the Great White Way could silence us all
Marilyn Dumont, “The Devil’s Language”
if we let it
it’s had its hand over my mouth since my first day of school
since Dick and Jane, ABCs and fingernail checks
syntactic laws: use the wrong order or
register and you are a dumb Indian
September 30 is no ordinary day. On National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we all have an opportunity – and an obligation – to commemorate the deep and lasting harm suffered by generations of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. It is also a moment to recommit to remedying those wrongs, now and in the future. Even as our country faces serious economic and political challenges, it is vital that we keep top of mind this legacy of evil and our commitment to reconciliation. The health and well-being of our nation requires no less.
Established as a statutory holiday in 2021, September 30 – better known as Orange Shirt Day – marks what Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final report described as the “cultural genocide” of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. A central element of the Commission’s findings concerned the infamous Residential Schools, which began operating under formal government authority in the 1880s with the last schools finally closing only in the 1990s. Over that period, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were forced to attend these schools, often far from home. The horrors experienced by these children included separation from family, forced cultural assimilation, physical and sexual abuse, ill-health, death, and disappearance. (Residential School History – NCTR)
Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the experience of one of those children, Phyllis Webstad, who attended the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in Williams Lake, BC. On her first day, as a six-year-old girl, the school authorities took away the orange shirt she had been given by her grandmother. Since Webstad shared her story in 2013, the orange shirt has become a symbol of solidarity, to show that we stand with the survivors of Residential Schools, and with the countless children who never got to go home. The date, September 30, was chosen because it was the time of year when Indigenous children were typically ripped from their families and brought to these schools, and because it is an appropriate time for all Canadian schools to review their anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the coming year. (Orange Shirt Day – Orange Shirt Society)
The recent discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves on the premises of Residential Schools has helped us to understand more fully the profound trauma experienced by the children who attended them, and by their families and succeeding generations. And while some of the shocking details of what children endured there have come to light in recent years, many stories have gone unheard. Elders from Six Nations tell the stories of The Mohawk School in Brantford, Ontario, where reportedly a large incinerator was used for cremation of the children who died there. Its presence on the school grounds explains why elders and experts said they would not find mass graves there.
While the last of the Residential Schools closed in 1996, their troubling legacy lives on in the form of generational trauma and systemic discrimination, both of which still impact Indigenous survivors, their relatives, and their communities. For example, Indigenous children are dramatically overrepresented in the Canadian foster care system. A Government of Canada report noted that “53.8% of children in foster care are Indigenous, but account for only 7.7% of the child population according to Census 2021.” (About an Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families) This systemic discrimination has been part of Canada’s child welfare system for generations, as authorities believed, and apparently still do, that Indigenous People are less capable of raising their children than non-Indigenous families. Indeed, that profoundly racist belief was part of the reason Residential Schools were established in the first place, and it is evidently alive and well in Canada today.
Indigenous Peoples are also dramatically over-represented in our criminal justice system, where systemic racism continues to flourish to this day. According to Canada’s Department of Justice, between 2005-06 and 2015-16, when compared to White accused, Indigenous People accused of a crime were “more likely to be found guilty (+14%), less likely to be acquitted (-33%) … and less likely to encounter a withdrawal, dismissal or discharge (-55%).” Rates of incarceration are similarly skewed. In 2022-23, for example, Indigenous adults made up “30% of admissions to provincial/territorial correctional services despite only accounting for 4% of the adult population in Canada in 2021.” In the same year, Indigenous adults accounted for 33% of admissions to federal custody, and Indigenous women accounted for 49% of all female admissions. (JustFacts) Indigenous women continue to be the fastest growing prison population in Canada. When an Indigenous woman is incarcerated, most often her children end up in foster care, leading to a circle of trauma and incarceration. The Office of Correctional Investigator’s report, Ten Years Since Spirit Matters, outlines the continued over-representation of Indigenous Peoples in the correctional system, and provides a roadmap for reform. These figures are more than statistics; they represent countless lives destroyed, families and communities torn apart.
While we have made some progress in addressing these legacies in recent years, the task of remedy and reconciliation will likely take generations. It is painful to reflect on one’s darkest moments, but as a nation we must. For while Canada is a globally recognized role model thanks to our strong democracy, respect for human rights, and official commitment to everyone’s equal value, we are also a nation that has intentionally inflicted enormous suffering on the peoples who were here first. Our National Day for Truth and Reconciliation offers an opportunity to acknowledge these contradictions and to honour those who have suffered. It also reminds us of the need to expand the dialogue about the legacy of the residential school system and other forms of oppression against Indigenous Peoples. In a time when we face daunting challenges both at home and abroad, it is essential that we do not forget the atrocities in our own history, carried out in the name of Canada.