Reconciliation Report Shines Light on "Dark Chapter" in Canadian Past
By Teresa Smith
The Indian Residential School system was "not simply a dark chapter from our past," says a report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "It was integral to the making of Canada." That a young Canada benefited from an education system designed to assimilate Aboriginal Peoples — by taking away their children and re-educating them — is difficult to swallow. But, as the report released late Thursday says, the fact that this idea is news to many Canadians is part of the problem. It goes further, saying the Residential School system was only part of a system designed to gain control of aboriginal land. "The Canadian government signed treaties it did not respect, took over land without making treaties, and unilaterally passed laws that controlled nearly every aspect of aboriginal life." Many Canadians will "see their country differently" after hearing the truth about the residential school system, said commission chair, Justice Murray Sinclair. Speaking at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., Sinclair said: "These are hard truths that we need to acknowledge in order to lay the foundation for reconciliation." Three commissioners — Sinclair, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson — began touring the country in June 2009 in an effort to hear the stories of as many residential school survivors as possible. The commission was created as part of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, in which the federal government gave former students in the system $5.1 billion to partially compensate them for their suffering. It came ahead of the federal government's historic 2008 apology to First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized, on behalf of all Canadians, for trying to "kill the Indian" in their children. Similarly structured Truth and Reconciliation Commissions were set up following the genocide in Rwanda and apartheid in South Africa to learn about the events and to map a path forward. For more than a century between the 1840s and 1996 when the last school was closed, aboriginal parents were forced to send their children away to government-funded, church-run boarding schools. The commissioners have heard that many were malnourished, some died from tuberculosis and other preventable diseases, some were abused and all were changed by their experience. The commissioners say the reconciliation process also will have to span generations. "It will take time to re-establish respect," it says. The report recommends the government develop a program to establish health and wellness centres specializing in trauma and grief counselling and treatment appropriate to the cultures and experiences of multi-generational residential school survivors. It also says the provinces and territories need to ensure students learn about the historic relationship between settlers who became Canadians and Aboriginal Peoples — particularly relating to the history and lasting impact of residential schools. The report suggests students should learn about the residential schools in their region and that every secondary school in Canada should prominently display a framed copy of the Statement of Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools. The report says reconciliation also will require changes to the way Aboriginal Peoples relate to the government because, historically, federal and provincial governments have seen Aboriginal Peoples as "wards of the state" and failed to "recognize the unique legal status of Aboriginal Peoples as the original peoples of this country." "Without that recognition, we run the risk of continuing the assimilationist policies and the social harms that were integral to the residential schools," it concludes. The report says the lasting impact of a century of those policies is seen in the social, economic and political challenges that aboriginal communities struggle with every day, as evidenced by conditions in communities such as Attawapiskat, Ont. But, it says the impact is also obvious "in the attitudes that too often shape the relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Peoples in Canada." "For much of our history, all Canadian children — aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike — were taught that aboriginal people were inferior, savage, and uncivilized, and that aboriginal languages, spiritual beliefs, and ways of life were irrelevant. Aboriginal People(s) were depicted as having been a dying race, saved from destruction by the intervention of humanitarian Europeans." It says because Canadians haven't learned enough about the nature of aboriginal societies or the history of the relationship between our ancestors — "and the way that relationship has been shaped over time by colonialism and racism" — the misinformation has led to misunderstanding and, in some cases, hostility. It ends with an invitation to all Canadians to get involved in the reconciliation process now and to "create new truths about our country." Quoting then Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine who accepted Canada's apology in June 2008, the report concludes: "Together we can achieve the greatness our country deserves." Our challenge and opportunity, says the report "will be to work together to achieve that greatness." The commission is halfway through its five-year mandate, which will end in 2014 with the release of a full report. Copies of the interim report and a historical overview of residential schools called They Came for the Children will be available on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission website on Friday afternoon at www.trc.ca. Contact: tesmith@postmedia.com
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.