ADVANCING RECONCILIATION
Between 2009 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission travelled across the country, carrying out extensive research and conducting over 6,500 interviews with witnesses of Canada's residential schools. The TRC heard from Survivors, their families, members of their communities, and former staff. These courageous witnesses detailed unthinkable truths, speaking them aloud so that they would be forever documented, and that all Canadians would know, be called to action and moved to make change. 94 Calls to Action were part of the Final Report, meant to guide us in the process of reconciliation.
In light of advancing reconciliation and continuing to share truths so that it may lead to cross-country action, this new series on our website looks at the past, our present, and provides resources that you may use to spur action and reimagine what could be our future.
This isn't an Indigenous story, it's Canada's story.
The systems that have been created and continue to perpetuate injustice have been in place for generations, and it will take generations of work to dismantle them. Reconciliation is a process and we have a shared responsibility to build and maintain mutually respectful relationships. We each have the power to listen, accept the truth, hold ourselves accountable, take responsibility, and move forward. Our past and our present may already be written, but the future is still ours to author.