AFN Event

The Assembly of First Nations is holding an event tomorrow, December 13, 2010, in Ottawa focusing on the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. The event will be webcast live from 8:30am – 4:30pm. Click here for more information and a link to the webcast.

“Memory is about self-interest”

An image from my last trip to Berlin

An interesting article appears in the New York Times today about a contest of memory over the date, November 9 in Germany. The date carries double-meaning as the date of the “Kristallnacht,” as well as the day the Berlin wall was breached.

From the article:

Germans take the business of remembering very seriously, and so Nov. 9 has always presented a bit of a challenge — how to celebrate the joy of the wall’s coming down while at the same time commemorating the night of terror known as Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass….

Years ago, Germany decided to sidestep the awkward historical coincidence by emphasizing Oct. 3, 1990, as the day of unification, and playing down Nov. 9, 1989. But that effort seems to have lost steam. “Memory is about self-interest,” said Maxim Biller, a prominent writer and commentator who is Jewish. “The Germans wanted to reconcile with history, to have a better corporate identity for society, in a way, yes.”

Read the full article here.

Happening Now: Webcast of Public Education Initiative

To watch the live webcast of Public Education Initiative, presented by the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, connect to the IRSSS site and click on the webcast link. The event is scheduled to run from 8:30am – 4:30pm PST and is hosted by Squamish Nation at the Chief Joe Mathias Centre in North Vancouver.

The audience listens to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip the Public Education Initiative.

Grand Chief Edward John addresses the audience via video link

TRC Commission and Canadian Senate Hearing

On Tuesday morning (September 28, 2010), the IRS TRC commissioners will give an update on the commission’s progress to the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples. Their presentation will be webcast live at 9:30am Eastern.  For details, click here, and to watch the webcast, click here.

UPDATE: FULL TEXT OF THE PRESENTATION CAN BE READ HERE: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ISSUES AND RESOURCES.

Photo of Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the IRS TRC,  courtesy of CBC.ca

Blog Link: Media Indigena

Check out Media Indigena, a collaborative blog by 7 indigenous contributors. The blog focuses on indigenous issues from around the world and topics range from politics, culture and the environment.  A couple of their recent posts focus on the election of Australia’s first Aboriginal MP and Stephen Harper’s visit to the Canadian Arctic. They’ve also posted about the Indian Residential School system and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For example, check out Sorry is Right and Reflections of a Residential School Survivor.

A few reflections on the TRC’s first national gathering

Stephen Harper's larger-than-life apology at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

It’s been one month since the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission held its first national gathering, and I feel as though I am still processing the event. Over the course of four days, I heard stories of both devastation and strength, of both anger and hope.

Several moments stand out in my memory:

Patrick Etherington Sr., his son Patrick Etherington Jr., Frances Whiskeychan, Christopher Paulmartin and Jorge Hookimaw’llillerre all walked for 31 days to reach the event. Beginning in Cochrane, Ontario, they walked to promote awareness for the reconciliation process. When they arrived at the national gathering in Winnipeg, Patrick Jr. spoke of the lines of communication opened between his father and himself during the walk.

In many ways, they did what I believe the commission hopes people will do: take the process of reconciliation beyond the confines of the commission, and make it personally meaningful. Because, for the most part, the IRS TRC can only be part of this process.

We also heard from those who worked at the schools. In the sharing circle held on the first day, I heard the experiences of a pilot who had taken children from up north to bring them to schools. He told of separating one young girl in particular who was crying because he had just taken her from her Inuit family. He had thought he was doing what was right. A teacher told of her experiences and the difficult conditions at the Indian Residential School where she taught. She read the names of her students in their honor.

One issue that I continue to wonder about since (and during) the event is the place of religion during this process. The churches played an instrumental role in running the Indian Residential School system, and they will play an important role in reconciliation. I noticed some visible discomfort from some people when church representatives addressed the crowds. At the same time, I also heard former students express their connections to Christian faiths. Before the event, I read a short article in the Globe and Mail where Peter Yellowquill, a survivor of the schools said: “The churches committed spiritual genocide. But I am still a Christian man. It’s complicated.”

