We Were Children

Canada day this year is being cancelled across the country and replaced with a day of mourning. We must reflect on the atrocities that have been committed against our children. Those 150 000 kids who were sent to residential schools, and the over 1300 which have recently been found dead. I encourage you all to join me in running 10 metres for each child found. To reflect upon what truly happened, to educate other Canadians, and to reflect on the land we are so fortunate to run on and why that is so. I strongly encourage you share your participation, and your stories to help raise awareness and understanding across the country.

"The residential school system is viewed by much of the Canadian public as part of a distant past, disassociated from today’s events. In many ways, this is a misconception. The last residential school did not close its doors until 1996, and many of the leaders, teachers, parents, and grandparents of today’s Indigenous communities are residential school Survivors. Although residential schools have closed, their effects remain ongoing for both Survivors and their descendants who now share in the intergenerational effects of transmitted personal trauma and loss of language, culture, traditional teachings, and mental/spiritual wellbeing." (Hanson, Gamez, Manuel, 2020)

Hanson, E., Gamez, D., & Manuel, A. (2020, September). The Residential School System. Indigenous Foundations. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/residential-school-system-2020/

Recommended resources

Books & Articles

Canada. Royal Commission on Indigenous Peoples. Report of the Royal Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Volume 1: Looking Forward, Looking Back. Chapter 10, “Residential Schools.” Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada, 1996.

Erasmus, George. Notes on A History of the Indian Residential School System in Canada

Fournier, Suzanne and Ernie Crey. Stolen from our Embrace: The Abduction of First Nations Children and the Restoration of Indigenous Communities. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1997.

Haig-Brown, Celia. Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998. First published by Tillicum Library, 1988.

Manitoba. Public Inquiry into the Administration and Indigenous People. “Indigenous Women.” Vol. 1, chap. 13, in Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Public Inquiry into the Administration and Indigenous People, 1999.

This chapter of the Indigenous Justice Inquiry of Manitoba’s report on Indigenous people in the justice system examines how the residential school system has contributed to the abuse and discrimination that many Indigenous women face regularly.

Miller, J. R. Shingwauk’s Vision. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

Widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive, key texts on the residential school system, in Shingwauk’s Vision Miller has included the perspectives of government and church officials, school staff, and students to create a rich history of the residential school system from its original inception to its phasing out. Cree scholar Winona Wheeler calls Shingwauk’s Vision “the most thorough and comprehensive study of Indian residential schools in Canada to date and most noted for its good use of a wide range of Indigenous life histories and personal reminisces” (Wheeler, “Social Relations of Indigenous Oral Histories,” in Walking a Tightrope: Indigenous Peoples and their Representations, 2005. 193)

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, Indian Residential Schools: The Nuu-Chah-Nulth Experience. Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, 1996.

Roberts, John. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples: Exploring their Past, Present, and Future. Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2006.

Secwepemc Cultural Education Society, Behind Closed Doors: Stories from the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Penticton: Secwepemc Cultural Education Society & Theytus, 2000.

Websites

• Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre
• Indian Residential Schools
• Stolen Children | Residential School Survivors Speak Out
• Where Are The Children

Apologies and Reconciliation

• Anglican Church of Canada. “Residential Schools: The Living Apology.”
• Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
• Presbyterian Church in Canada. Remembering the Children: An Indigenous and Church Leaders’ Tour to Prepare for Truth and Reconciliation. This site contains the Presbyterian church’s 1994 confession here.
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Indigenous policing and reconciliation
• Statement of apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools
• University of British Columbia, Apology
• United Church of Canada. The Apologies