Land and the Living Roots of Language: From Rights to Reconciliation

1969 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Fettes
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Living World ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
Indigenous Elders

Included in the Calls to Action of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission are several Calls pertaining to Indigenous languages. However, the terms of Western discourse on rights, and on language itself, risk obscuring the fundamental connections between language and land that Indigenous Elders and scholars have insisted on. Drawing on a diverse literature, I argue that language is, indeed, bound up with the ways in which we inhabit the living world, and that genuine reconciliation requires rethinking language policy and management from this perspective.

scholarly journals The Creation of the CFLA/FCAB Truth and Reconciliation Committee: The First Report

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Smith
Keyword(s):  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
First Report ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Le Canada ◽  
Indigenous Elders

One of the top priorities of the newly formed Canadian Federation of Libraries Associations/Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA/FCAB) was to create a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to promote initiatives in all types of libraries to advance reconciliation by supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, and to support collaboration in these issues across the Canadian library communities. Thus, this first committee was formed with representatives of the CFLA/FCAB Board and library association’s nominees from all across Canada. From the beginning, the Committee worked with Indigenous leaders and sought the guidance of Indigenous Elders. This paper presents a summary of this Committee creation, organization, and work, as well as the recommendations to the CFLA/FCAB Board. L’une des principales priorités de la Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (FCAB), qui a été récemment mise sur pied, est la création d’une comité de vérité et de réconciliation afin de promouvoir des initiatives dans tous les milieux de bibliothèque pour faire avancer la réconciliation en appuyant les appels à l’action de la Commission de vérité et de réconciliation du Canada et en appuyant la collaboration concernant ces enjeux parmi la communauté des bibliothèques au Canada. Alors, le premier comité a été formé avec des représentants du conseil d’administration de la FCAB et des associations des bibliothèques à travers le Canada. Dès le début, le comité travaille avec des leaders autochtones et recherche les conseils des ainés autochtones. Cet article présente un sommaire de la création, de l’organisation et du travail du comité ainsi que des recommandations au conseil de la FCAB.

Working With Indigenous Elders in Narrative Inquiry: Reflections and Key Considerations

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
Sean Lessard ◽  
Isabelle Kootenay ◽  
Francis Whiskeyjack ◽  
Simmee Chung ◽  
Jean Clandinin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Canadian Research ◽  
Indigenous Elders

The Canadian research context shifted with the adoption of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its focus on considerations of Indigenous peoples. Drawing on multiple years of working together, this article explores the experiences of members of a research team that includes Indigenous Elders. The authors revisit three significant research encounters: engaging in teachings of “silent walking,” engaging in teachings through the processes of drum making with youth, and engaging in teachings on the importance of language. Three important considerations for working in research teams with Elders are the importance of continuing to find ways to be in relation, to live reciprocity beyond the rhetoric often associated with Indigenous research, and to see our work as marked by mutuality.

Using African Truth and Reconciliation Commission documentation for truth telling and reconciliation

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are established to document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in post-conflict societies. The intent is to excavate the truth to avoid political speculations and create an understanding of the nature of the conflict. The documentation hence results in a common narrative which aims to facilitate reconciliation to avoid regression to conflict. TRCs therefore do a tremendous job and create compound documentation that includes written statements, interviews, live public testimonies of witnesses and they also publish final reports based on the accumulated materials. At the end of their mission, TRCs recommend the optimal use of their documentation since it is of paramount importance to the reconciliation process. Despite this ambition, the TRCs’ documentation is often politicized and out of reach for the victims and the post-conflict societies at large. The TRCs’ documentation is instead poorly diffused into the post conflict societies and their findings are not effectively disseminated and used.

The Triumph of Olemaun: Survivance, Empathic Unsettlement, and Restorying the History of Canadian Residential Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-146
Author(s):  
Anah-Jayne Markland
Keyword(s):  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Mandatory Education ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Age Appropriate

The ignorance of many Canadians regarding residential schools and their traumatic legacy is emphasised in the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a foundational obstacle to achieving reconciliation. Many of the TRC's calls to action involve education that dispels and corrects this ignorance, and the commission demands ‘age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples' historical and contemporary contributions to Canada’ to be made ‘a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students’ (Calls to Action 62.i). How to incorporate the history of residential schools in kindergarten and early elementary curricula has been much discussed, and one tool gaining traction is Indigenous-authored picturebooks about Canadian residential schools. This article conducts a close reading of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton's picturebook When I Was Eight (2013). The picturebook gathers Indigenous and settler children together to contest master settler narratives regarding the history of residential schools. Using Gerald Vizenor's concept of ‘survivance’ and Dominick LaCapra's notion of ‘empathic unsettlement’, the article argues that picturebooks work to unsettle young readers empathetically as part of restorying settler myths about residential schools and implicating young readers in the work of reconciliation.

Disappointed Remains: Trauma, Testimony, and Reconciliation in Post-apartheid South Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Field
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Democratic Elections

The apartheid regime in South Africa and the fight against the same, followed by the reconciliation is the crux of this article. The first democratic elections held on April 27, 1994, were surprisingly free of violence. Then, in one of its first pieces of legislation, the new democratic parliament passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995, which created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. At the outset, the South African TRC promised to “uncover the truth” about past atrocities, and forge reconciliation across a divided country. As oral historians, we should consider the oral testimonies that were given at the Human Rights Victim hearings and reflect on the reconciliation process and what it means to ask trauma survivors to forgive and reconcile with perpetrators. This article cites several real life examples to explain the trauma and testimony of apartheid and post-apartheid Africa with a hint on the still prevailing disappointments and blurred memories.

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