Micro-Reconciliation as a Pathway for Transformative Change

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of micro-reconciliation as a pragmatic action to support cultural safety and humility work.  Similar to cultural safety and humility, micro-reconciliation practices aim to challenge and diminish racism, inequality and inequity experienced by Indigenous peoples. In arguing for changes to the human service sector, micro-reconciliation exists at the intersections between entrenched structural racism and the psychological and emotional roots of discrimination that play out in every day service delivery. Three organizing practices are discussed; acknowledment, witnessing and moral courage, as the basis of micro-reconciliaion work and the advancement of cultural safety and reconciliaton.