The blessing will begin in the morning, as Elder Wally Swain performs a traditional ceremony within the newly renovated building. At 4 p.m., it will continue with a sacred public ceremony at the entrance to Chancellor’s Hall, where a large stone turtle now rises out of the ground.

Elder Swain will be assisted at the afternoon ceremony by Elders Sylvia Genaille, Harry Bone and Carl Stone as prayers, hopes and good wishes are offered for the Centre’s work going forward. Participants will include Dr. David Barnard and other university representatives, Centre Director Ry Moran, partners, friends and supporters, members of the Centre’s Governing Circle, and the Centre’s small staff – mostly students from the university’s archival studies program.

Officially opening in the summer of 2015, the NRCTR is being created to forever preserve the Truth of Canada’s Residential School system, as well as to advance Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and within Indigenous families and communities.

The NRCTR will use the latest digital technologies and best practices to archive the vast collection of statements, documents and other materials collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. With this collection at its core, the NRCTR will ensure that Survivors and their families have access to their own history, educators can share the Residential School history with new generations of students, researchers can delve more deeply into the Residential School experience, and the public can access historical records and other materials to help foster reconciliation and healing.

A Governing Circle and a Survivors Circle will ensure guidance and oversight by Survivors, First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, as well as the University of Manitoba and its growing network of NRCTR partners from coast to coast.

Ry Moran, director of the Centre, says, “Ensuring we have strong Indigenous voices guiding the development of the Centre is essential to our success. This first Governing Circle will undoubtedly set the tone for years to come for the Centre. We want to ensure that communities, Aboriginal organizations and Indigenous peoples have the fullest opportunity possible to contemplate and nominate individuals to this circle. It is for this reason we are extending the date by one month.”

Highlighting the critical importance of Survivor voices in the governance of the Centre, Moran notes: “The Centre will be moving quickly forward on forming a Survivors Circle once the Governing Circle is in place.”

Housed at the University of Manitoba, the NRCTR is working collaboratively with a number of partners and organizations across the country in preparation to accept all documents, statements and other materials collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission over the course of its Mandate.

In addition to preserving the sacred memory of these materials, in collaboration with its partners, the NRC will play an active role in fostering greater understanding of the Residential School system and legacy in addition to continuing to foster Reconciliation across Canada.

Members of the Governing Circle will be selected by a review committee comprised of First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Community and Youth representatives in addition to Survivor, TRC Commissioner and University of Manitoba representatives.

The closing date for submissions has been extended to Friday, September 19, 2014.

A link to the Nomination Package can be found at: http://umanitoba.ca/research/media/NRC_Governing_Circle_Package.pdf

For more information on the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, please visit: umanitoba.ca/nrctr

For more information, please contact Ry Moran, Director, National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, University of Manitoba, at: 204-474-6618, or email: Ry.Moran@umanitoba.ca

A descendant of the Squamish and Musqueam First Nations of the Coast Salish People, Campbell is the youngest of the sixteen hereditary Chiefs of the Squamish Nation. He was speaking at the final event of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum that took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba. The TRC brought these traditional knowledge keepers together from across the country for a forum on “reconciliation” that was livecast around the globe.

Chief Ian Campbell at the Talking Stick Festival 2011 Opening Gala.

“When we talk about reconciliation,” Campbell said, “I think about my abuser who took advantage of me as a little boy — and I think of Canada and all of the factors that have brought us together here today.”

He referred to fire — the “fire still needed to be added” for transformation to occur as the same power of “the ember of light, the spark that ignited various realms of existence.”

He continued, “We all have memories of supernatural beings, tricksters and transformation stories … and we have our own stories of our lineage…. Suffering is necessary — you must go through the fire to get to the other side.”

He contrasted the teachings he heard as a boy — of love and respect for all beings — with the hardships wrought by the Residential Schools era and colonialism, removing Indigenous peoples from their own culture. “How do I find value — how do I move beyond blame, shame and judgement?” To make the shift, he said, it “starts within myself.”

Campbell: “What time is it? It’s our time.”

 

However, he added, “we now have the language for this [the legacy of Residential Schools and colonialism] to be discussed” publicly on this level, and noted that Vancouver has just declared itself a city of reconciliation.

“I believe in adaptation rather than assimilation,” said Campbell. “Tradition is today … it’s constant adaptation.”

Later he spoke again, this time about his nation’s tradition of using red clay on the young men going into ceremony. “We do it to show the ancestors, spirits, the Creator, that we are ready to step into our responsibilities.”

He told those gathered, “I appreciate the healing that has taken place, in this safe space that has been created for us here.

“What time is it? It’s our time.”

***

Mary Deleary shared words from an Anishinaabe teacher, who had taught her about the four directions. The first responsibility is to ourselves, said the Algonquian Anishinaabe mother, grandmother and Three Fires Midewiwin, who originates from Kitigan Zibi (Garden River), Quebec. “The second is to our land.”

Mary Deleary at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

His teaching of “the two roads,” she told those gathered, means that “where we stand [influences] how we understand the four directions. The [European] people who came across the water to our land, they must have four directions, too. Our relatives across the water, they also have teachings to share.”

Fundamental to four directions teachings, she said, are “honesty, sharing, strength and kindness” — the four sacred medicines which each represent one of the four directions.

Deleary: “Now is about restoring.”

“I have a hard time understanding “reconciliation,” she continued, “but I understand the four directions — and that is what provides healing.

“The right hand, we shake hands with that hand … it’s the hand of sharing and responsibilities. With the left hand, we hold our ceremonies, defining who we are. We don’t let this one go.”

The past 100 years have been about forcibly removing those ceremonies, she pointed out.

“Now is about restoring. What was forcibly taken and what will they help to restore?”

 ***

Jim Dumont at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Jim Dumont spoke extensively about the words “truth” and “reconciliation.”

The soft-spoken Chief of the Eastern Doorway of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge is Ojibway-Anishinabe of the Marten Clan, originally from the Shawanaga First Nation on Eastern Georgian Bay. He is also a founder of the Midewiwin Society (or Grand Medicine Society) and one of the founders of the Native studies department at the University of Sudbury of Laurentian University, where he was a professor for 25 years. He has also served as a spiritual advisor and laughingly called himself Justice Murray’s “spiritual bodyguard.”

