Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

Recommendations

Info

290 • Truth & Reconciliation Commissioniv. Regional dialogues for Indigenous spiritual leaders and youth to discussIndigenous spirituality, self-determination, and reconciliation.Education for reconciliationMuch of the current state of troubled relations between Aboriginal and non-AboriginalCanadians is attributable to educational institutions and what they have taught,or failed to teach, over many generations. Despite that history, or, perhaps more correctly,because of its potential, the Commission believes that education is also the keyto reconciliation. Educating Canadians for reconciliation involves not only schoolsand post-secondary institutions, but also dialogue forums and public history institutionssuch as museums and archives. Education must remedy the gaps in historicalknowledge that perpetuate ignorance and racism.But education for reconciliation must do even more. Survivors told us thatCanadians must learn about the history and legacy of residential schools in ways thatchange both minds and hearts. At the Manitoba National Event in Winnipeg, AllanSutherland said,There are still a lot of emotions [that are] unresolved. People need to telltheir stories.... We need the ability to move forward together but you haveto understand how it all began [starting with] Christopher Columbus, fromChristianization, then colonization, and then assimilation.... If we put our mindsand hearts to it, we can [change] the status quo. 104At the Commission’s Community Hearing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 2010, EstherLachinette-Diabo said,I’m doing this interview in hope that we could use this as an educational toolto educate our youth about what happened.... Maybe one day the Ministry ofEducation can work with the trc and develop some kind of curriculum forNative Studies, Indigenous learning. So that not only Aboriginal people canunderstand, you know, what we had to go through—the experiences of all theAnishinaabe people that attended—but for the Canadian people as well tounderstand that the residential schools did happen. And through this sharing,they can understand and hear stories from Survivors like me. 105In Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2013, Charlotte Marten said,I would like to see action taken as a result of the findings of this Commission. Iwould like to see the history of the residential school system be part of the schoolcurriculum across Canada. I want my grandchildren and the future generationsof our society to know the whole truth behind Canada’s residential school policyand how it destroyed generations of our people. It is my hope that by sharing the
The challenge of reconciliation • 291truth that it will help the public gain a better understanding of the struggles weface as First Nations. 106Non-Aboriginal Canadians hear about the problems faced by Aboriginal communities,but they have almost no idea how those problems developed. There is littleunderstanding of how the federal government contributed to that reality through residentialschools and the policies and laws in place during their existence. Our educationsystem, through omission or commission, has failed to teach this. It bears alarge share of the responsibility for the current state of affairs. It became clear over thecourse of the Commission’s work that most adult Canadians have been taught little ornothing about the residential schools. More typically, they were taught that the historyof Canada began when the first European explorers set foot in the New World. Nationbuilding has been the main theme of Canada’s history curricula for a long time, andAboriginal peoples, with a few notable exceptions, have been portrayed as bystanders,if not obstacles, to that enterprise.Prior to 1970, school textbooks across the country depicted Aboriginal peoples asbeing either savage warriors or onlookers who were irrelevant to the more importanthistory of Canada: the story of European settlement. Beginning in the 1980s, the historyof Aboriginal people was sometimes cast in a more positive light, but the povertyand social dysfunction in Aboriginal communities were emphasized without any historicalcontext to help students understand how or why these happened. This has leftmost Canadians with the view that Aboriginal people were and are to blame for thesituations in which they find themselves, as though there were no external causes.Aboriginal peoples have therefore been characterized as a social and economic problemthat must be solved.By the 1990s, textbooks emphasized the role of Aboriginal peoples as protestors,advocating for rights. Most Canadians failed to understand or appreciate the significanceof these rights, given the overriding perspective of Aboriginal assimilation inCanada’s education system.Although textbooks have become more inclusive of Aboriginal perspectives overthe past three decades, the role of Aboriginal people in Canadian history during muchof the twentieth century remains invisible. Students learn something about Aboriginalpeoples prior to contact, and during the exploration, fur-trade, and settlement periods.They learn about Métis resistance in the 1880s, and the signing of Treaties. Then,Aboriginal peoples virtually disappear until the 1960s and 1970s, when they resurfaceas political and social justice activists. The defining period in between remains largelyunmentioned. 107 So much of the story of Aboriginal peoples, as seen through theirown eyes, is still missing from Canadian history.In the Commission’s view, all students—Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal—need tolearn that the history of this country did not begin with the arrival of Jacques Cartieron the banks of the St. Lawrence River. They need to learn about the Indigenous
Page 1:
Honouring the Truth,Reconciling for
Page 4 and 5:
This report is in the public domain
Page 6 and 7:
vi • Truth & Reconciliation Commi
Page 8 and 9:
2 • Truth & Reconciliation Commis
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
10 • Truth & Reconciliation Commi
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
100 • Truth & Reconciliation Comm
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218 and 219:
Page 220 and 221:
Page 222 and 223:
Page 224 and 225:
Page 226 and 227:
Page 228 and 229:
Page 230 and 231:
Page 232 and 233:
Page 234 and 235:
Page 236 and 237:
Page 238 and 239:
Page 240 and 241:
Page 242 and 243:
Page 244 and 245:
Page 246 and 247: 240 • Truth & Reconciliation Comm
Page 346 and 347:
Page 348 and 349:
Page 350 and 351:
Page 352 and 353:
Page 354 and 355:
Page 356 and 357:
Page 358 and 359:
Page 360 and 361:
Page 362 and 363:
Page 364 and 365:
Page 366 and 367:
Page 368 and 369:
Page 370 and 371:
Page 372 and 373:
Page 374 and 375:
Page 376 and 377:
Page 378 and 379:
Page 380 and 381:
Page 382 and 383:
Page 384 and 385:
Page 386 and 387:
Page 388 and 389:
Page 390 and 391:
Page 392 and 393:
Page 394 and 395:
Page 396 and 397:
Page 398 and 399:
Page 400 and 401:
Page 402 and 403:
Page 404 and 405:
Page 406 and 407:
Page 408 and 409:
Page 410 and 411:
Page 412 and 413:
Page 414 and 415:
Page 416 and 417:
Page 418:
show all

Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?