Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly, on October 20, 2005, resolved to formally observe May 26th as the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation in support of our communities, families and individuals who endure the impacts of a residential school system;
AND WHEREAS the objectives of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation are to:
celebrate a positive, collective healing and reconciliation movement within our families, communities, churches and government on May 26th each year;
educate ourselves and other Canadians about our collective history of government policies which impacted Aboriginal communities and other ethnic groups; and
develop commemoration sites and encourage communities to join in the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation;
AND WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has a mandate to learn the truth about what happened in the residential schools and document the truth of what happened by relying on records held by those who operated and funded the schools, testimony from officials of the institutions, and experiences reported by survivors, their families, communities and anyone personally affected by the residential schools;
AND WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission held, and continues to hold, hearings throughout the Northwest Territories, allowing survivors to tell their stories, share their pain and educate all Canadians about a sad and unjust part of our collective history;
AND WHEREAS June 11th is the anniversary of the Prime Minister’s full apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian residential schools system;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Legislative Assembly thank the members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada for the work they have done in the Northwest Territories and across Canada;
AND FURTHER, that the Legislative Assembly honour the survivors who have shared their suffering with great dignity in order to promote healing and reconciliation.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have jotted down a few notes. I will say some more later on to this motion.
From the early ‘60s through the late ‘70s, never have I imagined that a government, let alone people who would one day want to observe a day in the life of a student of a survivor of a residential school, like me who grew up in such an institution. There are many me’s in this situation.
Like I said earlier, when I was sitting home this weekend, we are the ones who made it out. As the saying goes, only the strongest survive, and we also had enough of carrying the whole world on our shoulders and we need to let it go and let’s get on with life. That’s why we are honouring the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They are providing one of those avenues that allows us, and for this we say thank you to those who are involved with truth and reconciliation. We say thank you for the ones who fought for us. We say thank you for the ones who told us to speak up. We say thank you for the ones who told us to talk publicly and to say what it’s like for them. For that we say thank you for those who encouraged us.
May 26th, Mr. Speaker, should be marked in all of our government institutions as a day to stop for a moment and to think of families, friends and the ones who aren’t here today with us. We need to honour, and we need to honour knowing those persons, because they went through what we went through. Every time you think back of a residential school, we think of names and we acknowledge the past and you have to move on, Mr. Speaker. Enough is enough.
This government, the federal government especially have been pushed by the former students of residential schools. We pushed them to educate the bureaucracy about what happened. We pushed them to let them know what kind of policies at one time was to believe was right, only to find out later on, as we got more educated, it was to get rid of people like me and get rid of the native people of everything. They even went so far as stealing our children and only to return them to their homes as strangers.
The federal government made the apologies four years ago, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed to hear the truth of what really happened in the schools and to record the experience of these schools. The cloak of darkness has been lifted and we must keep this cloak up as we need to allow the light to shine in these dark places of our souls to begin the path of forgiveness and reconciliation and to allow our communities to heal.
So, Mr. Speaker, I stand here because of my will to live and my thanks to many people who have helped me and, of course, my mom and my grandparents. There are thousands of survivors in our communities, thousands who need a pat on the back and the recognition for being the ones who have gone to residential schools. We need to say thank you to those students for breaking trail for us. We need to say thank you, thank you, so that we can enjoy what we have today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Motion is in order. I’ll allow the seconder to speak. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased and honoured to be able to second this motion. The issue of residential school is a chapter of Canadian history, of northern history, and it’s also a chapter of the lives of many of us that are here today. I look around this House and I think I see about eight or nine of us that went to residential school. I was 12, so that’s 49 years ago.
I’d like to thank the commission for the work that they’ve done bringing this issue to focus and helping us all embark upon a journey of healing and reconciliation, and of forgiveness, as my colleague indicated earlier. Hopefully, for all of us it’s possible, of course, for closure at some point. So as Mr. Yakeleya said, we can move on, we can acknowledge and place this experience that we’ve all lived through – and for some of us our parents and even our grandparents lived through – in its perspective and not allow it to control our lives.