The word for “truth” in Ojibway, he said, is “the sound of your voice as you speak from the heart. It doesn’t literally mean facts. In Ojibway thinking, to speak truth is to speak from our hearts.”

Speaking about forgiveness, Dumont referred to “healing practices” as opposed to “pain inflicted on people who are already in pain by insisting they have to forgive.”

In the way the word is primarily used in Ojibway, it means “to forget,” or “the act of forgetting,” he said.

Smiling, Dumont mentioned a line from a song by “Elder” Bob Dylan: “Even Jesus could not forgive the things that you do.”

His point was a serious one. “Maybe there is some truth there. If someone violates a child and it cripples almost their entire life … is [forgiveness] possible? Is that required? I can’t help thinking there’s something wrong there.”

Dumont: “If someone violates a child and it cripples almost their entire life … is [forgiveness] possible? Is that required? I can’t help thinking there’s something wrong there.”

 

The word used for “forgive me,” he went on, is an old word and is the original word for forgiveness. He said it is the same word used in offering tobacco, and it means you “release” the tobacco.

“You release something. It means, I release it from my mind,” he explained. He said it was also used in burial ceremonies, as a release of the spirit and from the hold that spirit has.

“So for someone who has been violated or abused, [it means] ‘I release this from myself, it no longer has a hold on me.'”

This “lifts” it from the other person, Dumont clarified; “It frees the perpetrator, but it doesn’t absolve them. They still have to get to a place of peace in themselves but you don’t have that responsibility anymore, for them.

“That place of healing we need to get to in our own lives has a lot to do with how we get to or understand reconciliation,” he said.

Dumont: “That place of healing we need to get to in our own lives has a lot to do with how we get to or understand reconciliation.”

Over the years since the commission began (in 2008), Dumont said that “there are things that have disturbed me.”

He described a movie in which Ghandi says to the missionary who has been working with the people (in a good way, says Dumont), “It’s time for you to get out of the way.”

The situation in Canada might be similar, Dumont suggested. “The church has to take responsibility,” he said, including for “their [own] need to reconcile with the Spirit.

“I’m not a Christian, but I have a high regard for this Spirit who came to those people, Jesus. When the Church can reconcile with their Saviour for what they have done, then maybe we can talk about reconciling with them. How can the people of Canada reconcile with this, continuing to hide, not dealing with things?”

Dumont has the ability to dream names, he said, and people often come to him for a name for their child. He told of a dream he’d had — actually a dream within a dream — in which he asked an Elder for the Ojibway word for “reconciler.” The Elder couldn’t think of the word.

“In every community,” said Dumont, “there was a person who was the reconciler. This was his gift, making peace, making things right, restoring the balance in a relationship.” Dumont spent time with two other Elders, neither of whom were able to recall the word.

Dumont said it was something like, “the one who puts things back in good order … something like a mechanic, the one who fixes things.”

***

Elsipogtog First Nations member and hereditary chief on the Mi’Kmaq Grand Council from the Signigtog region Stephen Augustine used the metaphor of the overturned canoe. He spoke about “the Spirit of the breath of life” (given to the wind); if somebody tipped our canoe, ceremony would take place to right things.”

He said that on behalf of his people he would take up the invitation made by Maria Campbell to meet four time per year, with an offer to host one of the meetings.

***

At the end of the two day event, Commissioner Marie Wilson spoke, in part about her journey as commissioner and in part summarizing what she had heard. She spoke “in the spirit of transformation,” she said, suggesting that the commission had been a transformative experience.

Quoting Elder Barney Williams, who gave her the name “Northwinds Song,” she spoke about “things being different because of things we can do differently.”

TRC Commissioner Marie Wilson. // Photo by Adam Dolman

She reviewed the past two days of the forum, citing Elizabeth Penashue’s concern about the protecting the land, and the points by several women about hands as keepers of tradition but also the reclaiming of hands for making, creating and teaching things. The wisdom shared, she reiterated, spoke to the significance of words and stories, from conversations with grandmothers and respected elders to animals, and pointed to the “clues in the language itself,” including, as many intimated, the importance of song and the concern for the land and the children.

Referring to Maria Campbell’s presentation on the violence towards Aboriginal women, she said, “I honour your outrage. As I heard you, we must find a way to honour those things that will move us to action. Poverty and violence were named, and there was a challenge to the men.

“I also heard commitment and promises,” she continued, “to the health of the people [and the factors of] housing, education and employment.”

The importance of ceremony was emphasized, in relation to the reclamation of self-identity and identity as a people, the reclamation of sacred lands and language, she said.

She echoed the need to “create an ethical space, where everyone is in that space,” and acknowledged the concern that the report not be “straightforward,” but needed to include stories and values. The concern was, she said, with “how do we do that in a report” — reflect the complexity and heart of a people, their identity and relationship to the land, and “guidance as to how do we speak from the heart to a people who seem to think from the head.”

She quoted Barney Williams again, who said, “We are looking for that light. The ancestors are excited by the joy of what we are trying to do.”

Thanking all of the participants for their “wealth of knowledge … and the depth of teaching,” she told the participants that the forum has been restorative to her as well. She offered an image she encountered on her drive to Manitoba to the event: A beautiful, fully-formed double rainbow. She compared the rainbow to an umbilical cord, linking to Mother Earth. Its double nature spoke to her about “what we hold onto and what we can share,” she said.

And as “a symbol that new life is possible.”

Read Part 1 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 3 here.

She walks to raise awareness of the problems facing the Innu peoples, and to make a statement to the Canadian government: “We are still here.” [You can see the 2013 short documentary film about her annual walk here and follow her blog here.]

