Apr
30
By Jim Gerwing
Well over 2,000 people attended the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, at the Convention Centre in Victoria. About half were First Nations people. Many came to tell the stories, some privately, some publicly, of their experience in the residential schools of Canada. Others came to listen and to support them. Thousands from many different countries listened in online.
The main purpose of these hearings, which are taking place across Canada, is to establish a national memory archive so that no one can ever say these things did not happen. The commission will end its work in two years. The people of Canada, all of us, need to recognise that reconciliation will take generations of commitment to radical change in attitude toward each other. Would Canada look different if we could eliminate long-ingrained discrimination?
In these hearings we heard the voices of more than those who spoke of the intense pain they themselves have borne. Children from unmarked graves, countless grandparents and parents, haunted the proceedings. We listened, we wept with them. I am sure I am not the only one who went away with a profound impression of the dignity and courage of the survivors, of a people who are proud that the determination to "kill the Indian" has failed. They know they have a long road ahead to regain their lost lands, their lost language and culture. They also know that they cannot do this on their own.
The path to reconciliation lies through an understanding of the past. We will never know where to go if we do not know where we have been. Those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes. We cannot lay the blame for the problems among the First Nations (alcoholism, family violence, sexual abuse, suicides) solely on the doorsteps of the residential schools. The same attitudes and behaviours that characterized them are prevalent in our public schools, in our public discourse, in our ignorance and indifference that have incubated deep-seated prejudice throughout our history.
Canadians need to face squarely the prevalence of European cultural and religious superiority complex, which ground our view of history. This blindness has lead to the disrespect that made the residential schools possible and acceptable. The road to healing will be long and steep. A few isolated events, festivals, dances, conferences, laudable as they are, are only the beginning.
Our churches and our government and all of us as individuals need to take a new look at ourselves. Have we as a nation mistreated every non-white, non-Christian population? Knowing the truth, accepting the truth of our past, teaching our children a better way to live with different cultural expressions, will show us the way to make Canada into the country it could be: a society which accepts and celebrates diversity within a united family, a family which handles problems between peoples in a respectful and caring atmosphere. Is that too much to imagine?