National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

This from the Government of Canada website:

"Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.


The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process."

Poignant and meaningful.

Well it would be meaningful if it meant anything. It is, I acknowledge, good to admit the horrors of the past - and, yuck, they were horrors. Not sure if you can see this painting by Cree artist Kent Monkman, but I'll add a pic into the Extras if you can't.

The reason why it doesn't mean anything is because it can't. It can't mean anything to the families of victims, because it is insufficient and, dare I say, trite. It doesn't mean anything to Euro-Canadians because it is unimaginable. Monkman's painting, almost unknown outside of indigenous circles, shows more of the horrors of what happened than any orange-shirt-shoes-outside-beating-of-chest-and-rending-of-garments ever can.

It was an attempt at cultural genocide under the benign gaze of the British Empire and the Catholic Church. Hold those two to account, put in place meaningful reparations with a timeline and a plan, and you may be on to something.

I am old and cynical. OK, I am middle-aged and cynical. But this isn't fixing anything. Canada needs to do more than it ever can - and even then, the descendants of those who did this are not the ones responsible. Sell some of the Crown Jewels. Put the Pope's ring up for auction. Do something meaningful that hurts. And then, only then, might we start to make some sort of amends. 

Bob Joseph's 21 Things You Many Not Know About The Indian Act is a great place to start, if you are interested.