Author to discuss Commission findings

FAITH COMMUNITY HOSTS JAMES DASCHUK IN FORUM TO DISCUSS TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

An award-winning author and researcher will speak in Lethbridge this week, as part of the faith community’s response to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

James Daschuk will respond to some of the commission’s findings on Wednesday, while sharing his research into the impacts of European settlers taking over aboriginal hunting grounds in the mid-1800s. The public presentation is being sponsored by the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, the city’s Ecumenical Campus Ministry and several Lethbridge churches.

The Saskatchewan professor’s book, “Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life,” won the Governor General’s Award for scholarly research in 2014. It’s since been named “one of the 25 most influential books of the last 25 years” in Canada.

“Many churches were involved in running residential schools, and the United Church was one of them,” says Mary Shillington, chair of the justice, peace and social action group at McKillop United.

As a result, she says, the Lethbridge congregation is involved in the truth and reconciliation process. It is working on understanding the truth before moving on to reconciliation, she adds.

As part of that process, it has partnered with members of Southminster United and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd as well as other sponsors to host the no-charge event. The Wednesday, 7 p.m. presentation will be followed by an extended time for coffee and conversation in the Southminster Hall.

Daschuk’s book provides “a key starting point to that understanding,” Shillington says.

It describes the impacts of climate, old-world diseases and early Canadian politics in the subjugation and death of many thousands of First Nations people.

“Truth and reconciliation is important to all of us,” she says.

“So we invite students and seniors, Indigenous and Metis, city and small town folks,” among others.

Representatives of the city’s Truth and Reconciliation task force have also been invited to bring their plans to the event and share in the conversation. The University Book Store is also bringing copies of Daschuk’s book for all interested.

A graduate of the University of Winnipeg, Daschuk is an associate professor in the kinesiology and health sciences department at the University of Regina.

His book has sold more than 20,000 copies and was named as one of the “25 most influential books” of the past 25 years by the Literary Review of Canada.

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