After spending some time learning, reflecting, and discovering the ways of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) back in  september, it was left in the back of our minds where many of us still had burning questions about it. Now after visiting the exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology on February 11th, I have seen another side of the TRC.

Because of the history around residential schools, there is a large amount of pain and suffering that many aboriginal people faced and still currently do face to this day. This includes experiences of assault, sexual assault, mental abuse, and even trauma from the events that the aboriginal people experienced. In september, we focused on the suffering that many of the aboriginal people faced. Many of us visited the “Witnessing” exhibit at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery back in september where there was a focus on the pain and suffering felt by the aboriginal people.

I found it to be the opposite at the “Speaking to Memory: Images and Voices from the St. Michael’s Residential School” exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology. For me personally, I found this exhibit to contain more of a positive vibe that reflected the positive experiences the students had while they spend their years at the St. Michael’s residential school. Although some of the pieces in this exhibit were not positive, others were including the series of photos in Beverly Brown’s photo collection which came from a camera that she carried around while attending the St. Michael’s residential school. She stated that her father would always ensure she had enough film to take pictures during her stay and encouraged her to take as many as she could (Brown). These photo’s found in this collection are all fellow students that Beverly Brown attended school with and in almost all the pictures, the children are happy and smiling (example). Because of the joy and happiness one can see in the children’s faces, it would be fair to say that this shows many of the children’s strength and resilience to the pain and suffering they did face. It demonstrates their strength and resilience in the way that even though the conditions are bad, the children are still able to laugh and smile around each other, while they strengthen each other. Like one can see in the example, the students are all named and identified with an area in which they came to St. Michael’s from. This naming was done to the best of Brown’s ability from what she remembers to this day, and also helps to show the bonds that the students created with each other in order to find this strength.

Another positive aspect that was in this exhibit was the letters of apology posted. The letters posted where written by many from the Catholic church, to the RCMP, and even Stephen Harper and the government of Canada. They all reflected around the same idea of the wrong doing that was done in the past but the moved on to the desire to do better and bring a brighter and better future where such events do not take place. The letters all do state that what is the past is the past and cannot be undone, but that does not change what we can do for the aboriginal people now and in the future with hope of forgiveness.

This exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology tells a different story that the one back in september at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, but can really make one question all that goes on and where they stand on these horrible past events around the TRC.