Continuing from the previous three posts, my blog’s focus for the next several days is to raise awareness about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's (TRC) Calls to Action. A summary of the whole report can be found at Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Today, we read an excerpt from the Summary and the Call to Action aimed at Language: Call to Action 13.

“Some Survivors refused to teach their own children their Aboriginal languages and cultures because of the negative stigma that had come to be associated with them during their school years. This has contributed significantly to the fragile state of Aboriginal languages in Canada today.

Many of the almost ninety surviving Aboriginal languages in Canada are under serious threat of extinction. In the 2011 census, 14.5% of the Aboriginal population reported that their first language learned was an Aboriginal language. In the previ- ous 2006 census, 18% of those who identified as Aboriginal had reported an Aboriginal language as their first language learned, and a decade earlier, in the 1996 census, the figure was 26%. This indicates nearly a 50% drop in the fifteen years since the last res- idential schools closed. There are, however, variations among Aboriginal peoples: 63.7% of Inuit speak their Indigenous language, compared with 22.4% of First Nations people and only 2.5% of Métis people. 

Some languages are close to extinction because they have only a few remain- ing speakers of the great-grandparent generation. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (unesco) lists 36% of Canada’s Aboriginal languages as being critically endangered, in the sense that they are used only by great-grandparent generations; 18% are severely endangered, in the sense that they are used by the great-grandparent and grandparent generations; and 16% are definitely endangered, in the sense that they are used by the parental and the two previous generations. The remaining languages are all vulnerable. If the preservation of Aboriginal languages does not become a priority both for governments and for Aboriginal communities, then what the residential schools failed to accomplish will come about through a process of systematic neglect.”

Language rights

In interpreting Aboriginal and Treaty rights under Section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, the Supreme Court of Canada has stressed the relation of those rights to the preservation of distinct Aboriginal cultures.  The Commission concurs. The preserva- tion of Aboriginal languages is essential and must be recognized as a right.

Call to Action

13) We call upon the federal government to acknowledge that Aboriginal rights

include Aboriginal language rights.

Continuing from the previous two posts, my blog’s focus for the next several days is to raise awareness about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's (TRC) Calls to Action. A summary of the whole report can be found at Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Today, we read the 7 Calls to Action aimed at Education: Calls to Action 6 - 12.

Education 

6) We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. 

7) We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. 

8) We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves. 

9) We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people. 

10) We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles: 

        i. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one                        generation.

        ii. Improving education attainment levels and success rates. 

        iii. Developing culturally appropriate curricula. 

        iv. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal                                   languages as credit courses. 

         v. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what                 parents enjoy in public school systems. 

        vi. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children. 

        vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships. 

11) We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education. 

12) We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.

TRC Calls 1-5

Flowing from my first post yesterday, the blog’s focus for the next several days is on the TRC’s Calls to Action. The whole report can be found at Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Today, we read about the 5 Calls to Action aimed at the Canadian Child Welfare system. 

Calls to Action

In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes the following calls to action.

LEGACY 

Child welfare

1) We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care by:

i. Monitoring and assessing neglect investigations.

ii. Providing adequate resources to enable Aboriginal communities and child-wel- fare organizations to keep Aboriginal families together where it is safe to do so, and to keep children in culturally appropriate environments, regardless of where they reside.

iii. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the history and impacts of residen-

tial schools.

iv. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the potential for Aboriginal communities and families to provide more appropriate solutions to family healing.

v. Requiring that all child-welfare decision makers consider the impact of the resi- dential school experience on children and their caregivers.

2) We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the provinces and territo- ries, to prepare and publish annual reports on the number of Aboriginal children (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) who are in care, compared with non-Aboriginal children,

320 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission

as well as the reasons for apprehension, the total spending on preventive and care services by child-welfare agencies, and the effectiveness of various interventions.

3) We call upon all levels of government to fully implement Jordan’s Principle.

4) We call upon the federal government to enact Aboriginal child-welfare legislation that establishes national standards for Aboriginal child apprehension and custody cases and includes principles that:

i. Affirm the right of Aboriginal governments to establish and maintain their own child-welfare agencies.

ii. Require all child-welfare agencies and courts to take the residential school legacy into account in their decision making.

iii. Establish, as an important priority, a requirement that placements of Aboriginal children into temporary and permanent care be culturally appropriate.

5) We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate parenting programs for Aboriginal families.

 

 

Hello Friends! About 35 years ago I began my journey of decolonization, truth and reconciliation. It began quite unconsciously back in the 1980's and 90's when I worked in Band-run schools and lived in First Nation communities in western Canada. I began to understand that my view of Canada and myself as Canadian was biased, limited, and often blatantly wrong. 

After several years of listening and learning, a red-tailed hawk touched me, twice on the shoulder on two separate occasions. I knew that I was being chosen for something. Since then, I have been waiting for Spirit to reveal what it is that I am being prepared for. Now, many years later I am ready and I know to what I am called and asked to do. 

Just before the recent discovery of  the unmarked graves of 215 children who attended Kamloops Residential School, I was drawn by Spirit to share more publicly my commitment to be and act in solidarity with First Peoples in Canada. The purpose of this sharing is for awareness raising and transformation. I want to help raise awareness among my people, settler people, who like me, generally benefit from all the systems in Canada: social, educational, medical, religious, economic, etc., while First Peoples continue to be disproportionately disadvantaged and dominated by these same systems. 

My commitment to solidarity with First Peoples is not unsubstantiated. My own personal journey has been richly blessed with many beloved friends and life-long teachers from whom I learn about Indigenous ways of being in the world. It is time for me to more fully honour the depth of these friendships and to share what I have learnt. I cannot live well if my sisters and those they love continue to be denied basic rights, like clean water, quality education and safety. 

Most Canadians are angry and shocked to hear that many children, as young as 3 years old, did not return to their families from the boarding schools they were forced to attend. However, the discovery of unmarked graves is not a shock to Indigenous peoples in Canada. 

Survivors of residential schools, who were traumatized from the experience have been telling the stories of these missing children for years. Many of the stories were recorded between 2007-2015 during Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Process (TRC). The Report includes 94 Calls to Action, six of which relate to missing children and burial information  (71-76). 

Even though stories about missing children and unmarked graves came out publicly during the TRC, many Canadians are just now waking up to these truths. As nations, we are not yet ready for reconciliation. Canadians are only now beginning to wake up to the reality of some of the tragically horrific truths. We have a long way to go. 

In 2016, Honourable Murray Sinclair, Chair of the TRC, said, “If you thought getting to the truth was hard, getting to reconciliation is going to be really hard.” We must start somewhere and it must be with truth. Indigenous Peoples and Settler Canadians are all here together in the country we call Canada. Settler friends, transformation is needed. We must choose how we want to live our common journey forward. I hope we choose the way that begins with truth.

Where can we begin? Start by filling in the AWARENESS gaps in our understanding of Canada's history. Below are two suggestions to start:

Listen to this 11 minute video: 

Become familiar with the TRC Report, including the 94 Calls to Action: Read Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada