Recently I heard Chief Casimir‘s comment, referring to the deaths of children at the Kamloops residential school, “We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths.”
I think there’s also been “a knowing” in
the non-indigenous community. An uncomfortable and unacknowledged knowing. But
now that we have seen that knowing reflected in cold, hard numbers – 215! – we must
all face the painful truth.
It’s well worth listening to the words of the
Honorable Murray Sinclair, Former senator who chaired the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/01/murray-sinclairs-statement-on-the-remains-of-children-found-in-kamloops.html
Clearly,
there is more truth to be told and heard.
There
are two words in the tile of the TRC:
Truth and Reconciliation. Without truth, there can be no reconciliation. Both
are crucial and long overdue.
Thank you for this, Carol, and for the link to the Honorable Murray Sinclair's statement. As he says, there absolutely should be a full inquiry into this terrible aspect of the residential schools. It should have happened back then when they made their proposal, but at least now I hope it is seen as a critical part of the Truth and Reconciliation process.
ReplyDelete