ReconciliAction Resources: TRC Documents
TRC Description
Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to "civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities. For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed. Education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers. Legal action by the schools’ former students led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008. The product of over six years of research, the Commission’s final report outlines the history and legacy of the schools, and charts a pathway towards reconciliation.
Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Canada's Residential Schools - the Inuit and Northern Experience by ISBN: 9780773546547Publication Date: 2015-12-09
Canada's Residential Schools - The Métis Experience by ISBN: 9780773546561Publication Date: 2015-12-09
Canada's Residential Schools - Missing Children and Unmarked Burials by ISBN: 9780773546585Publication Date: 2015-12-09
Other TRC Resources
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada : calls to action byPublication Date: 2015
A Knock on the Door by
"It can start with a knock on the door one morning. It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer." So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools prepared by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Between 2008 and 2015, the TRC provided opportunities for individuals, families, and communities to share their experiences of residential schools and released several reports based on 7000 survivor statements and five million documents from government, churches, and schools, as well as a solid grounding in secondary sources. A Knock on the Door, published in collaboration with the National Research Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, gathers material from the several reports the TRC has produced to present the essential history and legacy of residential schools in a concise and accessible package. Survivor and former National Chief of the Assembly First Nations, Phil Fontaine, provides a Foreword, and an Afterword by Aim#65533;e Craft introduces the holdings and opportunities of the National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, home to the archive of recordings, and documents collected by the TRC.
ISBN: 9780887557859Publication Date: 2016-01-01- The survivors speak : a report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada byISBN: 9780660019833Publication Date: 2015
- They came for the children : Canada, Aboriginal peoples, and residential schools by For over a century, generations of Aboriginal children were separated from their parents and raised in overcrowded, underfunded, and often unhealthy residential schools across Canada. They were commonly denied the right to speak their language and told their cultural beliefs were sinful. Some students did not see their parents for years. Others, the victims of scandalously high death rates, never made it back home. Even by the standards of the day, discipline often was excessive. Lack of supervision left students prey to sexual predators. To put it simply the needs of tens of thousands of Aboriginal children were neglected routinely. Far too many children were abused far too often. But this story is about more than neglect and abuse. Those painful stories rightfully have captured national headlines. They are central to the story this book tells. But there is more to tell.Call Number: E96.5 .T43 2012ISBN: 9781100199955Publication Date: 2012
- What We Have Learned : Principles of Truth and Reconciliation byISBN: 9780660020747Publication Date: 2015
