A path revealed towards reconciliation

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is urging federal, provincial and territorial governments to take immediate action to provide adequate mental health supports for residential school survivors and their families and to develop curriculum in schools and educate the general public on the impact of residential schools.

“We have identified certain issues that we believe require immediate attention,” said commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair. Twenty recommendations were outlined in the TRC’s 30-page interim report which was delivered Feb. 24.

The TRC also outlined action for the churches, including establishing an ongoing revival fund to promote spiritual, cultural and linguistic heritage, the very components residential schools were designed to take away from their young charges.

The report also recommended that the federal government fund the TRC to the end of its 2014 mandate; that funding be restored to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, whose federal funding ends September 2012; that the concerns of students not included in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement be addressed; and, that the Canadian government and churches produce all court-required documentation.

“At this midway (point), it gives us something to start with,” said Commissioner Marie Wilson. She noted that there was no reason to wait until the TRC concluded its work for action to begin in areas that had already been identified.

The TRC cannot force the parties to the agreement to undertake any of the recommendations.

“They agreed that the work of this commission was important to give them direction to work towards reconciliation….It’s up to them to take the responsibility on to ensure the advice they have asked for is acted upon,” said Sinclair.

In a prepared statement, AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo stressed the need to implement “these important recommendations.”

“In this interim report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission draws important conclusions and points to clear steps toward reconciliation,” he said. “Real reconciliation, though, is achieved through action and change.”

Commissioner Wilton Littlechild said he believed significant steps were being taken toward reconciliation and that this interim report was one of those steps. When the process began, he said, many residential school survivors showed little confidence that their stories would be heard and shared.

“So today, I think those people who came in front of us … I trust that our reports show that we listened carefully and the stories and pains are reflected in our report,” said Littlechild.

Along with delivering the interim report, the TRC also presented an historical paper entitled, “They Came for the Children.” The document, more than 100 pages, recounts the experiences of many of those children using their own words to tell their stories.

It is the TRC’s intent to have the document adapted by educators and used as part of school curriculum across the country.

“Today is an opportunity for us to move forward. Move forward on a journey for some who said, ‘Now I can go on to begin to heal, now I can forgive those who hurt me,’” said Littlechild. “I think it’s also a tremendous opportunity for all of us to move forward on a path of reconciliation.”

Sinclair assured survivors that the TRC will continue with its work. Over 500 communities have been visited in the two years since the commission was established.

“We will continue to reveal all that we are shown and told by those who are most affected by this,” he said.
Sinclair stressed that the reports presented by the TRC were not for Aboriginal people only, but for all Canadians.

“The children of the survivors and the children of the non-Aboriginal population of this country are the ones to whom we are going to give the challenge of reconciliation in the future,” he said.

But Sinclair cautioned against impatience and pushed for following the process to the end.

“It took us 130 years, seven generations to get to this point in time, for all this damage to occur, for this relationship to become what it has become. It may take us that long, it may take us longer to fix this, to do what it is we must do. We must commit ourselves to fixing it….to re-establish that relationship and put it back in balance,” he said.

“We must never shy away from the fact that that this is our commitment even though from time to time we may encounter hurdles as we go forward.”

Photo caption: Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Commissioners Wilton Littlechild (left) Murray Sinclair and Marie Wilson present before a Senate Committee hearing.