Today (for Canadians) is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. What does this mean? This day offers a time of reflection and personal understanding for what reconciliation means to us as individuals. It’s a day of opportunity – what can I do personally to ensure that I’m doing my part to reconcile in Canada? There are many ways to educate ourselves to understand what this new holiday means, and what we do on this day.
I only learned a bit about residential schools during my elementary years. When I was in elementary school the day on September 30th was called Orange Shirt Day, and as we progressed in grades we learned a bit more about this part of Canada’s history. But I didn’t really understand what it was truly about until grade six, where I wrote a short story about reconciliation and entered it in a Canada-wide contest called Imagine a Canada. I learned about this contest when I saw a poster advertising it in a local library, and I decided to write a short story, since I had just realized my passion for writing. As I wrote, I read books on residential schools and was astounded at how much I didn’t know. Because what I had learned in elementary school wasn’t that graphic or detailed for appropriate content for younger people, these books I read (Speaking Our Truth by Monique Gray Smith was one, plus many online resources) shocked me at the craziness of the systems of residential school.
This story took shape fairly quickly, and after I finished it I wanted to make sure all of my details of indigenous history and life were accurate and correctly written. To do so, my stepdad arranged a meeting between me and an indigenous elder, Blanche Bruisedhead, with whom I still connect with and share a friendship with. But at the time of meeting her, I was deeply nervous to share my story. What if I had something wrong? What if I embarrassed myself beyond repair? But I knew that this meeting could greatly enhance my story, so, now almost three years ago, I met with Blanche in January 2019.
It was an experience full of laughter, tears, and knowledge exchanged through both of our radically different lives. Blanche told her personal story of going to residential school to me, which was an honour, and gave me an amazing gift of her individual history. After our meeting, I sent my newly edited story to the National Centre of Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), who created the Imagine a Canada event. A few months later in March, I received an email from them saying that I was the honouree from Alberta. You can imagine my surprise!
In May, I flew to Winnipeg, Manitoba with my grandpa to attend the celebration. There were about 15 other honourees, each from different Canadian provinces, within ages 7 to 17. We did workshops together, listened to speeches from elders, and enjoyed the beautiful drumming ceremonies throughout the day. I was there from May 1st to 3rd, and all in all it was an adventure full of meeting new people, gaining new knowledge, and a time that made me realize my love of writing and connecting my stories with others. Since then, I’ve maintained my connection and friendship with Blanche with phone calls and in-person get-togethers, and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to meet with her and have this relationship with her.
Almost three years after Imagine a Canada, I’m now much more aware of the situations that indigenous people can be in due to racism and Canada’s history of residential schools. I’ve attended Sisters in Spirit vigils and seen REDress art exhibits and read many books from indigenous authors, and watched films from NCTR and other creators about Orange Shirt Day and residential schools. These media have all influenced the way I view residential schools today, and the history behind them.
Many different peoples and places have had similar encounters to those of Europeans and indigenous peoples in North America. For example, the First Nations of Australia were segregated from others and treated as second-class citizens; the Ainu in Japan were driven out by the Japanese; even Jewish people in the Holocaust had a similar (and much more well-known and discussed) experience to those of indigenous peoples. This trend of segregating and dehumanizing people who came before others and who thrived in land before others arrived is disturbing, and by no means a small thing, but I think we have to realize that as unfortunate as it may be, it is human nature. As humans, we make mistakes, and hopefully we learn from them. Residential schools were horrible places that no one should attend, let alone be forced to attend, and many generations of people still carry the trauma from them. But instead of white people (or other peoples whose cultures have had similar history) beating themselves up because their ancestors may have participated in these events, I believe that we need to accept, as challenging as it may be, these things and learn from them.
Relationships between Europeans and indigenous people (or other cultures and other aboriginal peoples) were at first beneficial for both groups. This new connection allowed these people to learn a different culture from their own, trade for new things, and gain knowledge from each other. But when greed and the “greater good” mentality kicked in, that’s where things began to go wrong. It’s not bad for different cultures to interact, but when one culture wants to overpower the other and forces them to participate in things that damage their wellbeing, sometimes with the thought that their reasoning is because these people are “savages” or “primitive”, that is where dehumanizing happens and we no longer view the people of this other culture as equals. Thus, where the importance of learning about our history and not allowing for it to repeat itself kicks in.
