Annie Korver discusses Reconciliation as Relationship

By Laura Mushumanski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – In the nehiyawe understanding, we are all teachers, and we are all walking each other home. And when it comes to reconciliation, as shared by founder of Rise Consulting, Annie Korver, “it is hard to teach reconciliation because it takes time…at Rise we are teachers so often.”

This understanding is that learning is a process, a life-long journey. After all, when each one of us was born into the physical world, we did not come out of our mother’s womb holding an owner’s manual. The same goes for embodying reconciliation as an action and a continual part of learning and engaging with relationships.

“Reconciliation is part of the journey…Part of my continual learning comes back to that, as a circular experience – a beautiful ceremony in thinking about values and valuing my own knowledge and then co-creating growth and knowledge…The lessons keep coming, it continues, and that openness and willingness of mind-body-spirit learning and experience [continues]. I am doing this work and people look to me as someone to teach them about how to do the work and that is one of the first lessons.”

The first lesson that Korver speaks about is understanding that none of us are experts, as we are in a cyclical relationship with exchanging knowledge and walking into relationship with how we can be good relatives, listening to understand, and be a part of humility.

“Language and words really matter,” she shared. The clients as they start on their journey, are looking for an expert. “I am not an expert. I don’t think I ever will be. I am an individual that has been focused on receiving knowledge that has been gifted to me in this specific space – my ears, my heart, my body, my spirit. I am open to receiving gifts…I love that because it really is a fundamental ingredient for folks that are looking to participate in advancing Truth and Reconciliation.”

Receiving knowledge, as shared by Korver, is part of humility – building relations in a good way by listening to understand, and only if we are willing to be part of the journey of reconciliation as relationship. Sometimes that starts with the willingness to be curious, ask questions and explore outside what we think we know, only to come to know things differently.

Annie shared that she knew nothing about reconciliation before starting her graduate level research at the University of Calgary just over ten years ago. This was the first time she started to consider the intersection of economic development and Indigenous sovereignty. The conversation started when engaging in case studies in the classroom. “In Calgary it’s this big energy industry,” she explained. “So, we would look at case studies with Shell, Syncrude or Cenovus in and around the Wood Buffalo region and learn about this intersection between their desires to develop the needs in the market and the desire for the communities to be part of (whatever those companies were doing) to support their sovereignty and self-determination.”

The 13-year journey so far that Korver has walked into reconciliation as relationship, started with understanding about the economic dependency trap and the reality that communities were created under a regime through forced assimilation. Annie’s journey continues by spending more time in community with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples who teach her things all the time. “I am learning about [development] and learning to centre in right relation, and what started as this development happening in Wood Buffalo, and then starting to unpack it…What does that look like? How are they involved?”

As noted by Korver, “There is a place for advancing Truth and Reconciliation in every organization.” With her work, she is able to work with folks and build relations by leaning in and listening and taking her time to teach that this is continual, “and once you bear witness, when you hear the stories, when you invite it in, your responsibility builds.”

For Annie, when Rise was founded, she didn’t have any idea then what she knows now, or that her journey would be this rich. “What I did know was the trajectory, that purpose, and vision is around the rising presence of our people…that continual centering – the listening, reflection, the application…How does this align for me? Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I on this land? What am I interested in? What is my responsibility to co-create a future that I want to participate in? …Those are some of the conversations that I love to have with folks, with organizations.”

The journey that Korver talks about, has been a year-on-year journey of growth in so many ways with knowledge continuously being gifted and received, the depth of learning about relationships, the opportunity she continues to have to hear stories, witness the positive impact with reconciliation, and the changing of methods being utilized to a more impactful way. One understanding Rise walks beside is engaging in the 6 R’s and teachings about respect, reverence, reciprocity, relationships, relevance, and responsibility, and by bringing those together – reconciliation.

At Rise Consulting, the founding values that Korver carries and continues to shape the work her and her team co-create with reconciliation are: Kindness being their culture, Trust – building it, allowing trust to evolve over time and form stable relationships, Community, Courage, Shared Values, and Knowledge as a gift both received and shared.