So it’s an honour to stand here. I acknowledge and pay my respect and honour to all of the other folks that went through residential school, the survivors.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve chosen over my life to try to focus on what I think is one of the very positive aspects from my experience, and that is the very many good, life-long friends that I made in residential school and that I have to this day. Some are sitting here beside me and it was the good part. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion. Mr. Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to stand today to support this motion on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories and my fellow Cabinet Ministers. The residential school system has had long-lasting effects on the people of the Northwest Territories, their families and their communities, and on Aboriginal people across Canada. Generations of children were separated from their families at a young age. They often lost their language and their culture. They sometimes suffered abuse. Instead of growing to be strong, healthy peoples and good parents, they struggled with addictions and mental health issues.
All the Members of this House know friends and family who attended residential school. Some of us attended them ourselves. We have firsthand knowledge of how people’s lives have been touched by the experience of the residential school system. The effects have been far-reaching and passed on to our families and communities, even to those who never attended residential school. We still see the results in our health and social services system and in our correctional system.
The Government of the Northwest Territories recognizes the negative ways that the residential school experience has affected our people. We know that healing is essential if we want to have healthy, educated people contributing to a strong Northwest Territories.
Healing is not possible without true understanding. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is playing a vital role in promoting healing in the Northwest Territories and across Canada. Through its work gathering statements from those affected by residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is helping people learn what happened at residential schools.
Almost a year ago the commission held its northern national event in Inuvik. The event included sharing panels, sharing circles and private statement gathering, as well as daily expressions of reconciliation. These were important activities that have helped promote understanding, reconciliation and new relationships with our Aboriginal peoples.
Healing is a lifelong journey and can often be difficult. The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to supporting our people in their healing journey. In October 2005, the 15th Legislative Assembly passed a motion officially recognizing May 26th as the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation. We are still the only government in Canada to officially recognize this day. As Members have heard this afternoon, the government continues to offer support to all those who are affected by the residential school experience. We provide mental health and addictions services across the territory and we will be working with communities to develop wellness plans to support community designed wellness programming. Later this year, the North Slave Correctional Centre will be the first correctional facility in the country to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission come in and record statements from residential school survivors. Education, Culture and Employment has developed a new curriculum, focusing on the history and legacy of residential schools that will be introduced in the fall.
Officially recognizing the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is another way that the Government of the Northwest Territories can support our residents in their healing journey, and make sure that all people learn the truth of what happened in residential schools. I and my colleagues wish to express our thanks to the commission and will stand in support of this motion today.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission does deserve to be recognized for their truly incredible amount of hard work here in the Northwest Territories. There is a lot to do yet. I’m excited that we can stand in this House, have a presentation with them and to commend them for their hard work.
I know that as I travel to the communities in the North, especially to my communities in the Nahendeh, that people were excited to see them and I think the excitement was about a chance to be heard and for their stories to be heard. Their role is like ours as MLAs. I think that they do want to make a difference in the people’s lives with so many people impacted in all the regions throughout Canada.
I’d like to concentrate on some of the positive things in the Ministers’ statements today, talking about getting out to the jails and having the residential school system and syndrome explained in our schools with the curriculum change. All those little things make a difference in our people’s lives, and they should be commended on that and the many other great things that should be coming out as they complete their work.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to rise and thank the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that has done some tremendous work to bring to light the experiences of our people that have gone through the residential school.
I, too, went through the system. I kind of wanted to shed light in terms of some looking-forward philosophy.
One of the things that has really created a big imprint in my life is just re-learning the aspects of our culture. One thing that’s very prominent in my mind is the legend of Yamoriah and the story of creation and how this land was created. I always felt that at some point in our lives, as we go forward embracing this culture and our past, that at some point in our lives, whether it’s this generation or the future generations, that we will become giants, like the two brothers that graced this land and created a lot of the paths and trails that we lead. Eventually our people will become giants and serve in this society and try to help out this world.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. I’ll allow the mover of the motion to have closing remarks. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to say thank you to the honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger, for seconding this motion. Mr. Miltenberger, I recall, said, I think it was in 2005, seven years ago, I remember having this discussion in 2005 and at that time it was very emotional, very charged, and very good.
