Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada

Increasing policing and government programs an teaching women how to be safe is not going to correct this situation. Only understanding and a commitment to telling the truth about the cruelty inflicted on our women in the name of settling this country would help change peoples’ perceptions, end their complacency, and stop the continued brutalization and dehumanization of our women.

Consider the recent papal visit and apology. Again, I recognize that some people were able to find peace in hearing the pontiff's words. But, for many, his words fell far short. Where was the acknowledgement of genocide against Indigenous Peoples through these schools? Yes, he spoke those words later, but not directly to the people who suffered it. Further, it cannot be ignored that the Catholic Church has failed to meet its financial obligation to survivors and its failure was officially sanctioned by the federal government and the courts. The Catholic Church is one of the richest, if not the richest, corporations in the world. It is worth billions and billions of dollars. I remember visiting the Vatican Museum in Rome. The art and artifacts alone are worth billions of dollars without even considering the vast worldwide holdings of the Catholic Church. I will never forget seeing Nero's bathtub, a huge, circular stone edifice made of material that no longer exists on earth. The bathtub is described as "invaluable beyond calculation." So why not just sell off the tub and meet their obligations to survivors? It is beyond comprehension how the Catholic Church can express remorse while refusing to abide by the terms of the settlement they originally agreed to and still expect their words to be taken seriously.

These legislated acts of colonial violence were aimed directly at eradicating Indigenous independence, economic self-sufficiency, social and governing structures, cultural norms, spiritual practices, and family and community cohesion through the large-scale kidnapping of the children. During the parliamentary debates surrounding the proposal to make attendance at residential schools mandatory, and to give priority to them over community-based schools, Sir John A. Macdonald explained his support of residential schools by saying: "When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with his parents who are savages; he is surrounded by savages...he is simply a savage who can read and write.

With the decimation of the majestic herds that roamed the North American prairies, Indigenous people became vulnerable through this intentional impoverishment. Sir John A. Macdonald rigorously followed "a policy of submission shaped by a policy of starvation." Promised rations were withheld not only to reduce costs but to disempower people through starvation.

In the US and Canada, the buffalo were slaughtered for their hides. Often, whole carcasses were left to rot after the tongue, popular in the cuisine of the day, was removed. This slaughter was encouraged by both the American and Canadian governments and was yet another implement in the colonial toolkit. Since the buffalo were critical to the survival of the Plains people, the decimation of the herds was an intentional strike against their ability to provide for themselves, a strike against self-sufficiency. The buffalo were a scared gift to the people, providing them with food, clothing, and shelter. The wholesale slaughter was devasting to the people, not only because of the resulting impoverishment and starvation, but also because of the horror of such wanton destruction of the Creator's gifts.

Limiting the say of outsiders, no matter that they were also Indigenous, these First Nations were protecting the integrity of their community. That is why it is important that the invasive plants are not given a voice in places they don’t belong and in decisions they ultimately have no stake in.

A community is a group of people whose connections and relations are formed by their shared history, traditions, experiences, geographies, and identities.

For us, the Western literacy tradition is an ill-fitting shoe. We simply cannot be forced to wear a shoe that will pinch our toes.

How we understand history is largely contingent on the perspective and objective of the hand that records it.

Just as the broken, abused child clung to hope for a better life against all odds, I now stand firm in hope and determination that one day justice will prevail.

Apologies must go hand in hand with substantive, systemic change, which, in turn, will support meaningful reconciliation.

Reconciliation requires systemic change. it is not about rote land acknowledgement, apologies, and carefully staged public relations events designed to give the impression of a sincere effort.

For so many years, I lived my life in a defensive stance, putting up a fight when the only thing I was fighting was my own suffering and the fear that someone would find their way through the armour, to the very tender soul I always was, and destroy me all over again.

It took years and years for the chorus of voices demanding an inquiry into the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada to be successful. We heard for years that one of the factors leading to the demise of these women was the assumption that they lived high-risk lifestyles such as working in the sex trade. This was a common reason for rejecting pleas for an inquiry. Even if this were true, does it justify a failure to protect them or properly investigate their deaths?

Now, how do you know these things to be true?

How can we believe in reconciliation in the face of such quietly violent disregard? However, persist we must.

We must embrace history in the way Indigenous peoples experienced as it truly unfolded. Only then will non-Indigenous Canadians begin to grasp the true horror of what we were subjected to and how the seeds of that horror continue to sprout and hold in our lives today.

It's been more than five hundred years; Canada should know we aren't going anywhere. Instead, we remain.