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Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The federal government brought in legislation in 2021 to create a day “which seeks to honour First Nations, Inuit and Métis Survivors and their families and communities and to ensure that public commemoration of their history and the legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.”
Our team has been working on a number of stories to mark Truth and Reconciliation Day – and the new season of our Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast takes an in-depth look at the ongoing search for unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools. The episode features a compelling interview between our host Vinita Srivastava and Terri Cardinal, the Director of Indigenous Initiatives at MacEwan University who has worked on a project to uncover the unmarked graves of those who died at the Blue Quills Residential School in Alberta. Hearing about her work is fascinating, but I was struck by Terri’s personal connection to this story. Her father
is a Survivor of the Blue Quills Residential School. During the interview, Terri notes that “love wasn’t present” at residential schools. “Children weren’t shown love. They weren’t told: ‘I love you.’ My dad was there from the age of eight until he was 16. So, there’s a large span of years where my dad didn’t experience love.”
Think of your own lives from age eight to 16. And think about your children’s or grandchildren’s lives at that important stage of their development. Now imagine if no one had ever told you or them that they were loved.
To become better allies, non-Indigenous Canadians should be better informed about the history and lasting legacy of Indian Residential Schools. For your weekend reading, I’ve assembled some stories we published to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I’ve also included two articles from our colleagues at The Conversation Australia about an upcoming referendum on a constitutional amendment to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, which would provide permanent representation and recognition for Indigenous peoples in the Australian Constitution.
Have a great weekend and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.
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Weekend Reads: National Truth and Reconciliation Day
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Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation
To honour Truth and Reconciliation Day, we spoke with Terri Cardinal, who headed up one of the many community searches for the children who went missing while attending an Indian Residential School.
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Terri Cardinal, MacEwan University
The author led a search for unmarked graves at the site of Blue Quills, a former residential school. She found more areas of interest (potential graves) than the official record shows.
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Lorin Yochim, University of Alberta; Christine Martineau, Concordia University of Edmonton
Experiential learning took students in a bachelor of education program out of the classroom for their own learning about truth and reconciliation and to prepare them for future classrooms.
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Tiffany Dionne Prete, University of Lethbridge
Survivors of multiple colonial school systems need their voices to be heard. An exhibit examines how colonial schooling policies over a century and a half influenced the Blood People.
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Léa Denieul-Pinsky, Concordia University
Debates over what “mapping” means show how Indigenous communities still have to advocate for and defend their cartographic methods in order to uphold their connections to the land.
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Jaimy Fischer, University of Toronto
Transport development paved the way for colonization and is directly linked to the chronic and extreme social inequities Indigenous communities continue to face to this day.
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Jennifer Brant, University of Toronto; Erenna Morrison, University of Toronto; Gayatri Thakor, University of Toronto; Meagan Hamilton, University of Toronto
Researchers from an Indigenous literatures lab examine texts that are well-suited for a new Grade 11 course, First Voices.
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A. Blair Stonechild, First Nations University of Canada
Buffy Sainte-Marie has generated a multi-decade fruitful career that is hard to rival. Her motive as an activist is usually overlooked.
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Gabrielle Appleby, UNSW Sydney; Eddie Synot, Griffith University
We now know the wording of the Voice referendum and proposed constitutional amendment. But what may have been forgotten is how we got here in the first place – and why it matters.
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Bruce Wolpe, University of Sydney
What we are already hearing today from those leading the “no” campaign is an echo chamber of Trumpist sentiments for his supporters and acolytes in Australia.
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