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.