The Premier did say that we are the only government in Canada to recognize this day and I want to say something about this government. It’s an honour to be amongst you as my colleagues, to say we’re still the only government, we are leaders up here, believe it or not, in the eyes of Canada, that we can take a step forward, as Mr. Nadli said, and become giants and say we forgive and want to move on. Truly, in the eyes of Canada, there’s a people, survivors around here, as Mr. Miltenberger said, there are four, five, six, seven of us that grew up in the system, for good or bad, for right or wrong, we know the experience. We became pretty good in sports. So good some of us want to be NHL hockey players or basketball players. Some of us even met our sweethearts and married them there. We had family. We have family right across the North. We have family from Tuk, Sachs, Deline, the Wells, Providence, Simpson. We have brothers and sisters. We grew up with them. That’s the beauty of this institution. When Mr. Miltenberger says he wants to look and try to see the good side of it, that’s what I look at today. That’s what I look at today.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is helping us. They are telling us the strong message that you’re okay. Those messages are pretty powerful when you’re five years old or six years old and told that you’re no good. Don’t speak your language. Those messages go right to the core of who we are and hurt us as we grow up. We have to keep working on ourselves. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is doing that. Just go to our jails and you’ll see the victims. The victims that worked all their lives on not being good enough. They are so bad that we have to put them in jail. Go through that system.
Today I’m very proud to be here in the House amongst my colleagues, and putting this painful, painful past behind us. It feels good. I feel good about what we are about to achieve. We are reaching a turning point in history of each of us, each and every one of us. A few years back I said we took the leap, we started sharing our pain and our humiliating experiences at the residential schools. When our whispers grew into a roar, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, like I said, was founded by the survivors. We needed to give voice to our truth and nothing but the truth. Can the government handle our truth?
There is a turning point in our history as well. Through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, all Canadians are learning about the human cost of national policies towards Aboriginal people, other people, and education, institutionalized racism, and the oppressions that are black marks of the worst kind and Canadians are ashamed of it.
There has been an official apology from the Prime Minister of Canada four years ago, something we as survivors believed would happen and that did happen.
Believe in your dreams and don’t let anyone steal your dreams. What we can be proud of as Canadians, as Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people, is that today, together we are facing history. We are brave enough, as a nation, to be honest with ourselves and the world, about our past and for what we want the present to be and our path to the future. The stories of the residential schools will go into our history books. We are already working on that here in the Northwest Territories along with Nunavut.
We will, all of us, all Canadians, look back on the residential school era as a terrible low point, like the low points of human wars. Like Martin Luther King, we Aboriginal people have a dream. We see our children’s children as well educated in their own tradition and the histories and the language, and the western knowledge, as people call it. We will govern ourselves within Canada. We will share. It is our way. It is our law as told by a great leader Yamoriah, who symbolizes the beaver, the pelts, and the arrows, and the Bear and the Mackenzie rivers banks flow through Tulita. This is more than just a dream. It is happening. We will say to our grandchildren, see how far we have come? We want to see how far you can go.
That, my friends, is partially the legacy of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I thank the commission and their staff for all the work they have done, the planning, the listening, the encouraging, the enabling, the healing.
I am so proud of the people who are speaking out and the courage they have shown. I thank them all right here in my heart. People like Lawrence Thrasher, who was the first person to speak at the TRC hearing in Tuktoyaktuk. He was a good gospel singer and he sang at that hearing right from his soul. People had just been hanging around thinking about the awful things they had lived through, and the abuse that was going on that has ripped out of the residential school. I want to quote Lawrence’s words that day: “Somebody needs help here today too. We know it and I say it’s time to release. It’s my Inuvialuit people. Time to be bold and to be brave. Time to be light and start a new life.”
Lawrence passed away not even two weeks ago. He knew, like we know, that it’s a long road that we are travelling. We are far from it. There is a lot of healing yet to be done. Different people in different communities are at different stages of their journey. We have to support them. We have to be strong in our commitment to this.
I do want to thank the ones who spoke up in times when residential school wasn’t the hot topic like today, to thank the parents for helping us when we didn’t know what lies ahead of us, and to the ones who gave their lives for me and all the survivors to stand here today. I do want to thank this government for recognizing the residential schools and to be an example to the rest of all of Canada, that as a government we do recognize our people. For that I thank you for this special day.
