First step for native reconciliation: teach the history. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has received a dab of media attention, much of it for regrettable reasons. In October 2008, the TRC Chair Justice Harry LaForme resigned, citing the political interference of the Assembly of First Nations and the insubordination of his (AFN-appointed) co-commissioners, Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Brewin Morley. This inauspicious beginning yielded to inauspicious mid-points, the Canadian franchise of the TRC brand-name drawing attention for delays and the bureaucratic impediments which hindered its progress. The messenger aside, what about the message? On Friday, the final day of a three-day AFN National Justice Forum, in Vancouver, the Commission has been scheduled to release an Interim Report. Here I may as well state that I’m a partisan, not of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but of the complex truth.
I’ve many friends and acquaintances in media and academia, all confessing ignorance of this history. National Post. Reconciliation report shines light on 'dark chapter' in Canadian past. A shared residential school experience - News. Tyler Clarke Daily Herald "I'm not going to tell my story because I've heard my story a lot today," former residential school student Marlene Bear said, Thursday.
Bear was one of many former students and family members of former students to speak up during three days of sharing panels at the Prince Albert Indian Métis Friendship Centre this week. They gathered as part of the Canada-wide effort to uncover the truth of the residential school system, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Bear's comment around a collective story rang true throughout the three days, with the same basic frame of a story told time and time again - a framework with distinctly unique experiences within. "It's always the same story told in a different way," former student Leland McCallam explained.
The following are a series of quotes from this week's sharing panels, in an attempt to share the collective residential school story using the words of those affected by the system. "My name was ‘72.' Caledonia Courier - Returning To Spirit (Residential School Reconciliation Program) Whose responsibility is it for the residential schools? Everyone’s! Non Aboriginal and Aboriginal Workshops.