Travelling on the River in Two Canoes

Abstract

In this chapter Danielle tells a story grounded by the four quadrants of the medicine wheel, which hold knowledge about what it means to build trusting relationships between white settlers and Indigenous Peoples. The story is grounded in the heuristic study she completed for her dissertation and in her learning while working as a mental health counsellor in Deninu Kųę́ First Nation. The story moves through the four parts of the circle: (a) understanding the Truth about colonization, (b) acknowledging unequal privilege and power, (c) showing up in a good way, and (d) participating and collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. The centre point, or anchor, of the circle comes from a teaching from Indigenous Elders that suggests Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples should be travelling on the river together, but each in their own canoes. The story was written from the author’s position as a white settler. At the end of the chapter the story is captured through a colourful painting of two canoes in a river. One canoe has two Indigenous people in it; the other canoe holds two white settlers. In the painting vines not only connect to the individuals, but they integrate all relations, including the four-legged, winged, finned, rooted, Mother Earth, Grandmother water, the sun, and the canoes. Danielle concludes that when we understand that everything is connected, we can understand the teachings of what it means for white settlers and Indigenous Peoples to be travelling on the river together in two canoes

Author

Danielle Sarah McPhail (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a licensed clinical psychologist, a yoga instructor, and a fellow traveller along this healing path. Since moving to Somba K’e (colonially known as Yellowknife, Northwest Territories), she has been committed to unlearning her white colonial programming. She is a student of the decolonizing mental health movement that seeks to shift the power from a eurocentric diagnostic focus to honouring and working with Indigenous knowledge systems and worldviews. This approach values allyship within the settler–Indigenous relationship, involves changes in language, necessitates unlearning of colonial practices, and implements the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s “Calls to Action.”

Citation

McPhail, D. (2025). Travelling on the river in two canoes: Building trust with the Indigenous Peoples of Denendeh. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 2.3). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/xi58834958