The walk is also part of her larger desire to preserve the old ways for her children and grandchildren. “Before, we didn’t use ‘white’ things and we didn’t use government money. We knew how to live on the land. Everyone knew what to do…. The elders and parents were like teachers. In the bush/in the country your mind is clear, your feelings are clear, you are healthy and happy. This is why it is important for the people to continue to go out on the land. I know we live in the culture and world of today, but that does not mean we have to loose or let go of who we are and where we came from. It is important for the Innu to hold on to some things, to carry those things into the present and the future. Our children need to know both ways.” (From Penashue’s blogspot, May 2009)

At the final event of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum that took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba, Penashue spoke simply and emotionally. The TRC had brought these traditional knowledge keepers together from across the country for a forum on “reconciliation” that was livecast around the globe. A small, wiry woman who exudes a sense of deep calm and caring, her words were powerful.

Elizabeth Penashue at the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, which took place at the U of M on June 25 and 26. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land and Innu culture — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

Penashue spoke for the importance of preserving the land — much of her protest and community work is about showing the link between the land and her culture.

 

Besides her annual walk, for more than thirty year she has been a tireless activist for the preservation of her culture and the environment. She’s been arrested five times and in 1989, spent two months in jail for protesting NATO’s low-level missile training program. More recently, she’s led protests against the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric dam project, which will flood much of what’s left of the ancestral Innu land.

“The government doesn’t understand,” said Penashue. “Everyone wants a job, but there is too much damage to the land.”

When she sees news reports about machines on the land on TV, it’s painful for her. “All the machines. I say ‘Please, don’t bring the machines to our land…. This is my home.

“I wish you understand how I feel — like Mother Earth’ — when machines cut [down] trees, it’s the same as when we are cut,” she said, holding her arm to demonstrate.

“Maybe Mother Earth feels the same.”

Penasue has said she wants to show the government what she’s doing, to respect the land. “Everything is like a circle. Everything. [A circle] where we respect animals, the land, rivers, my people and children. It’s not easy — same thing when I’m going for a canoe trip or a walk, it’s not easy.”

Penashue went on to speak about her desire to save the land from further damage and about the deep hurt she feels. “I talk to the animals, I talk to the water, I say, ‘I will try to help you.’ But the government don’t listen to people, don’t listen to women. I want to save the land for the children.”

She called for other women to join her. “Where are the women?” she asked.

“What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

Penashue: “What is going to happen to the water, the animals, my children and grandchildren, my people?”

She described previous walks of protest and time she spent in jail. “I used to think men are strong, it’s not up to me. But women are strong too…. I say, I’m going to try,” she finished.

“I’m going to try.”

***

Penashue was one of the forum participants, 15 Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, all of whom told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The commission had asked all participants to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing. The event was livecast across Canada and around the world.

There were three questions under consideration:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Speaking on the second day of the two day event, Stephen Augustine of Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nations (NB) echoed the sentiment in Penashue’s statements, emphasizing the Indigenous belief that “we belong to the land rather than the land belonging to us.”

When I was young, he said, I didn’t know Aboriginal philosophies — “we live our philosophies rather than expressing them,” he said. “Now that we are becoming our elders, we are also becoming interpreters and teachers of our culture.”

He spoke about the aspect of “negotiation” in Indigenous culture, demonstrated through ceremonies and in the creation story. He described the creation story as a story in which “all elements, including human elements” were part of a negotiation; ceremonies, too, emulate this process.

“We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation,” he explained.

Augustine: “We replace in offerings what we take; we are negotiating our lives. It’s about taking and giving back the original things we owe to creation.”

***

Jerry Saddleback at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

An Elder and a member of the Samson Cree Nation in Hobbema, AB, Jerry Saddleback is also Canada’s leading expert on Cree syllabics.

He spoke about forgiveness, and noted that there is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to forget or to release.

Saddleback: There is no word for “forgiveness,” but there is a Cree word that means to “forget or to release.”

 

“Prayer is also a way of releasing,” he added.

Another word, he said, means “It’s being done for show.” He offered a final word, which means “reciprocity, fairness, point for point.”

He suggested that seemingly “sweeping statements” his ancestors had made had been “twisted” away from the spirit in which they were spoken.

When Europeans first arrived, Saddleback said, “We called them our first cousins — the people from the other part of the world.”

He remembered that elders had a way of looking at the bigger picture to seek balance.

“They believed and we believe everything is alive and created in the Creator’s image. We lived at one with the Earth, Mother Earth, and the Creator made everything perfect — let’s leave it as it is.”

During the Residential Schools era, he said, “we hid our ceremonial objects [much in the same way that the] King was hiding the Baby Jesus.

“We believe in a compassionate, kind God who is gentle and caring. We pray for people who do wrong until us … as we would want people to pray for us.”

***

Also speaking was Maria Campbell, a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker and Elder from Saskatchewan and a 2012 Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow at the University of Ottawa.

Maria Campbell at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman.

She told people that “Elizabeth [Penashue] has always been a role model” for her and then introduced her own work, saying, “All of us have different ways we serve our people.”

In her work as a Trudeau Fellow, Campbell has been researching violence against Aboriginal women. She’s been looking at early documents that go back as far as the 1600s, many of them Jesuit records. “There are ugly things in those journals, but there are also many powerful things,” she said.

“We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men. It is not only white men who kill or batter our women. Men have to step up. We can’t go on blaming; we have to take responsibility. We have to talk about that.”

Campbell: “We need to talk about how we change the violence … and the role of men.”

She said that sometimes people said to her ‘Don’t be talking about stuff like that, don’t be making noise.’

“But it’s part of the role of the commission. As long as we stay sick, the government will always give us money to pick our scabs.”

Recounting workshops that she went to in her youth, she told the circle that “Elders from elsewhere would come into town and sit with us and tell us stories — and make us feel good about who were are.

“We may not all have as much knowledge, but we all have passion and we have respect for each other — and I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell: “I propose that we sit together like this at least four times per year.”

Campbell emphasized the importance of self-responsibility, and also spoke about child poverty. “We need to be taking responsibility [for this in our communities] and for sharing our stories.

“I don’t believe it should be about ‘them’ — if they care, they’ll help and nurture. To think that the government is going to make any changes, forget it. It’s not going to happen,” she pointed out.

