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Articles on Focus: Truth and Reconciliation in Canada

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Margaret Swan, left, embraces Mariette Buckshot after she spoke during an Indian Day school litigation announcement in Ottawa, Tuesday, March 12, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Indian day school survivors are seeking truth and justice

Canada is accepting claims emerging from a settlement with survivors of Indian day schools, but there has yet to be a public inquiry. There is an urgent need to hold Canada accountable.
Rocks painted with the message “every child matters,” commemorate Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30, about creating meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and their legacy. (Province of British Columbia/Flickr)

Racism contributes to poor attendance of Indigenous students in Alberta schools: New study

A study in one Alberta school board found racism contributes to poor attendance of on-reserve Indigenous students in public schools, despite educators not recognizing this as a barrier.
We need more positive Indigenous-settler alliances like the one with Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, which created 24 km Freedom Road to provide access to the Trans-Canada Highway. Here a teepee frame sits beside Shoal Lake. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

How the COVID-19 crisis calls us towards reconciliation

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis could represent an opportunity to live up to all the recent talk of reconciliation in Canada.
The keeper of hundreds of Kwakwaka’wakw songs, Kwaksistalla Wathl’thla (Clan Chief Adam Dick), chanting at a feast (qui’las) with Mayanilh (Dr. Daisy Sewid-Smith). (Bert Crowfoot)

Indigenous song keepers reveal traditional ecological knowledge in music

Ancestral Indigenous songs often encode territorial responsibilities and rights, such as in relationship with ‘lokiwey’ (coastal clam gardens) on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The Beardy Blackhawks show solidarity after a game, thank each other and bring the game to a close, at Beardy’s Okemasis First Nation, Sask., Nov. 21, 2019. Robert Henry

Bring back Beardy’s Blackhawks: Indigenous hockey team eliminated from Sask. league

The Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) recently eliminated the Beardy’s Blackhawks Midget AAA team — but needs to reconsider the team’s crucial community role in an era of reconciliation.
Regional Chief Terry Teegee speaks to the press n Victoria on Oct. 24, 2019 after Premier John Horgan announced Indigenous human rights will be recognized in B.C. with new legislation . THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolit

B.C. takes historic steps towards the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but the hard work is yet to come

British Columbia recently introduced groundbreaking legislation to implement the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of this historic achievement.
Cancer rates are rising among Inuit and critical oncology specialists and treatments are often located in urban centres, thousands of kilometres away from remote communities in Inuit Nunangat. (Alex Hizaka)

An Inuit approach to cancer care promotes self-determination and reconciliation

A ‘shared decision-making’ model enables collaboration with Indigenous communities within Canada’s health-care system - to respond to TRC Calls to Action and address rising cancer rates.
The system of ‘birth alerts’ across Canada perpetuates the removal of children from Indigenous families begun by residential schools. Pictured here: a historical report on residential schools released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

British Columbia’s ban on ‘birth alerts:’ A guiding light on the road to reconciliation

To make meaningful progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, all provinces and territories should promptly follow B.C. and ban discriminatory ‘birth alerts.’
Despite challenges, teacher education offers a path to begin righting inequities and injustice. Here, people stand on a map from the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada at a launch in Toronto in 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

Teaching truth and reconciliation in Canada: The perfect place to begin is right where a teacher stands

Decolonized education means working with settler teachers to overcome guilt and find the courage to acknowledge privilege, racism and colonialism to work in partnership for a better future.
Apologies without clear policy shift are typically rejected as ‘empty gestures.’ Here, more than 100 Indigenous people march on Parliament Hill in 1981 to protest the elimination of Aboriginal rights in the proposed Canadian Constitution. The Canadian Press/Carl Bigras

The road to reconciliation starts with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

It’s the 12th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada has yet to implement this declaration even though the TRC says the road to reconciliation needs to start here.
Language is a complex structure. Here, Jeremy Dutcher performs during the Polaris Music Prize gala in Toronto on Sept. 17, 2018. Dutcher’s award-winning album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa is in the Wolastoqey language. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin

Ancestral languages are essential to Indigenous identities in Canada

The presence of Indigenous peoples in conversations in Canada about the flourishing of Indigenous languages and critical Indigenous education is essential.

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