“Canada is a test case for a grand notion – the notion that dissimilar peoples can share lands, resources, power and dreams while respecting and sustaining their differences. The story of Canada is the story of many such peoples, trying and failing and trying again, to live together in peace and harmony. But there cannot…
Category: Residential schools
Ruby’s Story
Today, I’d like to present to you something a little different; an interview of sorts. A while ago, a comment on one of my blog posts really caught my attention. In it, a mother was describing an experience her young daughter had at school, and that brief description had such a powerful impact on me…
That thing you said? It isn’t true.
Right now twitter, tumblr and Facebook are exploding with shocking news…apparently Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has “change[d] [his] tune on residential schools as genocide“. As you can expect, it is upsetting a lot of people to hear that Justice Sinclair is reversing his earlier statements that Residential Schooling was…
Nimama, are they going to take me away too?
My youngest daughter was six years old when she asked me this, clinging to me in desperation, her face distorted and her eyes full of tears. I hadn’t expected such a visceral reaction, and before I could say something intelligent and soothing, I started crying. I rocked her on my lap say ‘moya ‘moya ‘moya…
Residential Schools: an Introduction
I feel emotionally strong enough today to begin to tackle a subject that I tend to avoid a lot of the time…Residential Schools. A number of people have requested that I write something about this, but each time I’ve tried I’ve decided I was better off focusing on a different subject first. If you don’t…