Missiological implications for Taylor Seminary arising from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-413
Author(s):  
Allan Effa
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Cooperative Effort ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Set Up

In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded a six-year process of listening to the stories of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. More than 6000 witnesses came forth to share their personal experiences in listening sessions set up all across the country. These stories primarily revolved around their experience of abuse and cultural genocide through more than 100 years of Residential Schools, which were operated in a cooperative effort between churches and the government of Canada. The Commission’s Final Report includes 94 calls to action with paragraph #60 directed specifically to seminaries. This paper is a case study of how Taylor Seminary, in Edmonton, is seeking to engage with this directive. It explores the changes made in the curriculum, particularly in the teaching of missiology, and highlights some of the ways the seminary community is learning about aboriginal spirituality and the history and legacy of the missionary methods that have created conflict and pain in Canadian society.

Canadian Genocide and Official Culpability

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zia Akhtar
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Native People ◽  
Reasonable Doubt ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Aboriginal Children ◽  
White Adults

AbstractIn the last 20 years the native people of Canada have asserted their sovereignty by rejecting their status as wards. Their subordination had caused removal of their children to boarding schools to remerge as imitation white adults. It involved the purging of their own culture, including language, names and religious symbols. There is now evidence that there were thousands of preventable deaths in these schools, because the conditions were criminally negligent and the teaching was backed up by corporal punishment. In response to these allegations the Canadian government has set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but it lacks any investigative or punitive powers. As it has no right to compel witnesses, the First Nations have established their own International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC). This has the objective of presenting evidence to the United Nations in order for a court to be empowered on lines of an international tribunal investigating crimes of ethnic cleansing to try the officials of the government and the Churches. Will the redress the IHRTGC is seeking stand the test of evidence that proves beyond reasonable doubt the culpability of the accused? Can the appropriation and abuse of aboriginal children be abated? What kind of compensation will be payable once guilt has been proved?

Reading (Re)conciliation in White Settler and Chinese Canadian Narratives: From Liberal towards Transformative Approaches

2021 ◽  
pp. e20210005
Author(s):  
Petra Fachinger
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
White Settler ◽  
Chinese Canadian

This article explores how four settler narratives situate themselves differently within the reconciliation discourse in response to the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. In my reading of Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s The Spawning Grounds (2016) and Jennifer Manuel’s The Heaviness of Things That Float (2016) alongside Doretta Lau’s “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?” (2014) and Amy Fung’s Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being (2019), I show how these narratives express different degrees of critical reflection on the settler colonial state and differ in their acknowledgement of Indigenous resurgence. I adopt David B. MacDonald’s distinction between “liberal reconciliation,” which is based on a “shared vison of a harmonious future,” and “transformative reconciliation,” which “is about fundamentally problematizing the settler state as a colonial creation, a vector of cultural genocide, and one that continues inexorably to suppress Indigenous collective aspirations for self-determination and sovereignty” as a critical framework.

scholarly journals Indigenous healthcare: Caterpillars to butterflies, case study supporting transformation

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-43
Author(s):  
Roger A. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Indian Policy ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
Indian Act ◽  
First Peoples ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada

The Canadian Government released a document to aid in the relationships between the Government of Canada and First Nations around the ratification and redesign of the Indian Act of 1876. The name of this document was the “White Paper.” The Federal Government's “White Paper, statement of Government of Canada on Indian Policy of 1969,” rejected the concept of special status for First Nations within confederation—they should have the same rights and responsibilities as other Canadians. The Federal Government argued treaty rights were irrelevant in today's society; the important issues demanding attention included economic, educational, and social problems. In Canada's assessment of the “savage” situation, the government could not see wellness wholistically addressing the poverty, social crises, and bleak future faced by most First Peoples was rooted in the very denial of treaty rights and humanness. This article pushes to educate health leaders about current circumstances contributing to racism.

“This Is Going to Affect Our Lives”: Exploring Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the Government of Canada and British Columbia’s New Relationship Through the Implementation of the Maa-nulth Treaty

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Sloan Morgan ◽  
Heather Castleden ◽  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
150Th Anniversary ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada

AbstractCanada celebrated its 150th anniversary since Confederation in 2017. At the same time, Canada is also entering an era of reconciliation that emphasizes mutually respectful and just relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown. British Columbia (BC) is uniquely situated socially, politically, and economically as compared to other Canadian provinces, with few historic treaties signed. As a result, provincial, federal, and Indigenous governments are attempting to define ‘new relationships’ through modern treaties. What new relationships look like under treaties remains unclear though. Drawing from a comprehensive case study, we explore Huu-ay-aht First Nations—a signatory of the Maa-nulth Treaty, implemented in 2011—BC and Canada’s new relationship by analysing 26 interviews with treaty negotiators and Indigenous leaders. A disconnect between obligations outlined in the treaty and how Indigenous signatories experience changing relations is revealed, pointing to an asymmetrical dynamic remaining in the first years of implementation despite new relationships of modern treaty.

scholarly journals A Bridge to Reconciliation: A Critique of the Indian Residential School Truth Commission

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc A. Flisfeder
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Dispute Resolution ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Dispute Resolution Mechanism

In the past year, the Government of Canada has established the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address the deleterious effect that the IRS system has had on Aboriginal communities. This paper argues that the TRC as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism is flawed since it focuses too much on truth at the expense of reconciliation. While the proliferation of historical truths is of great importance, without mapping a path to reconciliation, the Canadian public will simply learn about the mistakes of the past without addressing the residual, communal impacts of the IRS system that continue to linger. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission must therefore approach its mandate broadly and in a manner reminiscent of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples of 1996.

