Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

346 • Truth & Reconciliation CommissionThe report recommended that states and relevant stakeholderspromote critical thinking on past events by ensuring that memorialisationprocesses are complemented by measures fostering historical awarenessand support the implementation and outreach of high-quality researchprojects, cultural interventions that encourage people’s direct engagementand educational activities.... States should ensure the availability of publicspaces for a diversity of narratives conveyed in artistic expressions and multiplyopportunities for such narratives to engage with each other.... [States must also]take into consideration the cultural dimension of memorial processes, includingwhere repression has targeted indigenous peoples. 233The Commission concurs with these conclusions and recommendations. They areconsistent with our own findings on the residential schools commemoration projects.These Survivor-driven, community-based initiatives revealed the importance ofintegrating Indigenous knowledge and revitalizing Indigenous memory practices incommemorating the history and legacy of residential schools. They demonstrated thecritical role that artists play in healing and commemoration.The Commission believes that Canada’s national heritage network also has a vitalrole to play in reconciliation. Our views were further confirmed in a study of residentialschool commemorations in the context of Canada’s national heritage and commemorationpolicy. The research documented the Assembly of First Nations’ andthe Aboriginal Healing Foundation’s national commemoration project to create aheritage plaque program to place commemorative markers at all residential schoolsites across the country. 234 Faced with logistical challenges and based on input fromSurvivors and communities, “the project transformed from what ostensibly had beenan irs [Indian Residential School] site heritage plaque program to a community-orientedpublic monumental art project.” 235 The commemorative markers were notplaced at residential school sites, many of which are in remote locations or otherwiseinaccessible. Instead, they were placed in Aboriginal communities where Survivorsand their families could access them more easily, where ceremonies and communityevents could be held, and where there were opportunities for ongoing healing, commemoration,and education. 236The study revealed the fundamental tensions that exist between the goals ofAboriginal peoples and Canada with regard to the commemoration of residentialschools. Under the existing policies of Parks Canada’s Historic Sites and MonumentsBoard of Canada National Program of Historical Commemoration, residential schoolsites do not meet the program criteria for heritage designation, which is based onWestern heritage values of conservation and preservation. 237 For Survivors, their families,and communities, commemorating their residential school experiences does notnecessarily involve preserving the school buildings, but is intended instead to contributeto individual and collective healing. For example, a residential school located