September 20 @ 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm
This Indigenous Speaker Series session brings together a panel of survivors of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada. This important session will welcome and honor these brave and resilient survivors to lead us in a discussion about the urgency and motivation to right and write a new history in Canada that is based on a proper redress for Indigenous peoples and communities. We Welcome the Children Back Home is an expression to acknowledge those survivors in our families and communities who are hurt and hurting, and who are simultaneously coming to terms with the past and finding a way forward.
Indigenous Speaker Series
The Indigenous Speakers Series is an original and important platform to begin, continue and advance the conversation about telling the truth and reconciling for the future. First Nations in British Columbia and Canada possess an exceptional ability to speak. This gift is unparalleled in the context of Indigenous history and origin in Canada. When we think of the great leaders of the recent past it brings forward the presence of our Ancestors. The ability to perpetuate oral histories that are anchored to the beginning of time speaks to a confidence that is simultaneously spiritual and modern. There has never been a more important time to call upon our elders, leaders, scholars, and people to speak about our individual and shared truths and to anchor compassion in reconciling for the future.
As health systems in British Columbia begin to develop, improve and implement standards of Cultural Safety and Humility, and policies to manage racism and discrimination, it is both timely and relevant to advance our individual and collective understanding about Indigenous peoples – First Nations, Métis and Inuit. The Faculty of Medicine, its distributed campuses, and its associated learning, work, social, and institutional environments must reflect our best principles of Respect, Integrity, Compassion, Collaboration, and Equity in a deliberate effort to Transform Health for Everyone – and to transform our own academic culture for all students, faculty and staff. You are welcome to join us in a spirit of integrity and understanding in this original new series
Panelists
Moderator
Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement
Description
Written by Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement
Think of where you were on June 11th, 2008.
There have been many descriptions about the Indian residential school experience in Canada that maintain Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit, Métis – peoples lost their language, lost their identity, lost their culture, that children lost their innocence. We didn’t lose anything. Our individual and collective purpose to sustain who we are and where we come from was stolen. Beautiful and bright children were completely dispossessed of everything and anything resembling their own language, their own identity, their own culture, and their own innocence. Robbed of all that is good and wholesome, robbed of anything resembling the people they come from, robbed of the surety of confidence and innocence. This history that stole our children, and who are children no more.
Be mindful of what you’ve done since September 30th, 2022, and September 30th, 2023.
On September 21st, 2022, in a solemn effort to acknowledge the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation we brought together a panel of people who are children of Indian residential school survivors. The conversations on that day inspired a shared desire to stand together in love and support for these brave speakers whom endured the legacy of abuse, hurt, trauma, and grief. The day was filled with sorrow and uncertainty, and it was also overflowing with forgiveness, understanding and confidence.
On September 20th, 2023, we are bringing together a panel of survivors of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada. This important session will welcome and honor these brave and resilient survivors to lead us in a discussion about the urgency and motivation to right and write a new history in Canada that is based on a proper redress for Indigenous peoples and communities. We Welcome the Children Back Home is an expression to acknowledge those survivors in our families and communities who are hurt and hurting, and who are simultaneously coming to terms with the past and finding a way forward.
Think about what you will do between September 30th, 2023, and September 30th, 2024.
September 30th, 2023, will mark the 3rd annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This important day is an opportunity for all Canadians and British Columbians to think about the continuing legacy of the Indian residential school experience in Canada as well as the broader impact of colonialism, oppression, assimilation, and racism against Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit and Métis – peoples. It’s a chance to enrich our individual and collective understanding of the past and to create a new chapter in our shared history that is founded on the principles of respect, truth, reconciliation, and redress.
June 11th, 2008, marked the formal statement of apology to former students of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on behalf of all Canadians. We’ve known before and since this apology that this horrific experience also includes those children that never made it home, that we’re buried at former sites of Indian Residential Schools, and that never got to experience the acknowledgment of an apology nor the comfort of being able to come to terms with their past, with their family, with their community.
Topic: We Welcome The Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada
Date: Wednesday, September 20th, 2023
Time: 12:00 – 3:30 pm (PST)
What Will I Learn?
You will learn about the context of truth, reconciliation and redress from survivors of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada.
