Whorls of becoming: Wayfinding in the praxis of becoming a good relative, relating

This act of endogenous education attempts to track my existential quest of how I can be of service to Education for (Re)conciliation. Through my hermeneutic inquiry I share how I have come to perceive my on-going transformation as a colonial settler, to an imperfect ally, to a good relative through my contribution to Education for (Re)conciliation. Throughout this emergent journey, I track my wayfinding as I learn from Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing, and relating both in my personal and professional contexts. I share my transformative praxis and offer how I come to learn from these generative sites. I wayfind to both invite and enact radical possibilities of an expanding circle of knowledges within myself and within my role as educator in the place we now call British Columbia, Canada. I seek (k)new possibilities for my human-ness and my evolving consciousness through this hermeneutic inquiry. I (re)present my scholarly (re)search, my lived experiences, and my transformative praxis as I wayfind to (re)orientate to an emerging ecological worldview. This process-oriented journey reflects my attempts to learn to walk in a good way as a non-Indigenous, public-school teacher who seeks to repair, to heal, and to (re)pair, to connect, Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing, and relating as I (re)imagine the classroom as an ecology. I articulate my understanding of (re)cognizing—to recognize, or perceive, and (re)cognize, or know anew—how the roles of teacher/student can metamorphize to Being~Being. Through my praxis of honouring the nuances of witnessing, I invite paradigmatic shifts to evoke pedagogical possibilities. As I seek a (k)new story for myself, for the young ones in my care, and for education, I come to know how to be a good relative becomes a conscious, continual enactment and (re)enactment. I invite others to witness my wayfinding through my métissage, a weaving of academic writing, life writing I call dialogic vignettes, poetry, and artistic endeavours as revealed throughout this dissertation which honours my existential quest to be a good relative, relating.