The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Regional Event held in Victoria April 13 and 14 had a very different atmosphere than the local event held in Port Alberni last month at Maht Mahs gym. The Victoria event was more conference-like, with an artists’ fair and tradeshow-style component.
Core to the event was still statement gathering, both private and public, except on a much larger scale. Public statements were made before hundreds and hundreds of people in the large halls located in The Empress Hotel. It was standing room only as survivors shared their experiences from the schools.
The Crystal Palace facility on Douglas St. served as the location for the opening ceremony, luncheons, and afternoon Town Hall-style meetings, moderated by CBC personality Shelagh Rogers, who is also a TRC official witness.
Nuu-chah-nulth people were well represented at the regional event, with many people who had given their statements in Port Alberni attending to support their fellow survivors.
The event opened with an emotional address by another official witness, Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit. He spoke only briefly about his own residential school experience, but said it was in his role as a witness at the Inuvik TRC event that helped rip the lid off his own deep feelings about that time in his life. The stories he heard in Inuvik “tore my heart apart,” he said.
John broke down in tears as he talked about the government initiative to use children as the vehicle to eradicate Indigenous language, history, self esteem, identity and culture. He said this is the burden of the survivors today. TRC commissioners Marie Wilson and Wilton Littlechild stood behind him for support as John tried for some time to regain composure.
The lasting effects of residential school are like a line in The Eagles song Hotel California, he said.
“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” This is the truth of the residential school experience. It is there, operating in the background of many survivors who have worked to heal from that time. For many others, the human suffering continues as the shadow of abuse still feeds addiction, violence, and dysfunction.
“It was through us we were supposed to forget who we are," said John. “Thank God, that never happened,” he said to a great round of applause.
Just because there was a government apology and some compensation money given doesn’t mean that everything is OK, John said. He shared some important lessons from life. Indifference is the incubator of injustice, and it’s not what one stands for but what we stand up for that is important.
He acknowledged the 27 survivors from Alberni Indian Residential School who were the first to go to court to hold government and the churches to account for the abuses they suffered in that school. John said those men were not going to let the perpetrators get away with their mistreatment of young children.
He said those 27 broke the will of the churches and the governments with that lawsuit and the Supreme Court of Canada agreed, saying “these people are right” and “this is a truth that has to be told.
Gwendolyn Point, wife of Lt. Gov. Steven L. Point, and Dr. Andrea Walsh, who was responsible for an exhibit of children’s art from the Port Alberni Indian Residential School, (see story at: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-04-15/marks-left-children-communicate-difficult-time-past) were made the newest official witnesses.
Commissioner Marie Wilson said the word witness comes from the Greek word for martyr. The witnesses, she said, would have to stand strong no matter the discomfort. They agree to take on the sacred trust to carry the things they would see and hear over the two-day event and continue to talk about them well after the life of commission itself.
The event was opened with a prayer, a statement from hereditary chief of the Esquimalt, Andy Thomas, and another statement from TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair who said the event went beyond truth collecting to finding a way to mend the relationship between Canadians and Aboriginal people; a reconciliation based on the principles of kindness, humanity and respect going forward.
There were 300 Victoria area school children in attendance for the first day of hearings. Many were seen sitting cross-legged on the floors of the massive halls, listening in the statement hearings. Others took in a talk by Assembly of First Nation National Chief A-in-chut, Shawn Atleo.
Atleo spoke with Ha-Shilth-Sa saying many examples of reconciliation were occurring at the regional event, including some even within his own family.
He said the TRC has only two years left on its mandate and, to him, it feels like the healing and reconciliation are just getting started. There are survivors only now beginning to feel safe enough to tell their stories for the first time.
The AFN is committed to standing with the survivors and the work of the TRC, Atleo said. He is hoping too that justice will one day be seen for those who attended Day Schools.
Related:
http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-04-15/marks-left-children-communicate-difficult-time-past
http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/truth-and-reconciliation-victoria-april-13-part-1
http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/truth-and-reconciliation-victoria-april-13-part-2
