Truth and Reconciliation Commission announcement impresses

Justice Harry LaForme, a member of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation in southern Ontario, will lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission promised by the federal government as part of an out-of-court settlement with former students of Canada's Indian Residential Schools.

Harry LaForme was, "the first Aboriginal person appointed to any Canadian appellate court," and graduated from York University's Osgoode Hall Law School in 1977. He was called to the bar in 1979 and was an associate at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, before specializing in aboriginal law in a practice of his own.

Rodney Merasty is a former teacher from Pukatawagon in Manitoba, and now resident of Curve Lake First Nation, in Ontario, who said, "Many First Nations people will point to different historic events that crippled and wiped us out to near oblivion. I think that the two most damaging would be: 1. The Creation of the Indian Reserve System; and, 2. The Creation of the Residential School Holocaust."

He said, "With the Creation of the Indian Reserve System came the purposeful intent to remove the 'Indians' from the rest of the population, thus creating the 'Indian Problem.'" Indians, he said, were neatly put away so that any positive contribution they might have on their families and people would be stymied, by removal from any meaningful participation in government, church and economy in the 'outside world.'

A governing authority showed no respect for existing First Nation government and forced an unworkable scheme (of two year terms for Chief and Counsels) for First Nation governance.

"Without a reasonable share of the Gross Domestic Product in these jurisdictions we can only fight with each other (committing auto genocide) for scraps from the government, and even then, those can be eaten only if your family is connected to the chief and counsel."

The Truth and Reconciliation process will have to deal with, "the creation of the Residential School system that came with atrocities and ingredients that make up a holocaust. Murder was the order of the day from the Indian Affairs; it was murder that was perpetrated in every way imaginable."

With Justice LaForme appointed by the government to head the Truth and Reconciliations Commission, "I think that this is a very appropriate name because it makes you think that there is going to be dialogue followed by action to exposing the truth. There should be attempts towards reconciling the wrongs that were done to 'residential school survivors'."

Merasty said, "Exposing the truth may be the easy part of this evolving equation; for true reconciliation to happen there has to be a very deep understanding for the long term effects that residential schools have, including right now on our people. The damages that were done nearly completely wiped out our culture, language and identity. It will take an extremely profound intervention to correct the damages done to the Indian Family."

In reality, Merasty and his family would, "Let us plan a reconciliation as a process of restoring hope, love for each other's humanity and experiences, respect for each other's parents and siblings. True reconciliation would bring about respect for our government, and respect for all things sacred."

In a true reconciliation, "Indians would have returned the respect for our Heritage, respect for our peoples role in society, and a return of Indian self-esteem and pride in ourselves. Let us move towards attempting to restore the 'Indian Family' to what it was before the government confiscated our children. A healthy family is what was taken away from us with the advent of the Residential School System."

Merasty said, "It is not enough to think about reconciliation for just the living survivors of the residential school but reconciliation to correct the damages that are still manifesting themselves today within a very disillusioned and broken down family. In order to do justice to the children of the residential schools we must spend time and money on correcting the long term damage that continues to this day."

He noted, "Our people always communicated and shared history, family values, culture and stories through word of mouth orally. When our children were taken away from us they took away our ability to continue our tradition and culture. Children were no longer around to teach and train in the familiar ways. Then, in turn, children were abused in every way imaginable and close to 50% of them died (murdered) in residential schools."

Merasty said the ones that were 'lucky' enough to survive were left to live in a world where the only thing they had to share with their children (generations of today) was an inheritance of dysfunctionalism, "so this vicious cycle continues in many ways."

He said, "So you can see and understand why reconciliation is so much more then doling out money to survivors and their families; reconciliation is looking at the long term damage that was done; and instituting measures and steps that will at the very least reverse the trends of dysfunctional living by many of our people in our little Indian reserves."

Merasty asked, "If we were to create a successful formula to restore the Healthy Native Family I wonder what it would be. The biggest one is to address the basic needs of nuclear families to live a normal life."

He added, "A healthy family is a family that doesn't live in poverty, has their own home, and has values and cultural traditions, A healthy family speaks their Native Language, and time tested and true ancient medicines to heal themselves; a healthy family lives in hope for the future."

He encourages First Nation families to start providing these attributes, "any way we can. Let's reward all the Elders and Spiritual Leaders who construct our own parenting teachings; then let's reward mom and dads who go and learn the value of passing on truths and teachings to their children….this would just be the start."