The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one that was initially discussed about in this blog. My first blog post was talking about the powerful exposition in the Belkin Art Gallery. This time, the exposition I will be talking about can be found in the Museum of Anthropology. The exposition talks about the conditions that student had to live in, with archives on government documents and the formal apologies institutions made regarding Residential Schools with some other elements that do make this exposition one of a kind. The main focus of this blog post is to outline the ways in which size is used with the apologies and a further analysis on the use of the formal apologies.

When referring to the formal apologies that institutions make towards the issue, the first thing that you notice is that they are occupying a large window to be presented. The 8 apologies are hung, however, the print seems very small. Furthermore, the colours that the exposition employed are to a degree monotonous, black and white, with very contrasting characteristics.

The immediate reaction, or at least the personal one, is that the letters, the apologies, are present, but, insignificant. The use of the large drapes on which they are presented make the apologies look or seem a bigger deal than what they really are. The apologies seem to be to an extent vague and mostly apologize for the involvement of a certain institution with residential, but never was the direct root of the issue addressed, meaning that the institutions now possess little or even no liability of residential schools.

Nevertheless, the perception that the apologies , after personal analysis, demonstrate that the apologies have not been enough and I would also like to expand on that. Most of the archival material that regards newspaper articles touches on the continual marginalization of the First Nations people in Canada. What seems so incredible to me is the fact that there are statistics that are painful even to watch. For example the “Globe and Mail” reported that 23% of prisoners in Canada are aboriginal (CTV News backs up this claim http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/report-to-show-aboriginal-prison-population-has-risen-to-23-per-cent-1.1184973). When put into perspective lets think about it this way:

Imagine the marginalization of an individual from the modern day Jewish community in Germany. An individual who is profiled, attacked and constantly discriminated by even state force. We would not dream of it! Never!

Then why do we allow it to happen in places like Canada? Why do we allow state-sponsored violence on the community that was once almost vanished and eradicated through systematic rape and psychological damage?

The apologies are not enough, because society has not done to accept them back.