Making Space for Reconciliation

A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation reflection on the places where we work

On September 30, Canadians observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to honour the children who never returned home from residential schools, Survivors, their families and communities, and to recognize the ongoing impacts of this history.

For those of us who think about workplaces, how we plan them, design them and experience them, this day also presents an important question:

How can our workplaces make space for reconciliation and awareness?

Many organizations have taken an important first step by developing a land acknowledgement, but acknowledgement invites the next question: what comes after the words?

Our physical environments can make visible what might otherwise be overlooked. They communicate what we value, whose stories we tell and what we believe is worth remembering. As places where many of us spend a significant part of our lives, workplaces offer an opportunity to bring greater awareness of the history and significance of the places we occupy into our everyday experience.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 92 speaks directly to Canada's corporate sector, calling on businesses to build respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and provide education about Indigenous history, residential schools, Treaties, Indigenous rights and Indigenous-Crown relations.

For those who shape workplaces, it is worth considering what role the physical environment can play.

Past: Know where you are

Every workplace exists somewhere.

Before there was an office, a lease, a building or a property line, there was, and remains, land with history, meaning and relationships connected to it.

Understanding the past starts with learning about the place we occupy: whose traditional territories we are on, the Treaties and relationships connected to that place, and the experiences of Indigenous peoples whose histories have too often been absent from the environments we inhabit.

A thoughtful land acknowledgement can help bring that history forward. The physical workplace gives us an opportunity to take that acknowledgement further.

What could someone learn about the place they occupy simply by experiencing it?

Some of what we learn may be difficult or uncomfortable. The purpose is not guilt, nor should difficult truths be softened to avoid discomfort. Understanding the past can instead give us a more informed perspective on the present and the choices we make going forward.

Present: Consider how we are here

Businesses do not exist separately from place. Our workplaces occupy land. They are places of economic activity where organizations create value, make decisions, build relationships and express their culture.

Understanding where we are should therefore lead us to consider how we are there.

How do we conduct business? How do we relate to the communities around us? How do we listen to and treat one another? Whose perspectives participate in shaping our organizations and our spaces? What stories are visible, and which are absent?

There is no universal design response to these questions.

For some organizations, they may lead to relationships with Indigenous communities, designers, artists, makers and businesses. They may influence procurement, education or employee experience. They may also change what we choose to make visible within the workplace itself.

Meaningful representation should not mean designers independently deciding what an "Indigenous" space should look like. Partnership and Indigenous participation matter. Sometimes the designer's role is not to provide the answer, but to recognize that a question needs to be asked and that other voices need to be part of answering it.

Future: Consider what we carry forward

Reconciliation is not confined to history, and Indigenous peoples, cultures and communities are not stories of Canada's past.

The question is also what relationships, understanding and responsibilities we carry forward.

One example of how organizations are bringing this thinking into their physical environments is the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund's (DWF) Legacy Spaces program. 

The DWF Legacy Spaces are dedicated places where people can learn about Indigenous history and reconciliation and engage in conversation throughout the year. Importantly, the physical space is not the end point. DWF positions the space within a broader, ongoing commitment to education, awareness and action.

For workplace designers and strategists, the idea is compelling because it expands what we ask a workplace to do.

A space can communicate an organization's brand and support how people work. It can also help people encounter a story they may not otherwise encounter, provide a moment to pause, or encourage a conversation that continues beyond the space itself.

What if we considered reflection and learning part of the workplace experience too?

A question for the workplace

Designers and workplace strategists influence more than the appearance of workplaces. We help determine what people encounter and feel when they enter a space and what that environment makes visible.

Workplace strategy asks questions about people, culture and how an organization wants to work. Truth and reconciliation provides the foundation to broaden that conversation:

What should people understand about this place, its land, its history and the organization's relationship to it, when they experience the workplace?

It is a question that designers, workplace strategists can bring to the table, and one that organizations can challenge their workplace and A+D partners to consider.

So, look around your workplace.

Beyond a land acknowledgement, where is this story visible?

If you do not know the answer, ask the people shaping your workplace:

How are we making space for it?

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September 30 gives us a day to reflect. The opportunity is to carry that reflection forward, into the places we create, the decisions we make and the relationships we build throughout the year.

In recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Bennett Design has made a donation to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund in support of its work to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.