Debriefing Held on Residential Schools

After listening to indigenous people describe the abuse they suffered while attending residential schools in Canada, a nurse says she realized she won’t be able to provide health care in the same way she has done in the past.

The knowledge that she gained, she said, from stories presented in late September to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) will affect how she understands and interacts with her indigenous patients in the future.

She learned by attending the TRC that met in Vancouver, British Columbia that those who survived the residential schools bring with them a range of special medical care needs that should be reflected in Canada’s overall health care policies.

The nurse was among those who attended and spoke at a TRC debriefing held at First Christian Reformed Church, Vancouver, British Columbia.

“The TRC debriefing event provided a sacred circle and safe space for people to come together, listen to each other, and share their feelings and thoughts on what they have learned and experienced through the powerful TRC hearings,” said Trixie Ling, a member of First CRC.

The TRC has been holding events all over Canada to gather the history of abuse that indigenous people underwent in residential schools --from the late 1800s until as recently as the mid-1990s-- and to create a process of reconciliation between aboriginals and non-aboriginals.

A contingent of CRC staff from the Centre for Public Dialogue, the Canadian Aboriginal Ministries Committee, and the CRC's Office of Social Justice attended the event, which drew thousands of people from across Canada to Vancouver.

Trevor Vanderveen, pastor of first Vancouver CRC, was part of the actual TRC program. Time was set aside for him to present a formal Expression of Reconciliation to the indigenous people of Canada, stating that placing young men and women from native groups in residential schools was contrary to the Gospel of Christ.

"Our denomination does not have a history of operating residential schools in Canada,” said Vanderveen.

"However, as a member of the church of Christ, we are sorry for those sins committed in the name of Jesus.”

Removing young people from their homes and trying to instill values of the majority culture into them at residential schools led to “broken trust, the sin of tearing young people away from their families and,” said Vanderveen, “forcing them to live contrary to their traditions and spirituality."

By offering the Expression of Reconciliation, Vanderveen was publicly committing his church to continuing to seek reconciliation with indigenous peoples. He also presented a painting from the reForming Relationships art series, created by Cree artist Ovide Bighetty, to the commission.

The debriefing at First CRC drew a crowd of more than 40 people, including the Anglican church's National Indigenous Bishop, Mark MacDonald.

“We wrestled as a community with how to carry the stories residential school survivors had trusted us with forward into our congregations and communities,” said Danielle Rowaan, justice communications and education coordinator the CRC's Canadian Ministries.

During the the briefing, several people spoke about having attended the TRC. Besides the nurse there were:

• A school who teacher mused that her challenge is now to pass this knowledge on to her students.
• A theologian who spoke of how the survivors’ communally-minded testimonies called him back to the intrinsically communal nature of our Reformed theology that we often forget in the midst of our individualistic culture.
• A pastor who spoke of feeling newly burdened by this knowledge, though he had heard these stories before.
• A filmmaker who expressed his amazement at the expressive work of indigenous artists.

“Many of those present reflected on how easy it is to not hear about residential schools, even though some closed as recently as 1996,” said Rowaan.

Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald wrapped up the gathering with a call for people to learn “to pay attention, not only to how the Spirit is moving in our individual lives, but also in our life as a community during moments like this one.”