Engaging with the TRC Calls to Action

Indigenizing education: Discussions and Case Studies From Australia and Canada (2020) includes ideas for those just beginning to Indigenize their education practices as well as inspiration for experienced educators to keep going.

Call to Action

#86

We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, an Aboriginal-Crown relations.

The mainstream press has reinforced the racist and uninformed thinking that gave rise to policies such as residential schools. The TRC report quotes the book Seeing red : a history of Natives in Canadian newspapers by Anderson Robertson:

“Colonialism has always thrived in Canada’s press,” and “Canadian newspapers (as well as radio and television) have, over time, played an integral role in shaping the nation’s colonial story.”  p.195, TRC Report Volume 6, Canada’s Residential School: Reconciliation

In the section Educating journalists for Reconciliation the Report reminds readers that the Canadian Association of Journalists made note of this issue in their submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1993: 

“Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are, in general, badly served by national and local media, whether Native or not. The country’s large newspapers, TV and radio news shows often contain misinformation, sweeping generalizations and galling stereotypes about Natives and Native affairs. Their stories are usually presented by journalists with little background knowledge or understanding of Aboriginals and their communities.” p. 93, RCAP volume 5, Renewal: A Twenty-Year Commitment

Call to Action

#28

We call upon law schools in Canada to require all law students to take a course in Aboriginal people and the law, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and antiracism.

The TRC report recounts the legal hurdles and distressing process Survivors experienced during the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

“There were numerous reports of aggressive, damaging, and sometimes unethical and illegal tactics employed by some lawyers in recruiting residential school Survivors as clients. Several lawyers were the subject of law society complaints and reprimands about the way they recruited and represented residential school Survivors and collected legal fees." p.208, TRC Report Volume 5, Canada’s Residential School: The Legacy

The lack of cultural competencies for lawyers involved with these cases was mentioned in several testimonies in the 2020 NCTR report “Lessons Learned: Survivor Perspectives. One Survivor from the Eskasoni Engagement Sessions stated that

"they were only allowed to talk about their sexual abuse experiences, and that most of these experiences were brushed off. Health support workers reported witnessing unprofessional behaviour from lawyers, judges and other professionals who made inappropriate comments at Hearings"

Call to Action

#24

We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Why is this call to action necessary?

The legacy of the lack of adequate care in those schools is extensively documented in the Report.  The health of thousands of children was intentionally undermined and the result is that Indigenous health status remains far below that of the general population today.  p.579, TRC Report Volume 1, The History 1939 to 2000.  Testimony given by Mabel Brown to the Commission at Inuvik gives an example.  She saw disturbing parallels between her treatment in Northern residential schools and today’s lack of adequate treatment facilities close to home:

“They did away with all the treatment centres. They used to have one here called Delta House, and it’s no longer, it’s called the homeless shelter now. And they did away with two treatment centres in Yellowknife. Really beautiful places that people used to go and … and there’s just that one in Hay River, it’s just always waiting, people waiting to get in there too; so people have to go south.” She recalled, when her grandson needed treatment, “We didn’t want to send him down south; down to another province. We want him to stay in our home province and not, and yeah. And they, they let me escort him down to Regina then I came back; he ran away. He ran to Regina. And so I, I told his dad and his dad just burst out crying. And we’re, we’re helpless; he’s way, just like, just like what they took us away to residential schools; away from our own homes. Same thing”. p.156, TRC Report Volume 5, The Legacy.

Call to Action

#43

We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the framework for reconciliation.

UNDRIP promotes Indigenous development through the self-determination and preservation of their culture and nation-specific needs. In relation to data collection, it seeks to address the legacy of unethical research practices on Indigenous peoples.

The TRC report outlines 8 research studies that were carried out on residential school students, without their knowledge or the consent of their parents (p. 227, TRC Report Volume 1).  In addition to these studies, ranging from calcium intake to hemoglobin variants, the schools withheld vitamins and iron supplements from children to avoid interfering with a nutrition study.

In January 1953, J. E. Andrews, the principal of the Presbyterian school at Kenora, informed Pett (researcher), “Indian Health Services here would like to see all the children on iron tonic or vitamin pills, and I would like to have your approval or advice on this matter before any action is taken.”  Pett opposed the idea, saying that he preferred that Andrews “give the children no such medication (except for cod liver oil) until the end of this project—which will be another year or 2 yet.” (p.284, TRC Report Volume 1)

UNDRIP, in addition to the OCAP principles of ownership, control, access and possession, supports Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and Indigenous community' rights to participate in decisions around ethical data collection and dissemination.