reality. Treaty doesn't refer to a onetime, historical event, but to a lasting, daily way of "living well," in right relation to each other, to the land, and to the Creator.
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