North of Nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission arose out of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of 2006. It was designed to address the long history of residential schools in Canada, and to acknowledge the wrongs and abuses suffered there. Importantly, it would take testimony from the survivors, and from those experiencing intergenerational trauma.

The establishment of the Commission was one of the key obligations set out in that agreement. The mandate for the Commission stated This is a profound commitment to establishing new relationships embedded in mutual recognition and respect that will forge a brighter future. The truth of our common experiences will help set our spirits free and pave the way to reconciliation.

The show more commissioners’ goal was to hear from as many survivors and affected people as possible over the five year term of the Commission, directly and in person. Their experiences would be documented, government and church records would be archived, and new research would be conducted in the hopes of filling in the gaps.

Just getting to be a commissioner was a rigorous process. Marie Wilson was the only female, the only non lawyer and the only non indigenous person of the three. She did have a long history in northern Canada, as a reporter, broadcaster, and administrator. She was also a member of a well known northern Dene family by marriage. The other two commissioners were Wilton Littlechild, a Cree lawyer from Maskwacis, and Murray Sinclair, an Anishinaabe judge from Manitoba, who became the Chair.

There was an initial getting to know each other period in this context, with Wilson fearing that she would meet with resistance, potentially being perceived as a representative of the European society. That did not prove to be the case however.

The three commissioners then had to tackle the initial question of how to go about fulfilling their mandate in an enormous country, with multiple different groups of affected people. A lot
of their time initially was spent on this. An earlier attempt at establishing a TRC had failed, and they didn’t want to repeat those mistakes. As it turned out, the preparation period was well worth the time devoted to it.

One of the tools used would be symbolism. There would be seven national events across the country, as well as multiple community events. Each featured the slogan “For the child taken, for the parent left behind”. There would be seven flames reflecting the seven sacred truths: respect, courage, love, truth, humility, honesty, and wisdom. Each of the national events was devoted to one of these truths.

It was decided that each survivor would address the panel directly, as if they were the only person in the room, rather than having to face the terror of speaking to a roomful of people. The rest of the people would be in a semicircle behind them as they spoke, offering support. Each speaker had a trained support person seated just beside or behind them, to offer comfort, Kleenex, or just a bond. Two empty chairs were set up at each meeting, for those who had been lost.

Seven thousand survivors testified. Wilson speaks of the toll of listening to stories of abuse, predation, and loss of first language and culture, day after day. The commissioners themselves were assigned spiritual guides, to support them in whatever capacity was needed.

During the two years the commissioners crossed the country, the toll of it all played out in Wilson’s own family. Her spouse, Stephen Kakfwi, had served as premier of the Northwest Territories. He was also a survivor of the schools, and as such, had great difficulties reliving the experiences of others. She writes of this and other personal matters in her book, often relating them back to testimonies heard.

The book appealed to me as a first hand account of one of Canada’s most important initiatives in reconciliation, but at the same time, I could have done with less of Wilson’s asides. What really kept my interest was the process behind it all, the ways in which day to day obstacles, as well as more political obstacles were dealt with.

The Commission wound up in 2015, with 94 Calls to Action. Delivering the final address, Murray Sinclair called the Indian Residential Schools era cultural genocide, officially sanctioning the phrase. show less