“I feel so privileged and honoured to be here. Thank you for sharing your really good knowledge. But men, get your act together. Get out there and teach your young men., We can be talking in the institution forever but they need you in the communities.”

***

Speaking again on the second day, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations (BC) Elder Barney Williams said how moved he was by what had been spoken at the event. “I am reminded how important all of you are as keepers of knowledge.”

He described how in his territory, the whale hunters, after they killed a whale, would then invite everyone to share in the feast — “as we are doing now. We are inviting all of our nations to share….

“We’ve lost that. We have to do that again.”

Continuing with the theme of finding reconciliation, he told those gathered, “We need to be cognizant of the fact that we are talking about a place and time when no English was spoken.”

When he was a boy, he said, his grandmother told him, “Listen to me. You’re going to fly away, you’re going to speak differently. But don’t ever forget who you are. Don’t ever forget where you come from.

“I’ve walked with that. I’ve embraced another form of teaching and have done my best to bring these all together,” he said.

He feels privileged to be a knowledge keeper, he said. “Through storytelling we’re given such profound wisdom — rather than saying ‘don’t do that!’

“The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

Williams: “The voice you hear is not my voice. The voice you hear is the voice of my ancestors.”

He told Campbell and the others that he would go home to tell his people about the invitation to gather.

Read Part 1 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

Read Part 2 here.

Read Part 4 here.

See this story on the Walking With Our Sisters quilt to honour missing and murdered Aboriginal women. It was unveiled at Neechi Commons on July 3.

Check back for the final part of this special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

The response to the TRC — intended to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the 100-year Indian Residential School system — was similar for many First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

They needed to understand how this commission — its language and definitions, its processes — could be approached from their own individual and collective experiences and in terms of their own cultures, practices and languages. They struggled with how to make the process their own.

Since it was initiated in 2008, the TRC has collected more than 6,200 statements — and statements will continue to be collected. It has done the work of statement gathering as a way to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the Residential School system.

Led by its chair, the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, and two commissioners, the TRC has also hosted dozens events across Canada, including seven national events in different regions across Canada to promote awareness and public education about the IRS system and its impacts. The TRC’s mandate, which is “to guide and inspire the process of reconciliation in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people,” will officially end in the establishment of a house the national research centre (NRC), to be housed at the University of Manitoba.

The TRC’s final event, a two-day Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum, took place on June 25 and 26 at the University of Manitoba. The forum participants, 15 Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation. One of them was Elder Dave Courchene.

***

Courchene said that “truth, understood in our language … is the spirit of grandmother turtle,” which, in Indigenous teachings, was chosen by Creator to hold the remembrance of all the teachings, including humans’ relationship to Mother Earth and the Spirit [additional information from The Journey of the Spirit of the Red Man: A Message from the Elders, co-written by Courchene].

Elder Dave Courchene speaks at the Traditional Knowledge Keeper event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

How is reconciliation possible, what does it mean, for “those who felt the brutality [of Residential Schools and the colonial system] and shared their own experience?” he asked. “Today we still see the impacts on our community.”

The answer, he suggested, may lie in reconciliation, but in reconciliation “first with Creator … and then with our ancestors.

“We must go back to the beginning, recognizing the Spirit within each of us and within everything. We cannot intellectualize Spirit; allow yourself to live from the heart. You cannot have truth without respect, you cannot have truth without love, you cannot have truth without courage, you cannot have truth without honesty, you cannot have truth without wisdom, you cannot have truth without humbleness,” he said.

“The mind is concerned with power, control, ownership … but we owe our existence to the land itself. I cannot be convinced that those in power have a vision … vision comes from the Highest. Real intelligence lies within the Spirit world, in the footprints of our ancestors. Each individual has to reach out — that will result in a collective vision.

“We [Indigenous peoples] have stayed here… We still have memory of the land, a memory, duty and sacred responsibility to our people.”

One of the greatest challenges, he said, would be “to teach the people who have imposed [their values] on us who we are.

“The commission has an opportunity to be a strong voice for us as a people.”

Courchene: “The commission has an opportunity to be a strong voice for us as a people.”

***

The commission had asked all participants to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing.

The focus was on three questions:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Opening the proceedings, Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Ceremonial learning, reconciling

Walter Linklater is Ojibwe/Anishinabe and a Residential Schools survivor who also serves as an Elder at the University of Saskatchewan. He added to the teachings already shared about reconciliation.

“The way to solve problems is to listen to the spiritual teachings of the elders,” he said. “The [final TRC] report has to incorporate some of those teachings.”

Walter and Maria Linklater at the Traditional Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Linklater recounted his own story, which started with seven years immersed in his own culture, values and language, then 11 years in Residential School, where he learned very different values.

The result? “I didn’t know who I was,” he said.

16 years of active alcoholism followed, during which time he was also teaching at a college in Thunderbay. It was in the 1970s that the spiritual renewal occurring amongst Indigenous people brought Linklater back to traditional teachings. He began meeting with an elder, who told him, about his identity confusion and pain as a result of his time in Residential School, “First of all, you are not a Catholic.”

“What am I, then?” he asked.

“What am I, then?” Linklater asked.

 

Linklater says that he started to reclaim his Anishinabe identity through ceremonial learning.

When he returned to see the Elder he called “the Old Man,” the Old Man told him, “I sense some resentment in you. Didn’t you go to Residential School? Have you forgiven them yet?”

“No,” responded Linklater. “I’ll never forgive those bastards.”

“You’ll never be able to live in peace with yourself and your family until you forgive them,” said the Old Man.

“Why don’t you go back to the Schools [where you went to Residential School], and the graveyards, put some tobacco down and ask for forgiveness?

Linklater went. “Now I have more understanding. I began to learn to live in harmony with myself, Mother Earth, the animals. I learned over the years to reconcile myself … to live in harmony with all.”

The act gave him the start of “a deep understanding of what the elders are trying to tell us,” he said.

“There’s a lot of goodness and power that exists in our ceremonies. Because there is so much evil out there, we have to learn not to hurt what Creator has given to us. We come from there, Manitou.”

