Once in everyone’s life they will most likely receive an apology, which then they reply with something along the lines of “that’s not enough.” This is something I noticed when visiting the Museum of Anthropology and going through the exhibition on the indigenous residential schools. When you go through the exhibit there are long posters hanging from the ceilings which have the apologies from the various institutions that took part in the treatment of the students at the time of the residential schools, apologies included ones from various churches as well as the well know apology given by Prime Minister Steven Harper. Personally these apologies, when I first read them were touching and made me think differently for maybe a split second and that’s when I read the Speaking to memory comment books.
In these books visitors like me had commented in them about what they thought about the exhibition and something I noticed was that a lot of the comments had to do with the apologies. Some of them were positive however there were numerous negative comments concerning these apologies. People went as far as writing that the apologies were nothing but words and had no greater meaning then any other word. What was surprising was that these sorts of comments were written by people who had dealt with intergenerational effects. What this made me realize is that even though the TRC was suppose to allow people to overcome the atrocities of the indigenous residential schools and bring people together, there were some who just weren’t connecting with what was trying to be achieved. Which makes me raise the question of whether or not the TRC is accomplishing what it had hoped to? I ask this because if there are still individuals who feel like they are not being helped, does it highlight that the institutions that apologized may have been only doing so to gain sympathy from the public?
I agree with you in that apologies can sometimes seem a bit hollow. While I was going through the modules for Diamond Grill, I watched Stephen Harper’s Canadian Head Tax Apology and felt that the apology wasn’t really sincere. However, for the audiences who may be less critical, can be manipulative. Naomi Angel talks about how apologies that have been made on behalf of the government for past injustices may be done to make a distinction between the past and present (that is, the past being an awful time of crime and oppression, and the present being a clean slate, one where people are encouraged to “reconcile” and “move on”). When such a distinction is made through governmental policies, or the establishment of the TRC, it can foster a sense of false consciousness in society, as people may think that their nation is progressive, and fail to see present injustices that are still plaguing the marginalized.