Final TRC report just a first step: local elders

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This article was published 15/12/2015 (3680 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the much-anticipated release of the final Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, survivors and elders are cautioning there is still much to be done to reconcile the legacy of residential schools in Canada.

Elder Charlie Nelson of Roseau River First Nation, who attended the Assiniboia Residential School in Winnipeg from 1964 to 1969, said the final report represents a first step, but that there are still numerous stories to be told.

“We have to be appreciative of all the work that has gone in, but there still needs to be lots of dialogue so that we can create more understanding,” Nelson said. “We’ve gone through a lot and we need to have strength in telling our story.”

The final report will help encourage the healing process to continue, he said, given that many are still suffering.

“This is helpful for the road to recovery for our people, but some are still dealing with the devastating effects of residential schools,” Nelson said. “There are things that our people got disconnected from but it’s not lost, because we’re rebuilding it.”

Nelson was enrolled at the only residential school in Winnipeg when he was 14.

“I was one of the fortunate ones that didn’t get taken out at six years old,” he said. “But at 14, you can still see the effects of being pulled out of the community.”

Nelson and his fellow students saw a chance to tell their stories in 1967, when indigenous students enrolled in residential schools were asked to be torch-bearers for the Pan Am Games, held in Winnipeg that year.

“The experience of being sexually abused was one story that was shared by the other runners and people told them what to do,” he said. “But you kept silent. You just did what you were told.”

Margaret Lavallee, elder-in-residence at the University of Manitoba Centre for Aboriginal Health Education, said she’s hopeful about the effects the final TRC report will have, but action on issues affecting indigenous communities is still badly needed.

“There are a lot of recommendations that I certainly hope will come about,” Lavallee said. “But in health, education, housing, we’re talking about indigenous people who are still suffering as a result of residential schools, as a result of colonization and oppression.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to implement all 94 of the TRC recommendations, highlights of which include calling an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, changing the oath of citizenship to reflect treaties with indigenous people and developing post-secondary programs in indigenous languages.

“All Canadians are survivors of residential schools, we’re all affected by it,” Lavallee said. “We all have a responsibility in this issue.”

leah.hansen@freepress.mb.ca