Last Wednesday, UBC cancelled classes due to the various Truth and Reconciliation Commission events happening here in Vancouver. The purpose of this cancellation was to encourage students to attend the TRC events and to raise awareness of the Indian Residential School system that ended just seventeen years ago. The question is, did it work? (http://www.charlatan.ca/2013/09/ubc-cancels-classes-for-reconciliation-commission/)

I find myself wondering how effective canceling classes were to actually getting students to actively pursue further knowledge about the residential schools and their effects on the Aboriginal people. Could there have been a better way for UBC raise awareness for the TRC? On one hand, the cancellation of all classes is a big deal to the whole university; a few professors and classmates claim that something like this hasn’t happened since World War II. That in itself is enough to demand students’ attention and make them wonder why there were no classes. On the other hand, there were also a number of students who took last Wednesday as a “catch up on work or sleep” day. Maclean’s online newspaper says that UBC students had “mixed feelings” about the cancellation of classes, and therefore took different paths of action (doing homework, attending events, etc.). This could suggest that maybe suspending classes that Wednesday didn’t quite achieve UBC’s goal for all students to learn more about the TRC. (http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2013/09/18/mixed-feelings-as-ubc-cancels-classes-for-aboriginal-event/)

While our attitudes towards no classes may differ, I don’t think our personal feelings actually matter that much in regard to our views on the TRC. What the TRC is doing is seeking out the whole truth in what actually happened in the Indian Residential Schools and raising awareness for that truth in all of Canada (http://www.trc.ca/websites/ trcinstitution/index.php?p=4). Our views, whether we’re happy or heartbroken over the history of the IRS, should be that the TRC’s pursuit of knowledge is crucial and applicable to us, and I think that is also UBC’s view.

I am continually impressed by UBC’s efforts to recognize Canada’s Aboriginal identity in all school-wide and large-scale events by reminding students and faculty that we are on Musqueam territory. The frequency of these reminders serve as an encouragement for us to also recognize the graciousness of our hosts and to remember that they have a history.

One of the ways UBC illustrates Aboriginal history is through the Belkin Art Gallery on campus. Until December 1, the Belkin will be exhibiting Witnesses, a collection of art and videos based on the history of the Indian Residential Schools here in Canada. (http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/current/) The images of the terrible abuse and affliction that went on in the schools were sobering, to say the least. There were a series of paintings called Untitled by Gina Laing, and the sexual and physical abuse that she and others had to go through at the schools were too terrible for words. The emotional trauma and stripping of culture they had to endure was beyond the human threshold of pain in many cases.

Schools are supposed to add unto students with things like knowledge and wisdom. The Indian Residential Schools shouldn’t even be called schools in this respect. They took away students’ families, identities, dignity, health, and much more, and these “schools” lasted until 1996, just seventeen years ago! What I want to know is what did UBC do about it? As global citizens at UBC, we are called to seek justice in our world, even more so within our country. UBC is doing a great job of trying to raise awareness about the IRS now, but why didn’t I hear anything about UBC trying to close down Indian Residential Schools before 1996? UBC was already a well-established university that carried a lot of weight in Canada even back then.

I want to investigate further into this, because although UBC has succeeded in informing many students about the TRC today, I want to believe that UBC had an active role in making Indian Residential Schools history.