LEARNING THE TRUTH
AND OUR JOURNEY INTO RECONCILIATION
BY RACHEL MISHENENE
“When we got to Providence, my brother was scared. We got off the plane. There were nuns waiting for us on the shore, brothers, Father, priests. He, he was so scared, so he grabbed hold of my hand, he was holding my hand… And then top the hill, the priest came, and he told me he’s got to go this way, and, and then the Sister came over to me, told me you got to go this way. They’re trying to break our hands apart, but he wouldn’t let go of my hand, holding. And the priest was holding his hand, and the Sister was holding my hand. They broke our hands apart like that.”
– FLORENCE HORASSI, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Tulita, Northwest Territories, May 10, 2011
O
n June 1, 2008, just days before the Prime Minister’s public apology to residen- tial school survivors and their families and commu-
nities, the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established. The commission was to investi- gate and research the legacy of the residen- tial school system. In 2009, the government appointed the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair as Chairperson and Dr. Marie Wil- son and Chief Wilton Littlechild as Commis- sioners of the TRC. They journeyed across Canada to document the experiences of peo- ple who attended residential schools and the lasting effects this system had on families and communities. Over the course of seven years, the TRC interviewed hundreds of survivors and their families, developing an historical timeline of residential schools in Canada and compiling information on the operation and policies of the schools. In June 2015, the TRC publically shared the testimonies and 94 rec- ommendations in a final report. The residential school system imposed values, and religious
European culture,
beliefs on First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) people. For over 150 years, FNMI people in Canada were subjected to the forc- ible removal of children from their families, communities and traditional ways of life to
14 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2016 attend church-run, government-funded,
Indian residential schools – all in the name of education. The government based its ac- tions on the assumption that Aboriginal peoples were inferior and needed to be civi- lized and assimilated into mainstream soci- ety. Key Canadian political figures supported the recommendations of the 1879 Davin Report to remove Aboriginal children from their families and place them in residential schools. This was further supported by Sir John A. Macdonald who developed a manda- tory residential school policy to separate Ab- original children from their “savage” parents. In 1883, Macdonald stated that residential schools were necessary in order for children to embrace the “habits and modes of thought of white men.” In 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, the Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs, shared his support of this policy by stating, “Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic.” Aboriginal children were exposed to
poor living conditions and many forms of abuse while attending residential schools. Arriving at the schools, children would un- dergo a harsh cleansing that included having their hair shaved off or cut. Children were separated from their siblings and housed in dormitories that were often cold and drafty. Speaking in their native language or practis-
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