The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has released its final report after six years of extensive, intensive and emotional documentation of the residential school experiences of thousands of survivors.
Now it is left to us—all of us—to learn from and respond to the Commission’s findings, said the President of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Deb Foxcroft.
The TRC heard 6,750 survivor statements, including many hundreds from Nuu-chah-nulth survivors and other First Nations people who attended residential schools operated in our Nations’ territories. NTC acknowledges the courage of those survivors in sharing their stories. Their pain was our pain as they recalled a time in their lives that many have struggled to recover and heal from and put behind them.
“We also honor the residential school survivors who are no longer with us today, who did not have the chance to speak their truth or tell their stories. We send our prayers for their healing and we keep them in our hearts and minds today and always,” said Foxcroft. “It is our hope that our children and grandchildren will never have to go through such a horrendous experience of hurt and pain, and that we can move forward out of the darkness and into the light to a better future.”
We are mindful that we must continue to live up to our obligations to those survivors. The TRC report is a matter of the public record and survivor experiences can never be denied, now or in the years to come for future generations. Our obligation is to ensure the TRC’s work remains top of mind, and that the 94 Calls to Action are implemented in the spirit of the TRC’s intention. This is our commitment going forward.
NTC congratulates the TRC, the commissioners, and all of the witnesses for leaving no stone unturned as they made their attempts to uncover the truth of the residential school era, its harm to our peoples and its terrible legacy. And yet, despite the great effort of the TRC to reveal to us all of the truth, there is still much that will never be known, and that sits heavy in our hearts. We must acknowledge the frustrations that were felt as obstacles were thrown in the path of the TRC’s work, obstacles that continue to obscure that truth.
It is our great hope that Canada’s shame of the residential school era is now in the time of the past. The TRC report, we pray, is just a beginning of true reconciliation in Canada. How Canada chooses to respond to its own truth can be a time of its own future glory.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the survivors during this difficult time as old wounds are reopened,” said NTC Vice-President Ken Watts, “but the healing will continue, and we will continue on the path of reconciliation for future generations.”
