For many aboriginal people the residential schools established in the 1870s represent an era of pain and suffering. For over a century the experiences of the aboriginal people were ignored and unheard. This process of neglection is described by Whitlock as “unclaimed experiences” (Soft Weapons 78). These psychological traumas compressed in the hearts of those abused compounded into overwhelming amounts of emotional pressure. The aboriginal people suffered a social epidemic of substance abuse and self-harming as methods to cope with the scarring memories.

It was only on June 11th 2008, over 120 years after the first residential schools were established, that the Canadian Government issued a formal apology. Eventually the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC), was established with a 60 million dollar budget over 5 years. One of the TRC’s goals listed is to establish a “complete historical record on the policies and operations of residential schools.” However, with accounts based off of purely voluntary participation, the biases cannot help but to be skewed.

The absence of voices from school operators, teachers, and other students will form gaps in our understanding of the residential schools. These archival silences will inevitably effect “…the impact on societal memory” (Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence 217). As strange as it is, for once the social structure (the residential schools), will be the marginalized group, and the individual agents (survivors of the residential schools) will be the dominate voice heard.

What opened my eyes to the possible existence of alternative opinions (regarding the residential schools), was our visit to the UBC Museum of Anthropology’s St. Michael’s Residential School exhibit. There on a wall of mainly anguished and depressing accounts, I found several positive first hand depictions of the residential schools; one of them even describing the schools as a “pleasant” place to be.

The majority of our knowledge about residential schools comes from voluntary accounts of first hand survivors. People who seek to have their stories heard, in an effort to educate and also confront their own traumas. With no significant rebuttals offered to broaden our view of what happened, the residential school system will be document by the TRC, and recognized by humanity as one of the greatest violations of human rights in modern society.

On the morning of January 23rd 2014, I was meant to roll out of bed, still drowsy and half awake, log onto my laptop and proceed to cnn.com and be confronted with the crisis that was unfolding in Ukraine. I should have sat there staring in slight disbelief at the news that two protesters had died, being hit by live ammunition fired in a conflict between police and protesters. My mind should have drifted to the significance that was the first deaths associated with the protests in Ukraine, and I should have been imagining the political and international sh*t-storm that was about to begin. Instead CNN screamed “Justin Bieber Arrested“!

This is just one of the many example of human lives, martyred and sacrificed for unwavering belief, being trumped in the media by celebrity news. For some reason western society prefers to know the intimate and personal details of our cultural idols rather than a national uprising occurring in a another country. From our early years of schooling we are conditioned to believe that as dominant global powers we are the center of the universe and that all else that happens around us is insignificant in comparison.

News outlets such as CNN are both our masters and our pets. To an extent we control the news that is popular and headlined, though at the same time their choice of what they promote greatly influences what we perceive to be important. News outlets have to stop focusing on particular individuals whose circumstances are magnified due to their cultural popularity, and instead report news that actually effects people. The news must raise awareness on topics that actually matter to the world, and not just serve to satisfy our obsession with celebrities.