Where Are the Children

Where Are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools is an incredible online multimedia exhibit that accompanies a physical exhibit touring Canada right now. I'd like you all to spend some time here learning more about the legacy of the residential school system. There's lots of important information here that connects to the works we're reading, including the sections on intergenerational impacts, educational materials, and shared stories. Make sure to take the time to check out some of the video clips.

From the website:
This virtual exhibition presents photographs largely from public and church archival collections, from as early as 1880 to the 1960s. Aboriginal youth want to know about the experiences of their parents and grandparents, the stories that have not been told. It is hoped that this website will bring healing and restore balance in Aboriginal communities by encouraging children to ask, and parents to answer, important questions about their family histories.

Once you've had a chance to look through this site, take a few minutes to share your thoughts here on the blog.

Conditions on reserves today

The terrible conditions on many reserves today has been front and centre in the Canadian news in the last week or so, as they should be. The fact that "Save the Children" recently came to investigate conditions on reserves in Canada says it all. As you'll recall from Thomas King's The Truth About Stories, one of the things he talks about in those lectures are the stories Canadians like to tell themselves about how we've learned from the past or how Natives are to blame for poverty/suicide rates/health issues/despair/crime rates/unemployment many communities are dealing with.

One of the stories we might like to tell ourselves is that the majority of non-Natives don't actually believe this and really want to help. Yesterday, Phil Fontaine, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, did a live question and answer session on the Globe and Mail website. Reading through the questions and Fontaine's overly gracious and patient answers to them, I couldn't help but be shocked by some of the uneducated opinions of many readers who questioned such things as "why we should keep paying to help them." Sigh.

Those questions and the comments posted later on the Globe's website show just how far we still need to go in educating the average North American about the history of our treatment of the First Nations, what treaties are, and why problems like the ones mentioned above are so much more prevalent among Native communities in Canada and the US than among non-Native ones. I'd like to tell myself the story that the people posting on the Globe and Mail site don't represent the non-Native mainstream. The truth about that story, though, is that we all have a long, long way to go.

Fortunately, there are a number of great organizations who are trying to help. I'd like to see much more being done by Canada's federal government and the school system to educate Canadians about this part of Canadian history and of Canadian society today.

Phil Fontaine, by the way, will be interviewed on CBC's The Hour on Feb. 9th. The Hour is turning out to be my "must-see TV" these days. Their archive of interviews is tremendous and well worth checking out.

What are your thoughts on all this?