Harry Lafond

“Deep listening is critical part of reconciliation. It isn’t just feeding back what you hear on the surface but taking things down to the depths of emotions, social understanding, intellectual understanding and moving into areas of empathy, respect and humility.” Harry Lafond is from and lives on maskêko sâkahikanihk (Muskeg Lake). From 1956 to 1976, he lived and spent most of the time in places where there was little Cree spoken. Now, he spends much of his time seeking out Cree words and relearning how to speak, read and write Cree. That is the legacy he wants to leave his 13 grandchildren, two daughters and three sons. Harry has done many things to serve the people he lives with: he has a M.Ed., an Indigenous Languages Certificate, has served as chief, wrote some, read lots, listened to Elders, spoke many times on reconciliation and spent hundreds of hours with first his children and now our grandchildren. His wife, Germaine and Harry believe in wâhkôtowin (building relations) and acknowledge that it requires time and energy. In our conversation with Harry he beautifully knit together his thoughts around the spirituality of reconciliation and the importance of language within reconciliation. He walked us through his journey of reconciling both Catholic and Cree spirituality while first learning and then teaching Cree phrases and understandings. In all this, he attributed the people he was connected to in his life and the relationships that helped shape him. “Many years ago, someone said, you are a good listener, and this is a beautiful complement because it meant I was practicing deep listening. And deep listening is critical part of reconciliation. It isn’t just feeding back what you hear on the surface but taking things down to the depths of emotions, social understanding, intellectual understanding and moving into areas of empathy, respect and humility. Those Cree teachings are important parts of who we are as a people”. Ben Borne and I invited Harry to have a conversation around these five questions: 1. What is your personal understanding of reconciliation? 2. What experiences have led you to this understanding? 3. Why do you feel reconciliation is important? 4. Does forgiveness have a role in reconciliation? Why or why not? 5. How would you invite people into the reconciliation journey? Then we recorded his reflections. ***************************************************** Additional resources to explore: Muskeg Lake Cree Literacy Network OTC Indigenous couple live a life of reconciliation – Catholic Register Black Elk Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan ***************************************************** Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation. We thank Mennonite Church Saskatchewan for additional funding support. Project Coordinator: Heather Peters Co-host: Ben Borne Recording and Editing: Matthew Hildebrandt Music by Queen Queen Josephine