At the event, the role that religious leaders played was indeed complicated. At times, they offered apologies, at others, I heard denials. At the opening ceremony, the crowd heard native blessings and ceremonies. At the end of his closing remarks during that first ceremony on that first day, I was surprised to hear the Chair of the Commission, Justice Sinclair, offer the Lords Prayer.

After the event, I visited the the Winnipeg Art Gallery. In the foyer of the gallery, they had erected two large art pieces that contained portions of the official apologies given by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for the histories involving the taking of Aboriginal children. In some ways, the larger-than-life signs conveyed a sense of power. At the same time, they drew attention to the fact that apologies were simply words. Important words, yes, but they remain meaningless without action.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's official apology in 2008

April 8th, 2010 – IRS TRC Open House

The IRS TRC is holding an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at their new offices in Winnipeg. The event is open to the public. See the invitation below:

INVITATION

Open House and Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Thursday, April 8, 2010

11:30AM – 3PM

1500-360 Main St., Winnipeg, MB.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

will host an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday

April 8, 2010, to officially open the TRC’s offices at

1500-360 Main St., Winnipeg, MB.

We would be delighted if representatives from your office would join Chair Justice Murray Sinclair and Commissioners Marie Wilson and Chief Wilton Littlechild as well as municipal and provincial dignitaries as we ‘cut the-ribbon’ to our Winnipeg Headquarters. The proceedings will begin at 11:30AM. The open house will be an opportunity for you to visit our Winnipeg facility, chat with the Commissioners, TRC staff, and learn what we have planned for the coming weeks and months.

A light lunch will be served starting at 12:00 (Noon).

Article Link: “Altered Perspectives”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what constitutes traditional knowledge, both within and outside the IRS TRC. In part, this was prompted by the controversial book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry by Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard. The book itself is unfortunate, and its treatment of issues facing Aboriginal communities, including the legacy of the Indian Residential School system, is irresponsible. I’ve been trying to work through a response to these authors and their critique of traditional knowledge (a concept they do not understand) as a way for people (both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) to exploit, among other things, funding opportunities, the legal system, and policy-making. I think a recent article in SSHRC’s Dialogue entitled “Altered Perspectives: Inuit Knowledge Provides Scientific Insight into Climate Change” provides an illustration of how traditional knowledge and empirical/scientific knowledge (of course, these two terms are not mutually exclusive) work in tandem. Far from Widdowson and Howard’s claims, traditional knowledge is a valid and valuable concept for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.

Here’s an excerpt from “Altered Perspectives“:

In a unique, SSHRC-supported, community-based multimedia project, the University of Victoria researcher in environmental studies teamed up with colleagues Peter Kulchyski and Chris Trott from the University of Manitoba and internationally acclaimed Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat The Fast Runner) to record interviews with Inuit elders using digital video, filmmaking and Internet tools. After interviewing 55 elders, hunters and women, four experts, and Canada’s Governor General, the results were greater than anticipated.

“Do you want to know the most mind-blowing thing I’ve heard?” asks Mauro. “Inuit elders from four northern settlements separated by thousands of kilometres have independently concluded that climate change is caused by the earth having tilted on its axis.”

Mauro says elders from Nunavut in Resolute Bay, Iqaluit, Igloolik and Pangnirtung all noticed the stars, moon and sun have shifted in their positions. The sun is now rising higher, staying longer and is warmer than it used to be. When Mauro first heard of these observations in 2009, he went to the scientific literature to see if anything had been published to support the elders’ claims. He found very little.

“Trusting the knowledge of elders, we shared their perspectives with scientists,” says Mauro. “By linking different ways of knowing, we discovered that a warming atmosphere is actually changing the refraction index of the sky, which dramatically alters the visual landscape of the Arctic.”

The phenomenon is caused by low altitude refraction. According to Mauro, the only other researcher actively working on this topic is Wayne Davidson, a meteorological observer in Resolute Bay, who first documented similar observations in the 1990s.

