Littlechild felt survivors’ stories deeply

For the past six years, Chief Wilton Littlechild has crossed the country from coast-to-coast-to-coast listening to residential school survivors and their descendants. The result of those hearings, both private and public, was 94 calls to action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as its final act in early June.

Three months after the conclusion of the TRC, the words of survivors stay with Littlechild.

Littlechild was one of three members of the TRC, the second commission struck in 2009 when the initial TRC crumbled. He was joined on the commission by Dr. Marie Wilson, whose husband attended residential school, and chair Justice Murray Sinclair, whose grandparents and parents attended residential school.

For Littlechild residential school was firsthand lived experience. He attended three over the course of 14 years but even that didn’t prepare him for the horror stories he heard.

“I knew about the abuse because I lived it, but I didn’t know about the serious depth of abuse across the country. I saw it, I felt it, but when we went across the country with the hearings, it really opened up my eyes as to the seriousness of the situation, because of the seriousness of the depth of the abuse on children,” he said.

What also surprised Littlechild was the depth of the consequences of the abuse. He says he expected his time on the TRC to be solely a “historical review.” But soon he came to realize that the impact of the abuse suffered by residential school survivors permeated every aspect of Indigenous society.

“The more we heard from the wider audience, the more the focus kind of grew to look at thematically on health, thematically on education, leadership, treaties, justice system, on other areas,” he said.

The result was 94 calls to action that took a holistic approach to the needs.

“We framed our report to address those themes. It grew beyond my expectations for sure, but in a good way. I think we heard from some very sound, solid advice from not only survivors but ordinary citizens on how to improve our relationships,” said Littlechild.

The TRC released its 360-page executive summary in early June to much public attention. Littlechild admits he is concerned about the future of the work. But he is hopeful that the unique approach the TRC took to the situation will mean not leaving the report on a shelf. 

“One of the reasons I think previous commissions suffered that fate in a way, is because they had too many recommendations or they were too costly or they were called recommendations. And sometimes in terms of assess and follow up, the easiest thing to set aside is a recommendation. That’s why we called it a call to actionÖcall to action for all of us to work together. It’s a different approach,” he said.

Already, Littlechild says he is seeing response to those calls to action. A growing number of provincial and territorial governments are implementing curriculum changes in the schools. Universities have begun to take steps to decolonize post-secondary education. Many municipal governments have focused on the calls to action that directly impact their work. Churches and faith groups, and not only the ones who were signatories to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, have taken steps toward reconciliation.

“I’m more encouraged by what I see already, the commitments of different segments of society, and leadership particularly, making commitments publicly that they’re going to Ö take these (calls to action) and implement them,” said Littlechild.

With the TRC now concluded, Littlechild has returned to his home community of Maskwacis to practise law. But what he has learned through the TRC will stay with him and he pledges to continue to move his community towards implementing the calls to action.

And he takes away something much deeper with him from his time on the TRC.

“The rich blessing I received from it was to begin my own healing, my own personal healing, because I think it starts with me, it starts with us individually and that’s a really big healing I received from being a commissioner, a personal impact in a good way on me. I’ve grown from it richly. I’ve healed from a large extent by sharing the pain and the stories but also celebrated the positive outcomes of residential school. Because it’s not all bad. I think we need to ensure that the information is the truth, the whole truth, not just the negative truth but the positive truth. And when I was listening to fellow survivors talk about the good things, about the good days they had in school, it lifted me up because, yes, I was there, too. The positive experience really encouraged me to continue in my own healing journey. So it was a very positive, painful at times, very difficult emotionally, shed a lot of tears but had a lot of laughs, too, in terms of uplifting spirits. I’m thankful for that,” said Littlechild.