Today in class, Dr. McNeill brought up an interesting topic for us to think about “witnessing testimony” and “consumption testimony” and how there is an ethical issue attached to it. This caught my attention and we continued a brief conversation after class, which led me to write this blog post. I have to agree with the “consumption” part in testimony because to the events and art gallery that I have attended, the former students of the Indian Residential School (IRS) re-tell their traumatic and painful stories to the audiences. After our conversation, I began to think if that is the end of the story, I feel there is a “gap” or a “space” that needs to be filled. The organizers this Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) are accepting the past and seeking for the truth to reconcile, but I question if they have alternative motives through “stories” told by the Aboriginals as consumptions or are there other meanings attached to it?

Coming to Canada for the first time last year, I did not have any knowledge on the TRC, in fact, I was overwhelmed by it. Our CAP Sociology 100 course introduced me to this topic and I had the opportunity to attend a TRC hosted event at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) located in the East Hastings, Vancouver. In this particular event, after hearing the traumatic and painful stories told by the elderly First Nations who were forced to attend the IRS, I felt terribly bad and angry. But at the same time, touched by their hardships and the suffering of different types of abuse they received and the abolishment of their culture and assimilating to the dominant one. I feel there is a lack of action taken to further take steps to solve this “deep issue”. Maybe I have not put this sentence correctly but I feel there is the process of commodification and consumption involved in the national events hosted by TRC and also in the Belkin Art Gallery as well as the Museum of Anthropology.

The TRC organizers gathering and hosting various events to attract audiences to watch and listen to the former Residential School students shedding tears and bitterness to the audience… If their purpose of creating and hosting these national events in different parts of Canada is to establish understanding and creating awareness to the Canadians and non-Canadians about their colonial past. Is this the end of the story? This point ties back into Rachel’s comment in class that Residential Schools who are controlled by the Christian system have a forward-looking vision into solving this issue, the Aboriginals, on the other hand, want to acknowledge on their past and want to look back at what suffering they had to go through. This raises an ethical concern over who is getting marginalized again.

I have found an interesting article that might contribute to this discussion, it explores on these two questions, “Who does the TRC include in the process of reconciliation? And how might I, as someone who is not Indigenous (specifically, as someone who is “white”), be engaged by the TRC?” (Snyder).