“Understandably, the elders attribute the visual change to a tilting earth, but it’s actually an optical shift caused by a complex interplay between the wind, atmosphere, earth and ice,” says Mauro. “This observational knowledge of objects shifting in the sky is actually proof of a warming world.”

Surprisingly, Inuit are not particularly apprehensive about climate change, says Mauro. Instead, they are prepared to ride the wave of adaptation. He says the message from the communities is that humans and animals can adapt to changing ice conditions, global ocean currents and altered migratory patterns. Having thrived for more than 4,000 years in the Arctic through multiple warming and cooling cycles, Inuit have no doubt about their ability to adjust.

To read the full article, click here.

I won’t say much more about Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry, as it has already received more coverage than it deserves. To read some recent reviews or about the controversy surrounding the book, see The National Post review, or Gerald Taiaiake Alfred’s review, or writing on the topic by Peter Kulchyski.

Truth and Reconciliation Event (Dec. 11) in Toronto

I’m excited to be attending this upcoming event in Toronto:

“They Came for the Children”

December 11, 5:00-7:00 pm
Bennett Lecture Hall
Flavelle House
78 Queens Park
University of Toronto Faculty of Law

The Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of Truth and Reconciliation Canada, will speak on the Indian Residential School experience and its legacy.

Justice Sinclair’s presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.

The event is open to the public and admission is free.

To register for this event, please send an email to:conferences.law@utoronto.ca. Please put TRC in the subject line.

This event will also be webcast live at:http://www.law.utoronto.ca/conferences/sinclair.html

A Fragmented Reconciliation Process?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada continues to face obstacles. Delayed by one year, the Commission has now re-formed with three new Commissioners. The most recent debate involves the distinct groups that will be given voice through the Commission. In a recent Globe and Mail piece, Peter Irniq writes that the Inuit experience will not be adequately represented by the Commission. He calls for a separate Inuit TRC that will deal specifically with the Inuit experience in the Indian Residential School system, and writes that “The failure to appoint an Inuk to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a national disgrace.”

In a response piece a few days later, Bob Weber points out that there are Inuit members on the ten person panel that will advise the commission.  The commission was not appointed through the Prime Minister’s office, as suggested by Mr. Irniq, but through an independent selection committee that included representatives from many of the stakeholders involved in the reconciliation process, including Mary Simon, head of the national Inuit group Inuit Tapirisat Kanatami. He also mentions that Mr. Irniq has actively started to raise support for a boycott of the commission.

Although I understand Mr. Irniq’s concerns that the Inuit experience will be marginalized in the national process of reconciliation, I don’t think that a separate Inuit TRC would solve this problem. The IRS TRC already fragments Aboriginal peoples experiences with assimilationist polices in Canada by focusing exclusively on the legacies of the IRS system. Further fragmentation will not promote reconciliation. Mr. Irniq’s concerns are valid, I just wonder if there isn’t a different way to approach this problem.

For example, I posted a few weeks ago on an exhibit at the National Archives in Ottawa, which focuses specifically on the Inuit experiences at the schools.  The exhibit included testimonies from Inuit survivors of the schools. Some were in English, others were in Inuktitut, and the posters on the walls had translations available in French, English and Inuktitut. It’s important to recognize that cultural production of memory (through art, museum spaces, monuments, film etc.), and not just those discourses produced through commissions, play a vital role in raising awareness about this history, and can provide an outlet for survivors who prefer not to give testimonies to a commission linked with the state (even tangentially). It is also important not to get side-tracked by a focus on the three commissioners, especially since the commission will involve a large support staff including translators, administrators and counsellors from diverse communities.

The title for this post is “A Fragmented Reconciliation Process?” but perhaps this is misleading. All processes of reconciliation are fragmented, and in part it is through this fragmentation that questions are asked and dialogue is begun. The balance between fragmentation and a unified whole (however illusionary) is at the heart of these national processes of reconciliation.

To read Peter Irniq’s piece in the Globe and Mail, click here.  For an article about these issues on CBC.ca, click here.