Working toward reconciliation a constant effort worth making

Opinion Editorial Article published in the Calgary Herald, June 18, 2026

Meaningful lasting change requires all-hands approach based on trust, Buddie Dixon and Jeromy Farkas write.

Throughout June, communities across Calgary are gathering to mark National Indigenous History Month.

This month, there will be opportunities to celebrate Indigenous cultures, languages, histories, and traditions. There will be spaces for learning, reflection, ceremony, storytelling, and connection.

These moments matter..

They remind us that Indigenous Peoples have always been here and continue to shape the life, identity, and future of this city in meaningful ways.

Moh’kinsstis, located within Treaty 7 territory, has been a gathering place since time immemorial. Long before Calgary existed as a city, this place was a meeting ground for peoples, cultures, trade, ceremony, and relationships. It remains the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy and the homeland of the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Stoney Nakoda Nations. Calgary is also home to the Métis community. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

That history is not confined to the past. It is living.

National Indigenous History Month offers an opportunity not only to celebrate Indigenous culture and contributions, but also to reflect on what reconciliation asks of all of us beyond a single month on the calendar.

What does it mean to create a city where Indigenous histories, cultures, languages, and ways of knowing are visible year-round?

What does it mean to create spaces where Indigenous leadership, ceremony, learning, and gathering are not temporary or symbolic, but permanently woven into the fabric of Calgary?

These are important questions for our city as we continue moving forward together.

Reconciliation is not only about acknowledgement. It is about relationship. It is about making space for Indigenous leadership and ensuring Indigenous communities are meaningfully involved in shaping the future of the places and institutions that impact them.

That work is already happening across Calgary every day through the leadership of Indigenous organizations, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, artists, educators, and community members who continue to create spaces for culture, learning, healing, ceremony, and connection. Their leadership strengthens our city and creates opportunities for deeper understanding and stronger relationships across communities.

Reconciliation also asks all of us to reflect on how we support this work in meaningful ways. Sometimes leadership means creating space for Indigenous voices, knowledge, and visions to lead the conversation, while institutions, organizations, and partners listen, support, and walk alongside in a good way. Lasting reconciliation is built not only through participation, but through trust, respect, and a willingness to ensure Indigenous communities are meaningfully shaping the future of this city.

As Calgary continues to grow, there is an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure Indigenous presence, leadership, and culture are reflected in lasting and meaningful ways. This includes creating permanent Indigenous-led spaces for gathering, ceremony, cultural connection, and learning that are visible, accessible, and woven into the future of our city.

This work requires all of us.

It requires listening. It requires humility. It requires partnership. And it requires a willingness to move beyond symbolic gestures toward long-term commitments grounded in respect, relationship, and shared responsibility.

National Indigenous History Month is an invitation to celebrate, to learn, and to reflect. But it is also an invitation to carry this work forward beyond June.

Reconciliation is not a moment. It is an ongoing responsibility.

And building a city that reflects the full and living history of this land is work we must continue together.

Jeromy Farkas, Mayor of Calgary and Buddie Dixon, co-chair, Indigenous Gathering Place Society