Over the past couple weeks, the University of British Columbia has made an effort to educate its students about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an organization that has become a way for those who were forced into residential schools to speak out about the abuse and pain that they endured. UBC suspended classes on September 18th to show support for the TRC and to allow its students to participate in many of the provincial events that were going on.
I was very interested in learning about the TRC because I was not aware of this organization prior to attending UBC. The first step for me was figuring out what it was all about. I remember learning about the native people of Canada in elementary school, but it was more about their culture and lifestyle, rather than the suffering they went through.
I took the opportunity to visit the Belkin Art Gallery which was featuring an exhibit called “Witnesses Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools”. I went to the art gallery as a way for me to just learn about the TRC. I wasn’t expecting to feel saddened by a lot of the art work that was shown. My first impression when I walked into the exhibit was how everyone there was so focused on the art work that was being displayed. I was extremely intimidated, but as I started looking around and reading the descriptions that accompanied the displays, I began to see why everyone was so captivated.
The artwork told stories and shared many experiences about the harsh realities that aboriginal students had to face. The drawings/paintings were the items that stood out most to me. Many of them were graphic and they usually portrayed their abuser in the way they saw them after what they put them through, not how they actually looked like. Although I couldn’t relate to their experiences, I still managed to have a better understanding and appreciation for what these past students had endured. The information that I had been learning about aboriginals started to make sense. I could understand why suicide statistics, drug abuse and alcoholism were substantially higher in aboriginal communities than elsewhere in Canada.
After being able to experience a small dose of what the native people of Canada faced, I could see why the TRC is so important. It is giving those who suffered a chance to speak out, a chance to build community, a chance to educate and a chance to move past what has been holding them back throughout all of these years.
I highly recommend that everyone takes the opportunity to check out this exhibit. It is going on until December 1st, 2013 and you could find more information on the link below:
http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/current/witnesses
You could also find more information about the TRC on their main website. It includes a list of all the residential schools, upcoming events, news and streaming of previous events that took place.
http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3