Students and the Trent community gather for talk on survivors? narratives as part of North of Trent 2012 Lecture Series

?We?re very good at forgetting about this,? observed Dr. John Milloy, speaking to a packed room of nearly 100 students, faculty and alumni who had come to hear him talk about Canada?s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), at Traill College?s Bagnani Hall on Wednesday, February 15, 2012.

Professor Milloy, an award-winning professor with Trent?s Canadian Studies Department, is the special advisor (history) to the commissioner of the TRC, a $60-million, five-year initiative that aims to redress the wrongs done to native Canadians through the Indian Residential School (IRS) system. His talk, entitled ?Survivor?s Narratives: Voices from Inside the Circle of Civilized Conditions?, offered the Trent community an historical perspective on residential schools: their creation, conditions within them, the harm done by them, and the ways in which that legacy is being addressed by the TRC.

?The power of the schools which teachers, missionaries and administrators brought to bear on the children was deeply corrosive. It seriously incapacitated thousands of young men and women, culturally and spiritually, and sent many on a trajectory to welfare offices, hospitals, skid rows, police stations, courtrooms and prisons. Even the successful ones ? and there are people who went to residential school and are completely successful by our Western standards ? lost their language and culture and suffered for it all of their lives,? maintained Prof. Milloy.

First established in 1879, the state-sponsored, church-run residential schools had the explicit aim of assimilating Indigenous people by removing them from their parents? and their community?s influence. Over the course of the residential school system?s 126-year history, more than 150,000 First Nations, M?tis, and Inuit children attended, many of them without their family?s consent. Some 80,000 former students are thought to be still living.?

While not all students suffered from the horrific abuse and harsh conditions now known to have been endemic to the residential school system, most, if not all, suffered from the psychological trauma of cultural alienation. ?These students could not fuse two conflicting cultural influences in any positive way,? explained Prof. Milloy, citing the observations of government officials, RCMP officers, teachers and others throughout the history of the IRS. ?They leave their culture and they don?t enter into white culture ? they fall in between so it?s not surprising where they find help: suicide, substance abuse, and other sorts of palliatives.?

As part of their mandate, the TRC is hosting national events to hear and record survivors? stories of their experiences within the IRS, which are being digitized and made available online through the TRC?s website. ?The real historical value being produced by the commission is in statement gathering,? asserted Prof. Milloy. ?These are truly the basis for reconciliation.?

Other initiatives under the TRC?s mandate include developing a national research centre that will serve as a resource for all Canadians, and creating as complete an historical record as possible of the IRS system and its legacy through the digitization of over 1 million church and government documents. ?The exciting part is that people will now be able to go and find out about their families, their relations, the school they went to. It will all be online and searchable,? he affirmed.

In closing, Prof. Milloy referenced the comment of Australia?s attorney general when asked in Parliament why the government was producing such voluminous data about the tragedy of the ?stolen generation? in Australia. ?He said,? quoted Prof. Milloy, ?I need to tell you in great and terrible detail so you will understand the need for reconciliation.?

The North at Trent Lecture Series 2012 is sponsored by the Roberta Bondar Fellowship Fund, the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, the Nind Fund, and the Canadian Studies Department at Trent University.

Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012.

Source: http://www.trentu.ca/newsevents/newsDetail.php?newsID=2058

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