As people, I think we all need to come together and reconcile. It doesn’t matter if we’re white or Filipino, active or physically disabled, young or elderly. It’s important for people to come together, to learn about our differences, and be able to look past them and realize: oh my god, we’re all human. And if we’re all human, that means we’re all equal, and we all need and deserve the same things: clean drinking water, healthy food, a supportive family, and a school where we can benefit from what we learn, plus more things that sustain our wellbeing.
But the truth is, not all people, even in Canada, have access to all of these things. And I think that’s where our next focus should be: ensuring that everyone is treated equally with respect. Educating ourselves on residential schools and indigenous peoples is very important – we need to see where we’ve come from. But now, we also need to see where we’re going, and that is the most important thing. What’s happened is done. It is so very important to honour that, but it’s also deeply important to ensure that the direction we are headed is one where our history is not able to repeat itself, whether it’s the Holocaust or residential schools.
So now this brings up the question: where are we going? What direction are we truly headed? As David Suzuki has stated, “There is no future, only the present.” So what are we doing right now that could affect our future, positively or negatively? This is an important topic to discuss that I feel isn’t very widely talked about. There is a lot more awareness about racism and much more openness about inclusivity than there was, say, ten, twenty years ago, but what do we want our future to look like? There’s still a lot more that we can do, and we need to figure out how to get there.
And I believe that the first step to take in all of this is to do a simple acknowledgement: we’re all human. We all make mistakes. Sure, some mistakes are talked about a lot more than others until all we know is that an event was “good” or “bad”, but we don’t seem to discuss how we made those mistakes, what led us down that path. And this is where we can start, right now, right here, today. I hope you will join me.
Thanks for reading this post! If you would like to read the submission I sent to the NCTR’s Imagine a Canada contest in 2019, please contact me for more details. You can find out how to contact me under the “Contact” page in my website.
This was very well written Hazel. It’s encouraging to see how you have thought about all of this in a very thoughtful and considerate way. Well done!
Thank you, Dad! I really enjoyed writing this post. It’s something that’s been on my mind for a while, and I also wanted to do something for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
As most Canadians, I was not aware of this past history until I researched the concept of “sustainable development” in an attempt to find solutions to the growing issues involved with resource extraction. In my role as an environmental geoscientist with the Alberta Government, I made recommendations to my managers for policy development to regulate surficial mining activities. I became aware of the increasing problems that the mining of sand and gravel, to develop and maintain Alberta’s infrastructure of roads, buildings, etc., had on social and environmental issues (one glaring compromise that came to light was the lack of consideration that the mining of sand and gravel had on our water resources). Most of my recommendations to regulate these mining activities to reduce these environmental risks were viewed as a low priority, thus were not implemented. To qualify and quantify the priority of this activity, I took 2 years of education leave from my government post to research the situation. The research led me to the concept of “sustainable development”, a way of making decisions through giving equal consideration to social, environmental, and economical values. The concept actually comes from “traditional knowledge” that the indigenous peoples employed for thousands of years to live in harmony with nature. This wisdom has been integrated into United Nations “Sustainable Development Goals” and if adopted by all nations, is a path to a much brighter future.
Although the research, which I conveyed to government officials, concluded the impact that the mining of sand an gravel was significant enough that implementing sustainable development/traditional knowledge practices could save the Alberta government billions of dollars in construction costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially (reduced transportation distances of hauling the sand and gravel resources), my recommendations were shelved.
We have much to learn from our indigenous peoples to live in harmony with nature, if society can focus on reconciliation in a meaningful way. The next step in reconciliation, for most of us, is understanding the mindset of our indigenous peoples. I highly recommend reading indigenous literature. “The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy” by Arthur Manuel and “Indigenomics: Taking Seat at the Economic Table” by Carol Anne Hilton are two books that has given me a better understanding of how reconciliation can be achieved. If achieved, Canada has the potential to be the most democratic and healthy society the world has ever experienced.
Thank you for sharing your story – I think that’s also an important part of healing. If we could all come together and just have a space to talk and share, I think much would be improved in our relationships with fellow humans. I appreciate your motivation to reconcile and heal the trauma in our past, and reap what we discover from it. There is a lot of potential for everyone to make the world a better place; we just need to find our part to do so.
Reblogged this on Aloha69's Weblog and commented:
A blog for all humanity!