Residential School Survivors and federal government work together to achieve truth and reconciliation

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As a member of the governing circle for the NCTR, Arcand has worked with the TRC in organizing these meetings in Saskatchewan.

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“We want to make sure that all of the information is available to everyone in this country and across the globe. We’re getting feedback from residential school survivors and what shape it should take and how we should move forward,” Arcand said.

The challenge has been locating and combing over all of the information on this dark part of Canada’s history, said NCTR director Ry Moran.

According to Moran, they have been able to collect over five million government and church records as well as 7,000 statements from survivors in Canada.

“We’re sitting down with the intergenerational survivors of the residential schools to talk to them about the records that have been collected by the TRC.

“We just want to touch base with survivors to see where they are at with things. How comfortable they feel with releasing this information to the public because there’s a lot of sensitive and personal information in these records and it’s one of those things where we want the community to drive the process,” Moran said.

The NCTR, which is located in the University of Manitoba, will also be available in an online database. The website, which is set to launch in November of this year, will ensure the general and former students and their families have a place to research and learn about their past and the history of residential schools.

“(People) will be able to search them, watch the statements, listen to the survivors,” Moran said.

The project is part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) implemented in 2007.

Besides recognizing the damage inflicted by the residential schools and establishing a $2 billion compensation package for approximately 86,000 survivors at the time, the federal government began working on what would become the NCTR.

Prince Albert was the fourth stop of Moran’s tour across the country. There will be a total of 17 communities visited from White Horse, Yukon to some Northern Quebec communities.

“A lot of survivors want the Canadian public to know about this information, they understand the value in that.

“They want this in schools, they want people to know about what happened to them. They don’t want this cycle of colonial abuse to continue,” Moran said.

“There’s a fair amount of emotion about this stuff. Anytime you talk about residential schools there’s still a lot of pain,” he continued.

Arcand declined to comment on his personal story, but rather looked at the big picture of what the NCTR means for him and the rest of Canada.

“It has a huge meaning to all of us,” Arcand said.

“At least it’s in our control and we’re grateful to the University of Manitoba and its partners for taking on that challenge.”

knguyen@jpbg.ca

Follow on Twitter: @khangvnguyen