Appealing to the circle of participants, Linklater advocated for “our spiritual development, being careful who you counsel. If we know where we come from inherently, we have all the spiritual principles we need from ceremonies. Always try to be aware of the Spirit [Mantiou] that’s there. We get power from those spirits, from those ceremonies.”

The final report, he said, has to include spiritual principles and teachings, so that “it will have a better impact on changing us.

“Thank Him for the experience of the Residential Schools. Ask for him to help us understand how we can reconcile, for when we die, [for] our spirits we came into the world with,” he continued.

Some of the teachings, he added, are very similar. “It’s how I was able to reconcile myself.

“We will always keep learning. Be kind, be nice, help the old people, help the young people.”

Honouring

Maria Linklater also spoke about the importance of spiritual teachings. “Look outside,” she said. “Honour the sky, the creator. The world is so beautiful. If I continue to teach my children, my words will live on. For women, honour your womanhood. Respect your womanhood. Women can be strong. Pray hard and be spiritual.”

The spiritual perspective is one to be cultivated, she suggested. Explaining the transformative possibilities, she drew on the example of the fear resulting from being told about “hellfire”; she said, “Fire can destroy, but it also gives us power.”

On being told about a “devil tree” by local children, she followed them to the tree and saw that it had a large branch jutting out from the trunk at a severe angle.

She told the children the tree is beautiful. “Our world is beautiful. If I hear about something [bad], I will turn it the other way, make it beautiful.”

***

Trauma and an ethical space for recovering practices

Dr. Reg Crowshoe. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Dr. Reg Crowshoe is Peigan/Blackfoot from the Piikani Nation, and is also its former Chief and a Ceremonial Grandparent. He noted that each geographic territory and nation has its stories and laws.

“Out of [our] belief system, we got our practices — that allow you to survive.” The songs also come out of practices, he explained.

The Residential School period, during which Indigenous peoples were taken away from that Circle and moved into Western practice — classrooms, bells, etc. — resulted in trauma and cognitive dissonance, he said.

“We were punished for every step we took,” Crowshoe said, referring to early reprimands for running in the classroom and commands to “proclaim Christ.”

The children were told that “God can see in my mind,” he said — which added to their fear, shame and cultural confusion.

Crowshoe: “We were punished for every step we took.”

“We need to understand some of our past,” he said, as it was before Western protocols — theories, libraries, fees. “We have an oral culture — how do we access our theories, stories, songs, practice?”

Emphasizing the importance of respecting other nations’ “authorities, their songs and ceremonies” when entering their territories, he told the other participants “we need to move away from” divisive conflicts.

There is a need for an “ethical space,” he suggested, one with “respect, honour, truth, where we hear each other’s stories…. One that allows us the right to start looking for best practices. We need to work together because our young people need that, our collective working together.”

Opposing this approach to an “anthropological” one — “being studied,” with someone else giving their findings, even given the incorrect information, Crowshoe asked, “What are our authorities? How do we say ‘forgiveness’?

“There were two different cultures that clashed,” he summarized, referring to colonialist practices.

“That conflict hurt. We need to go back and find our stories and theories.”

***

Read Part 1 here.

Check back for Part 3 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

“The ceremonies, prayers, dances, songs, stories — all of this reconnects us to who we are. It is all part of this time of the 7th Fire,” continued the Algonquian Anishinabe mother and grandmother and Three Fires Midewiwin, who originates from Kitigan Zibi (Garden River), Quebec. Her primary work has been in culturally based education and the acquisition of indigenous knowledge, and who has also worked in the area of culturally based healing practices.

Mary Deleary at the Knowledge Keepers Event. // Photo by Adam Dolman

“I know there is still much work to be done, and our youth don’t yet have all they need — but the opportunity is here now,” she said.

Those are seeds we are sending out … and I see the evidence of the work of the 7th Fire; I see all our our ancestors’ work and pain. We have [and are still dealing with] inter-generational trauma … but we are creating something now for our children, through our restringing, our reconnecting….

“We’re a long way from lighting the 8th Fire, from reconciling and creating balance, but the truth of what we need to do has already been spoken here at this table.”

Deleary: “We’re a long way from lighting the 8th Fire, from reconciling and creating balance, but the truth of what we need to do has already been spoken here at this table.”

Anyone who had the opportunity to watch the livestreamed forum that took place on June 25 and 26 knows what a historic and deeply affecting event it was. The participants, Aboriginal elders and spiritual leaders from across the country, told stories and commented on their understanding of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Bringing these traditional knowledge keepers together to wrap up the the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 2008, the two-day forum continued the TRC’s mandate, which is “to guide and inspire the process of reconciliation in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.” For the past several years, the TRC has done the work of statement gathering as a way to address the direct effects and ongoing legacy of the 100-year Residential School system.

The traditional knowledge keepers were there to inform the final report of the TRC, and to discuss reconciliation. The commission asked them to provide, on behalf of their own peoples and territories, their understanding of reconciliation and the traditional teachings on reconciliation and forgiveness, and to comment on what they would like the commissioners to say in their final report about reconciliation and healing.

The TRC commissioners at the forum, from left to right, Dr. Marie Wilson, Justice Murray Sinclair and Chief Wilton Littlechild. // Photo by Adam Dolman

Besides commissioners Dr. Marie Wilson, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Justice Murray Sinclair, who chaired the discussion, the forum included 14 or 15 participants from across Canada.

The focus was on three questions:

What is your understanding of reconciliation? — keeping in mind your traditional teachings as you know them, and in practical terms, considering how people might live in a state of reconciliation.

Second, what is needed to achieve reconciliation? — including such considerations as a potential timeline for reconciliation.

And finally, how will we know that reconciliation has been achieved?

Opening the proceedings, Justice Murray also suggested that the speakers consider the following, in the light of the final report to be prepared by the commissioner as a result of the proceedings: What is the nature of forgiveness in the context of reconciliation? Is forgiveness necessary? What messages and recommendations would you like the commissioners to express in their final report?

***

Reconciling? Restoring?

Many told stories and tied the idea of reconciliation to the ongoing effects of what’s been lost and the importance of restoring traditional knowledge and values, such as ceremony.

Stephen Augustine.

Stephen Augustine referred to the traditional “sacred balance” resulting from the relationship of Indigenous people to their land. The hereditary chief on the Mi’Kmaq Grand Council from the Signigtog region, Augustine is a member of the Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nations community located outside Rexton, New Brunswick.

That relationship was about survival, he said, and included knowledge about hunting and fishing and gathering for food, medicines and shelter, about clothing and travel and tools of survival.

He addressed the “impact of knowledge loss” due to the Residential Schools period and the “pan-Indianism” in which Indigenous traditions are newly imported into one First Nation from another and shared amongst First Nations.

According to Augustine and others, Indigenous knowledge was traditionally protected and stored by collective sharing through storytelling, songs and spiritual ceremonies. “The teachings are about a way of living, an experience of life that relates to both the seen and unseen,” as he says in the Four Directions Teachings.

Barney Williams also stressed the importance of reviving traditional teachings. “I don’t know [the word] ‘reconciliation’ but I know about ceremony,” he said.

Using the example of preparation one took for events such as hunting, he pointed out that “it doesn’t just happen. It’s a process, one that says ‘Let me make sure I’m going the right way here. Tread softly.'”

The elder and residential school survivor is Nuu-chah-nulth and a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations in Meares Island, B.C.; he is fluent in the Nuu-chah-nulth language.

Elders Barney Williams and Dr. Reg Crowshoe. // Photo by Adam Dolman

“I won’t see reconciliation in my lifetime,” Williams said. “I don’t know what it looks like. All I know is the old people did ceremony — and there were witnesses. We saw what happened ‘if they did this.’

“I don’t have the answer.”

Indigenous peoples “need guidance to have answers,” and for that guidance, he asserted, “we need to go back to ceremonies. Otherwise we’ll keep spinning our wheels, asking ‘what is reconciliation?’ ‘How do we get there?'” he added.

“Our people always seem to come from a place of simplicity … a direct power and connection to Creator, one that comes from here,” he said, pointing to his heart.

“Collectively I believe we can achieve healing for our people. We’re reteaching — not saying ‘you have to reconcile.’ It’s an understanding in the spirit.”

Williams: “Collectively I believe we can achieve healing for our people. We’re reteaching — not saying ‘you have to reconcile.’ It’s an understanding in the spirit.”

For many, he continued, this is so that they (First Nations peoples) can “begin to live a life,” he said.

“Right now they are crying with pain. Reconciliation is the furthest thing from their mind right now.”

Read Part 2 of our special feature on the TRC’s Traditional Knowledge Keepers Forum.

“The head of Canada’s national archive dedicated to Indian residential schools says the voices of 40,000 survivors would be silenced if a judge orders their testimony destroyed.

Ry Moran, director of the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation [at the University of Manitoba], says thousands of survivors told their stories as part of the compensation process.”

See more here.

Ry Moran

Mr. Ry Moran has been announced as the Director of National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba, effective February 3, 2014.

The University is honoured to be chosen by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to host the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; it joined hands with communities across Canada when it signed the historic agreement on June 21, 2013 – National Aboriginal Day. The University is focused on fostering reconciliation, which is why it was the first university to offer an official apology to Canada’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples, and it is proud to have Mr. Moran further its goal when the Centre formally opens in 2015.

The National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will be located on the U of M campus and will house thousands of video- and audio-recorded statements from Survivors and others affected by the schools and their legacy; millions of archival documents and photographs from the Government of Canada and Canadian church entities; works of art, artifacts and other expressions of reconciliation presented at Truth and Reconciliation Commission events; and research collected and prepared by the Commission.

The Centre will operate within the academic and administrative structure of the University.  Moran will report administratively to the Office of Vice-President (Research and International), and he will be responsible in managing the day-to-day operations of the Centre.

“The Indian Residential School system is one of the greatest tragedies in Canadian history,” says Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) at the U of M. “The University of Manitoba is committed to its responsibility to ensure that the oral and written history collected by the TRC is respectfully preserved, enabling the healing of our society. We are proud to have Mr. Ry Moran take on the role of Director of this Centre, ensuring it excels at its mandate and makes its contents accessible for use in teaching and research so that we never repeat the grave mistakes of our past.”

Moran will assume a lead role to liaise and coordinate with Aboriginal communities and Survivor organizations, governments, partners, external agencies and University departments to establish the Centre. He will also work closely with the Centre’s Governing and Survivor Circles that will be comprised of Survivors, partners and community members.

Since 2010, Moran has been the Director of Statement Gathering with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Prior to this, he owned YellowTilt Productions, delivering professional services in a variety of areas including Aboriginal language preservation. Moran, a bi-lingual member of the Metis Nation, is a Masters of Business Administration candidate, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria.

The U of M Statement of Apology and Reconciliation, given in October 2011, was in fact one step in the university’s commitment to Aboriginal scholarship and education, as outlined in its Strategic Planning Framework. Pillar three of four states that the university’s goal is “Advancing Aboriginal education by providing students with the tools they need to be successful and reinforcing the University of Manitoba’s role as a national centre for Aboriginal scholarship.”

From spark to flame: It takes everyone to build a fire

It didn’t come easy. The fire that burned throughout the document-signing ceremonies didn’t want to light at first, said Niigon Sinclair in an address at the morning pipe and water ceremonies that started the day.

Sinclair, who is a lecturer in the Native studies department at the U of M, was there as one of the younger representatives of the Aboriginal community. The fire was meant to invoke the grandfather spirit to oversee and bless the proceedings, he said. “We started the song to accompany the lighting of the fire, but the spark could not come.

“The brother that was lighting the fire was joined first by me and then by another brother,” he continued, “and still it could not come. The song was almost over. At the very last moment, the tiny spark took, as the three of us fanned the grass and tinder.”

For Sinclair, the difficulty of the task was a sign from the spirit not only of how much work the TRC and reconciliation will take, but also that it will take everyone working together. “It will take all of us. We cannot give up, and we cannot give up on each other,” he said.

