REVISITING THE REPORT
Where does Truth and Reconciliation stand now?
Two and a half years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report was released along with its 94 Calls to Action, the question remains — is it working?
Ry Moran is the director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, based out of the University of Manitoba. He spoke with Postmedia News about how he feels reconciliation has gone so far, what’s working, what isn’t and what needs to happen next.
While he is encouraged by important steps taken by governments, including adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a commitment to establish the National Council for Reconciliation, Moran said there is still a lot of room to grow.
Q Is reconciliation unfolding in the way you envisioned it would?
A In the education sector ... I would say nearly all jurisdictions are attempting to bring authentic Indigenous perspectives into the classrooms ... And of course like all of this stuff, it’s not without its problems. It’s not that there are not plenty of examples of maybe students receiving misinformation or instructors perpetuating some of the myths that have continued to exist in the country, but the effort is being made. Now, is it perfect? No. Not by any means, but there is an effort there.
Q What about on an individual level?
A For all of this nice big-picture stuff, the reality is very little has changed in the day to day lives of Indigenous peoples ... The health crisis continues to rage, the suicide epidemic continues to burn, there are still multiple communities on boil water advisories ... There is an ever-increasing number of kids in care, and there remain persistent inequalities in funding formulas that the federal government is trying to rectify, but they persist nonetheless ... There’s a real tension between the need to act in the immediate and the time that it takes in order to create the structures to really start improving, in a tangible way, the lives of Indigenous peoples.
Q Are individuals not keeping up with the changes that are being made at group levels?
A We know that there are still a lot of people that remain largely unaware of the fact the we had a truth commission in this country ... We also, at that time, probed and determined that while many people had heard of residential schools, most people were not able to clearly articulate what the true intent and effect and harm of those residential schools were. Canadians just remain largely unaware of what the true history of this country is.
Q Is that the inevitable order of change — group and then individual?
A First and foremost, there is an individual responsibility for reconciliation and everybody has the power and potential to change ... The idea is that the more we educate Canadians on just how awful Indigenous peoples have been treated, most Canadians are good people, most Canadians will rise to that level of moral responsibility and say, ‘My God, we need to get this right, because what has happened is wrong.’
Q A lot of reconciliation efforts have centred on renaming buildings or acknowledging when we’re on Indigenous land. Are we too caught up in these symbolic gestures and not addressing the more concrete calls to action?
A Let’s not underestimate the power that sincere, informed, acknowledgment of traditional territory actually has because when you acknowledge territory, what you’re doing is you’re acknowledging the thousands of years of history that preceded the country that we call Canada ... That’s a very important first step to actually just being in relationships with Indigenous peoples.
Senator Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said time might be better spent exploring how to honour Indigenous heroes instead of just tearing down statues and removing names.
As we rename places, or as we explore new names or as we add additional context to those names and really ensure that Indigenous perspectives on all of these places is actually occurring, we will begin to have a much more honest depiction of who we are as a country ... When an Indigenous child walks into a school named Sir John A. Macdonald School, and perhaps knowing full well that the person for whom the school bears the name of really wanted to eliminate him and his parents and his grandparents from this country, is that a safe place for learning?
Q Have you seen anything that you feel is counterproductive to reconciliation?
A The one danger in all of this though is tokenism ... Tokenism is where you bring an Indigenous person on and just expect the status quo to be completely acceptable and that does not work ... It’s not just enough to change a couple names and add a person to a board or add a new Indigenous position to an institution.
Q Is this still happening?
A It’s happening all over the place for sure ... But the powerful thing is that Indigenous peoples are also way less tolerant of that and are naming it and are saying that this is not acceptable.
Q Are there any particular calls to action that you feel aren’t being addressed?
A It’s easy to talk about the action that’s being undertaken but we have to ask ourselves, is it resulting in a tangible change and is it tangibly improving the lives of Indigenous peoples? We really have to be very conscious about measuring that and using the right metrics as determined by Indigenous peoples as to what success actually looks like.
But we lack the depth of information ... of what actually is going on and is it actually changing and is it achieving the desired results that we’re intending to have, which is the creation of a respectful and just society?
Q How and when will we know that?
A We don’t have a state of reconciliation report as of yet, but we will ... That will say what’s happening in health, what’s happening in education, what’s happening in child and families, what are the steps that we need to take, how we’re going to get there, who’s responsible for what, what are the blockages, what are the shortfalls ... It’s some years out.
Q In the meantime, what can individuals do?
A On CBC a little while ago, I asked five questions. Can you name the traditional territory that you live in? If not, why? Have you ever talked to an Indigenous person? If not, why? Have you read an Indigenous author or listened to an Indigenous musician or watched a film created by an Indigenous producer. If not, why? Have you ever attended a ceremony before? And if not, why? ... Those are very simple steps, and they’re things that people can do if they feel so inclined.
Q Are governments doing enough?
A Is it enough? I’ll never say that it’s enough. And I don’t think you’ll ever hear from a single Indigenous person that it’s enough, but is it changing? Absolutely it is. The question is, how we are going to ensure that this stays successful over the long term?
This is not solely a governmental responsibility — it’s the business community, it’s faith communities, it’s municipalities. It’s the federal government, the provincial governments, and it’s all of us as individual citizens.
This may be the greatest, truest democratic initiative ... in the sense that it really relies on all of us as individuals to take the tangible steps forward to make this into a fair, respectful, just and equal society — equal for everybody, because right now it’s not.