Why We Should Read

Speaking My Truth: Reflections on Reconciliation & Residential School

The Warmland Book & Film Collective – a response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – meets next on July 14th online. Email WarmlandBFC@gmail. com for zoom link.

Many Canadians met the news of the horrific find at the Kamloops Indian Residential School with outrage not only at what was done there, but also that the truth could have remained hidden for so long. The fact is that it was not hidden. For decades, voices of survivors have been calling on us to acknowledge what really happened. Some of these voices are gathered in this collection. It is time all Canadians listened.

This book portrays the diverse residential school experiences well, including contributions from First Nations, Inuit and Métis. From this diversity emerge the commonalities – the loneliness, the loss of language and culture, the emotional, physical and sexual abuse suffered by children. It would have been easy (and quite justified) to make this collection a series of unrelenting misery. However, despite the pain, some of the stories contain humour, a testament to the resilience of those who wrote them.

Throughout the book the idea of apology is examined, looking at official apologies made to Canadians of Japanese and Chinese descent as well as to Indigenous people. What did these statements mean if little action follows from them? Are we actually facing what happened or just using apology to put it in the past without really looking?

The impacts are not in the past. The effects of intergenerational trauma caused by the residential schools are just one part of discriminatory systemic structures. As one piece says, all Indigenous people are victims of this even if they didn’t attend these schools and become Survivors. The impacts are here in the present generations of people.

The challenge is to incorporate the truth into our image of what Canada is, through mourning and grieving together, and with that clear vision decide what we want to do about it. Of course, reading a book is not enough, but it’s a place to start – and this is a good book to start with.

Submitted by David & Ranji

“In 1998, the last residential school was shut down, but the aftershocks continue.”

Fred Kelly, Anishnaabe Nation, Speaking My Truth (2012)

The grievous discovery of 215 undocumented graves of Indigenous children is another graphic confi rmation that history is alive in the present.

Now is the time to step up, speak out and do what is necessary to make Canada a place where every person, every child can thrive. Here are some suggestions:

• Consult the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which were developed after 6 years of thorough investigation. This is easily available at https:// nctr.ca/records/reports/

• Put citizen pressure on governments to implement all the Calls to Action of the TRC.

• Get personally involved in local community events. This is not an Indigenous problem -- this is a Canadian problem.

“Faith isn’t about waiting for things to change. Faith is the constant effort to keep pushing through.”

Richard Wagamese, Wabasseemoong Nation Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations (2016)

Signed, The Warmland Book And Film Collective

We read/see Indigenous authors and fi lms, to discuss and learn from their teachings, as a response to the TRC Calls to Action. See our reviews, Why We Should Read, in every issue of the Cowichan Valley Voice. Everyone is welcome to join (online for now). WarmlandBFC@gmail.com. July is the beginning of our fourth year.