Much work has already taken place in preparation as U of M becomes the permanent host of a National Research Centre (NRC) which will house the statements, documents and other materials gathered by the commission during its five-year mandate.

Those historic documents, which U of M representatives, TRC officials, residential school survivors, media and staff, faculty and students of the university had gathered to see signed, were referred to several times throughout the day as “trust documents.”

“Before, when we shared information about ourselves,” said Carl Stone, who works at the Aboriginal Student Centre housed in Migizii Agamik, or Bald Eagle Lodge, where the sacred pipe and water ceremonies took place, “it was used against us. Now it will give life for all people.”

Elder Wally Swain, who also spoke at the ceremonies that preceded the document signing, told the gathered crowd that the ceremony signified the living nature of the TRC/NRC process. “This is a continuation of the ceremony that began this process,” he said. “It is a alive and follow-through must happen, in order for this these lives—the sacred beings who went to residential schools, some never to return—to be honoured, to be held sacred. For these documents to have their own sacred place.”

-Mariianne Mays Wiebe

‘A sacred trust’: The signing of the documents

The materials to be collected and housed in the NRC are a “sacred trust,” said Justice Murray Sinclair in his address during the event. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) has chosen the University of Manitoba to become the permanent host of a National Research Centre to house the statements, documents and other materials gathered by the Commission during its five-year mandate.

“Knowing that the TRC’s mandate ends one year from now, we knew we needed something ongoing,” TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair told the roughly 300 people gathered to witness the historic moment.

“Part of that obligation is being assumed here at the U of M. It began with the President’s apology in October 2011, an academic institution taking responsibility for their part in the education [and assimilation process],” he said. “That was a factor that showed us that there was a very strong commitment here to truth and reconciliation, and the proposal by the U of M stood head and shoulders above the other proposals because it was also national in its scope.”

The announcement was just made at a Signing Ceremony at the University of Manitoba, Manitoba’s only research-intensive post-secondary institute. The U of M is committed to Indigenous Achievement and to making Manitoba a Centre of Excellence for Indigenous education and research.

Justice Sinclair told Survivors, dignitaries and community representatives that the National Research Centre “has the potential to carry on the work and spirit of Truth and Reconciliation long after the Commission closes its doors in June of 2014.”

Speaking on behalf of his fellow Commissioners, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson, he added that the proposal of the University of Manitoba and its partners to host the research centre “demonstrated a strong commitment to Aboriginal peoples and governance, the highest standard of digital preservation, long-term public access and the protection of privacy. Its current and pending partnerships for this project ensure that the records of the Commission will be accessible across Canada.”

David Barnard, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Manitoba, said: “The heartbreaking impact of the Indian Residential School system on First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples and cultures represents one of the most tragic human rights failures in Canadian history. The University of Manitoba is deeply committed to human rights research and promotion. It takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that the oral and written history collected by the TRC is respectfully preserved, helps contribute to the healing of our society, and is accessible for use in teaching and research so the grave mistakes of the past are not repeated.”

-Sean Moore

Conversation about the National Research Centre to be housed at U of M

Deborah Young, co-chair of the second phase of the NRC initiative, and executive lead, Indigenous achievement and Laara Fitznor, co-chair of the proposal committee, and a professor in the Faculty of Education, spoke with The Bulletin’s editor, Mariianne Mays Wiebe, about the U of M housing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) National Research Centre (NRC).

They were asked about the proposal writing process by the bid committee, the implications of winning the bid for the U of M going forward, and their personal reactions to the document-signing event.

Laara Fitznor: It’s not really a wrap-up; it’s one step of the many part of the journey, that [all of this] has come together.

The Bid Committee … had several meetings over a couple of years, working meetings to see what sections people might pool up, offer up, based on their expertise and research and desire. We had some good writers from Karen Busby’s area [Faculty of Law’s Centre for Human Rights Research]. There was a lot of checking back and forth; there were always points of clarification that were needed, about the bid committee and what our hopes and desires were, without losing sight of what the TRC wanted, and the good sensibilities of survivors and archivists … when you think about all those pieces … I would say that there was a lot of thoughtful, deep discussion, a lot of dialogue. I don’t like calling them debates. A lot of dialogue and a lot of recognition that we needed to work with a deep ethics, of why we’re doing what we’re doing. People were very caring. The final stages were kind of exciting too, pulling things together and seeing something begin to take shape—our hopes and desires and desires for it to be accepted by the TRC.

The Bulletin: Deborah, do you have anything to add, about what the process was like, or what your role was?

Deborah Young: Well, I’ve been here for two years, and I came in to the committee probably six months into it, and as you can tell from what Laara shared, the work of the committee was already well advanced. They were working over the span of four years, these ideas were being cultivated and formulated. The committee became formalized two years ago.

Fitznor: Even more than two years ago, because it has been a year since the submission, and the committee worked in collaboration two years before that, so it’s going on four years. And the thing is with this [proposal], it gets formalized within an institution but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t doing work on our respective teaching and connection with community service and research into residential schools.

The Bulletin: Can you say more about that? About it now being housed in a large educational institution? I’m sure that there are some mixed feelings about that as well.

Fitznor: Sure, there would be. If you talk to survivors at the ground level, they may make critical remarks, and it’s hard not to agree with them. Our faculty had a retreat once at one of the convents, Villa Maria. I’ve never been at residential school but I walked into the meeting and my body went weird, I think because I’ve heard so many stories from friends and family, and the way they would describe it, like floors that were spic and span shiny, like there’s no lived in feeling — and the way my body experienced it, my being there. I had shared it with a couple of my colleagues, that it struck me that this would have an effect on survivors. And if you want to be a feeling person, you have some compassion and commitment to the depth of how people can get hurt and whatever the oppression is, this has an impact.

So getting back to your question, I think, yes, that would be their angst about it. We have to find ways to make changes at all levels, multiple sites, multiple perspectives, multiple disciplines. It can’t be just in one place, and that’s one of the things we had talked about: to ensure that we have a number of organizations and groups involved.

The Bulletin: That’s something that really impressed me about that document [the proposal] — how many organizations and partnerships are already lined up there.