South Korea’s collective memory of past human rights abuses

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1113-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ñusta Carranza Ko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Government

Embedded in transitional justice processes is an implicit reference to the production of collective memory and history. This article aims to study how memory initiatives become a crucial component of truth-seeking and reparations processes. The article examines South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the creation of collective memory through symbolic reparations of history revision in education. The South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended a set of symbolic reparations to the state, including history rectification reflective of the truth on human rights violations. Using political discourse analysis, this study compares the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report to the 2016 national history textbook. The article finds that the language of human rights in state sponsored history revisions contests the findings of the truth commission. And in doing so, this analysis argues for the need to reevaluate the government-initiated memory politics even in a democratic state that instituted numerous truth commissions and prosecuted former heads of state.

scholarly journals Sustaining Cultural Genocide—A Look at Indigenous Children in Non-Indigenous Placement and the Place of Judicial Decision Making—A Canadian Example

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Peter Choate ◽  
Roy Bear Chief ◽  
Desi Lindstrom ◽  
Brandy CrazyBull
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
The Sixties

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called upon Canada to engage in a process of reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Child Welfare is a specific focus of their Calls to Action. In this article, we look at the methods in which discontinuing colonization means challenging legal precedents as well as the types of evidence presented. A prime example is the ongoing deference to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Racine v Woods which imposes Euro-centric understandings of attachment theory, which is further entrenched through the neurobiological view of raising children. There are competing forces observed in the Ontario decision on the Sixties Scoop, Brown v Canada, which has detailed the harm inflicted when colonial focused assimilation is at the heart of child welfare practice. The carillon of change is also heard in a series of decisions from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in response to complaints from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations regarding systemic bias in child welfare services for First Nations children living on reserves. Canadian federal legislation Bill C-92, “An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families”, brings in other possible avenues of change. We offer thoughts on manners decolonization might be approached while emphasizing that there is no pan-Indigenous solution. This article has implications for other former colonial countries and their child protection systems.

Reconciliation and Cultural Genocide: A Critique of Liberal Multicultural Strategies of Innocence

Hypatia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Paquette
Keyword(s):  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
Indian Reservation ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Flathead Indian Reservation ◽  
The Government

AbstractThe aim of this article is to interrogate the concept of cultural genocide. The primary context examined is the Government of Canada's recent attempt at reconciliation through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Drawing on the work of Audra Simpson (Mohawk), Glen Sean Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene), Kyle Powys Whyte (Potawatomi), Stephanie Lumsden (Hupa), and Luana Ross (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, located at Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana), I argue that cultural genocide, like cultural rights, is depoliticized, thus limiting the political impact these concepts can invoke. Following Sylvia Wynter, I also argue that the aims of “truth and reconciliation” can sometimes serve to resituate the power of a liberal multicultural settler state, rather than seek systemic changes that would properly address the present-day implications of the residential school system. Finally, I argue that genocide and culture need to be repoliticized in order to support Indigenous futurity and sovereignty.

scholarly journals The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Insights into the Goal of Transformative Education

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Czyzewski
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Transformative Education ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Settlement Agreement ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada

In 2006, the Government of Canada announced the approval of a final Residential Schools Settlement Agreement with the collaboration of the four churches responsible (United, Anglican, Presbyterian, Catholic), the federal government and residential school survivors. Schedule "N" of the Agreement lists the mandate of the TRC; therein, the TRC states one of its goals as: (d) to promote awareness and public education of Canadians about the system and its impacts. Can education - as the TRC hopes to engender - truly be transformative, renewing relationships and promoting healing in the process of forging these new relationships? The literature reviewed and the conferences attended highlighted that generating empathy may be a necessary ingredient for the instigation of social change, but is insufficient. Transformation through education, or reconciliation through truth-telling, testimonial reading and responsible listening would mean claiming a genuine, supportive responsibility for the colonial past. Educational policy and media initiatives are fundamental to creating awareness, developing public interest and support of the TRC's recommendations. However, authors also stress the importance of critical pedagogy in the whole process of truth and reconciliation, and that real reconciliation would require confronting the racism that initiated these institutions and allowed for a decontextualization of their impacts.

scholarly journals Overview of Benefits of First Nations Language Immersion

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-67
Author(s):  
Tracy Coates & Philip Leech-Ngo
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
First Nations Education ◽  
Inuit Peoples

In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report into the ‘cultural genocide’ perpetrated by the State of Canada against First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, through the widespread use of Residential Schools, the federal government offered an apology and an apparent opportunity for reconciliation[i]. Part of this programme was new legislation that would govern the relationship between First Nations and the federal government over First Nations education. Entitled the First Nations Control of First Nations’ Education (FNCFNE), the proposed bill promised a new deal and an apparent chance to renew a tarnished relationship. Yet in spite of its name, the bill offered very little in terms of progress. Indeed if it had been implemented, in many cases, the bill would have done little to increase First Nations’ control over the education of First Nations’ children and likely would have made effective language education extremely difficult. Indeed, this article’s analysis of the bill shows that, at its core, the law represents little more than the reinforcing of existing settler-colonial power dynamics. In particular, while it would have shifted virtually the totality of administrative responsibility for on-reserve education to First Nations it would have reserved ultimate power – manifest through control over funding – to Ottawa. As a result the FNCFNE would have represented a profound step in undermining First Nations language rights and language education in Canada. [i]    “Prime Minister Stephen Harper's statement of apology”, CBC News, 11 June 2008

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