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Contents - Winter 2009

Vol. 2 No. 1

Truth and Reconciliation: The Research Behind the Healing Process

By Matt Barron and Ashleigh Mattern

Click here to watch a video of Jim Miller discussing his work.

On his flight back to Saskatoon after appearing last June on CBC Newsworld to discuss Stephen Harper’s apology to former residential school students, Jim Miller struck up a conversation with a young Cree woman.

A resident of the Battlefords area, she had just attended the ceremonies associated with the apology. She had met the prime minister, and received an autographed copy of the apology.

“She was thrilled, gratified and relieved,” Miller says. “If she’s any indication, the apology had a good effect.” Miller, a University of Saskatchewan historian, has been examining the apology and its effect on the collective healing process of First Nations people in Canada for past wrongs committed against them and their culture.

Highly regarded and nationally influential for his 25 years of studying aboriginal-newcomer relations, Miller stresses that reconciliation is “not merely a native story, but a nativenewcomer story for all Canadians.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry into residential school abuse, besides revealing the truth of what happened and offering recommendations, is intended to heal relationships by giving victims the opportunity to share their tragic ordeals. Government and residential school officials also share their experiences.

“In a sense we were all involved in creating the problem, and neither party by itself can bring about reconciliation,” says Miller. “Both parties have to contribute their recollections so that one party can understand what the story means to the other.

“Non-aboriginal people involved with the schools have to heal, too. They don‘t always understand that, but if they participated in the public events of the commission, they might come to understand.”

Government apologies in other countries, such as the one in South Africa for apartheid, have illustrated how important it is for victims to relay their past experiences to someone who represents authority.

It is also important, Miller contends, to sensitize non-native Canadians to the devastating impact of government policy historically on aboriginal culture.

By removing children from families and enrolling them in residential schools with a view to making aboriginals “self-sufficient” in Euro-Canadian ways, First Nations links to their culture were destroyed for successive generations. And the rampant abuse experienced at these schools, often sexual, left emotional and social scars which are still visible today.

“The question that’s behind all my work is ‘Why do we not get along?’” Miller says. “Why do indigenous and immigrant people have these problems? You turn to the past in search of an explanation.”

Miller contrasts the early fur-trade period in Canada, a time of relatively good relations between aboriginals and non-aboriginals, with the later European settler-society in which the aboriginal huntergatherer way of life was considered an obstacle to farms and cities. “When both parties need each other to accomplish what they want, our relations are good. It’s when objectives have been competitive that there’s been trouble.”

The author of several books considered required reading for native studies and history classes, including Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens and Shingwauk’s Vision, Miller has been involved in the Independent Assessment Process, the federal government’s comprehensive settlement program for people with claims of sexual abuse suffered at residential schools.

Miller, whose recently renewed Canada Research Chair includes $1.4 million for his research, has educated the adjudicators recruited by the courts on the history of residential schools.

“The educational aspect of it is really important to have people know today what happened a long time ago,” says Dan Ish, chief adjudicator of the Indian Residential Schools Adjudications Secretariat. “Because of Miller’s historical work, he is able to put the residential school experience into a broader context.”

Many Canadians aren’t aware of the first apology for residential schools, given in 1998 and widely viewed as inadequate. The apology failed because it was delivered by the Minister of Indian Affairs, and not the prime minister, and the Liberal minister failed to clearly accept responsibility on behalf of the government.

While the Harper government proved reluctant at first to apologize, the decision to do so was ultimately passed in the House of Commons with a vote of 257-0. Miller believes Harper’s apology on June 11, 2008, was “overall very good.”

“It achieved a high level of satisfaction among aboriginals and aboriginal leaders, and a survey shows it achieved awareness among Canadians,” he says. Prime Minister Harper’s statement contained all the elements necessary for a successful apology: clear and graphic identification of the harm, and clear acceptance of responsibility.

The only missing element, Miller says, was some indication of what the perpetrator will do to ensure such a policy and situation never arises again. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently suffered a blow with the resignation of its chair, Justice Harry LaForme. Miller says its future depends on the commission’s ability to work together and meet its ambitious agenda, including the sharing of individual experiences.

But healing for aboriginal Canadians involves more than testimony. “Symbols are important, they’re appreciated,” Miller says, “but there also need to be substantial practical steps.”

What sets Canada’s reparations apart from those of Australia and South Africa is victim compensation, money offered under a comprehensive settlement in 2006. But the average $25,000 payout to each former residential-school student in Canada is only the beginning.

Aboriginal leaders seek progress on a number of glaring issues facing First Nations people today, including better education, housing, and childcare, in addition to clean water—something most Canadians take for granted.

Besides practical steps, aboriginals and non-native Canadians need to recognize their common objective of “doing something about the mess we have made of the world,” Miller says.

“There are signs that aboriginal people have some very good ideas of how to relate to the environment, and historically they have related to it far better than the rest of us.”