Fitznor: We had lots and lots of discussion about that, and the importance of that.

Bulletin: So there’s less of a sense of it being housed someplace or, of course, in any sense, being “owned” by an institution, and more of a sense of it, first of all, being a “stewardship,” I think was the word used, and just being a shared resource and responsibility. Deborah, do you have anything to say about that part of it?

Young: For me, it’s been a very interesting professional and personal journey. It was pretty much a wrap by the time I came in, and I felt very privileged to be part of the bid. And I see that Laara has some of the apology statement copies tucked in right there [on the shelf].

Fitznor: Oh yes, those are for my students. I have to remember to give them away tomorrow.

Young: This is part of our, the university’s journey towards reconciliation, but also …

Fitznor: Also making it a public declaration. If I can just add, the things that have been important for me, is seeing the public statements that have been made. Whether it was the United Nations making the declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples, I get my students to read those, because they go in-depth. If you want to do something with programming, just read that! What rights are and about reclaiming the language and recognition of levels of oppression. So for us for David [Barnard] to be making a public statement like this, that’s, in many ways, taking a big risk. People may not be on the same page as he is about it, or they prefer to keep it quiet, or keep it under wraps, or deal with it but not in such a public arena. I think it’s been good.

The Bulletin: Yes, it’s been an education for me too, since I’ve started working here, almost four years ago, and since that time I’ve attended many different events. One that was very memorable was the one that Joanie Halas was involved with —

Young: National Aboriginal Day; “Frontrunners.” [In 1967, ten Indigenous young men were chosen to carry the torch from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Winnipeg for the Pan American Games. When the runners arrived at the stadium, they were not allowed to enter. Instead, a non-Aboriginal runner was given the honour of carrying the torch inside. Thirty-two years later, the province of Manitoba issued an official apology to the runners, nine of whom were students at residential school. Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners explores this story, and the despair and abuse suffered in the residential school system. It is a story of survival, hope, reconciliation, and a dream for a new beginning that transcends hatred and racism.]

The Bulletin: Yes, that’s right. That was such a memorable event, just how she incorporated this content into the classroom experience and allowing her students to be part of that and take on that responsibility of how are we now, going forward as teachers, how are we going to include this as part of the classroom experience for our students? That was really meaningful to me. And I think you’re right, having it be a public declaration is important – what struck me at that event, were the number of survivors who mentioned having to deal with this on an individual level, by themselves, and even the difficulty of owning that experience — of being a residential school survivor or the intergenerational effects — publicly.

Fitznor: And trying to convince others that it’s real … As a professor in education, I need this kind of thinking to help students move forward, not just me…. So it becomes a shared responsibility and a shared desire. Because it may be a responsibility but people may not desire to do it, so there’s resistance.

One of the things that we’ve talked about is having allies, so that it’s not just Aboriginal people working alone, so that we’re gaining and working with allies, alongside. You would hope that people have the same shared value of community and non-oppression. There are so many things with the Canadian Charter—if you look at that and see what happened in history — that can’t continue to happen.

Young: The residential school experience, although it deeply impacted our communities, it’s a Canadian experience. It’s a Canadian experience that impacts all of us, not just our First Nations people. It’s a non-Aboriginal issue as well. It impacts everyone — and our history, interpretation of history. It impacts how we act as individuals, as a family and how we act as a community member. It all has implications, right across the spectrum.

The Bulletin: Deborah, what do you see as the wider implications for this being housed here? Reading some of the vision statements in the proposal, and how it envisions people coming here [to the university] not only to do the kind of scholarly work here, but also doing personal research.

Young: Absolutely. And I view it not as implications, but as opportunities. “Implications” is a very …

Fitznor: Oppressive

Young: Yes, an oppressive word. So I tend to view it as opportunities that are coming towards our university, and are indelible not just to our survivors and Aboriginal community but the larger population as well. The importance of the National Research Centre — and I suspect that it will be renamed, that we’ll go through a naming ceremony. For me on a personal level—I’m all for research, but this is a collection of the stories of my people, of our people and they need to be treated with respect, with integrity, and I view each of the stories as containing the spirit or the soul of the person who is choosing to share those stories with us.

And it’s either through those oral testaments, the personal statements that the TRC has been gathering over the last five years, or the stories that we are finding in the archives—the government archives, the church archives, archives that are existing within our communities, and the personal, oral stories that some of our survivors are carrying with them and are yet to be shared. So, for me, yes, it is research, but it is so much more than that. We’re talking about a living institute, a living, alive institute that’s holding sacred teachings. And that’s how I tend to view the national research centre. It’s something that’s very personal for me.

You have the bid; the bid is now done and now we are moving into the next phase, the development of the centre itself. The beginning part of that phase was June 21, the signing ceremony.

The Bulletin: Yes, thanks, both of you, for making that clarification. It’s one part in a much bigger process. I see a lot of good will coming from the administration that’s in place now — not that I think it wasn’t there before, though I know less about the administration that was here before I started this position—but to what extent is that key? Or what role does that play in all of this, do you think?

Fitznor: [Laughs.] That’s the biggest key you could ever find. In all my years of teaching and looking at what needs to happen, if you don’t get that support—that’s the teeth to make it happen. If you don’t have the policy support, the policies and the declarations, and making it unapologetic: these are the issues and we shouldn’t have to apologize that we “have” to talk about this. I’ve been here since 1982, off and on, except for a five-year span when I went to teach at the University of Toronto, so I’ve seen a lot of starts. Different administration will have different ideas of what will or should happen, but with this administration, its goals and Strategic Planning Framework that articulates goals in it, it makes it a lot more “real.” I was going to say “easier,” but that’s not necessarily true, but it makes it more real.

Even for a faculty to be talking about it, it’s more real when the goal is embedded within the institution. So in a sense, it’s not just an initiative led by a faculty member and when that person leaves, so does that really neat project. Once it’s instituted, it becomes part of the culture of the institution, and it makes it easier to ensure that these things will continue.

These articles first appeared in the July 18, 2013 special edition of The Bulletin, entitled ‘Truth, Reconciliation and the Path Forward.’