Experiencing Witnesses: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools was an incredibly intense, heartbreaking, powerful experience for me, as well as a transformative one. It brought up someone questions that I think I’m going to explore in another (probably more positive) post. As a very recent inhabitant of Canada, I’m no expert on Canadian current or historical events– please let me know if I have an inaccurate understanding of something. During the exhibit, and while writing this post, I kept thinking “who am I, to have an opinion on this?” As a white woman, those are not my stories, this is not my struggle, and I am most definitely a product of a long line of colonizers– something I definitely have to keep in mind as I learn about this.
“When the Apology by Stephen Harper happened on June 11, 2008, I was both amazed and enraged. I never thought it would happen in my lifetime, or even ever, but how empty it seemed and how quickly it came and went on the Canadian consciousness was unsettling.” – Chris Bose, creator of the video art piece “Savage Heathens”
The full text of his apology is visible immediately upon entering the Belkin gallery in the form of Cathy Busby’s enormous piece “We Are Sorry.”(Exhibition catalogue with artist’s statements available here.) Frustratingly, Harper’s words manage to sound much more sincere as a written piece than spoken aloud. In the wake of massive, devastating budget cuts to First Nations organizations, the Canadian government’s apology is more powerful on paper than in practice.
In an earlier installation, Cathy Busby listed 12 programs that have had their budgets seriously or completely slashed. I noticed that quarter of them are organizations for First Nations women, and each of those organizations (Sisters in Spirit, Native Women’s Association, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada) has had their funding cut by 100%. This is just one example of Canada’s disenfranchisement of Aboriginal women– later that day, I came across an article on the Globe and Mail: “Canada rejects UN call for review of violence against aboriginal women.” The UN Human Rights Commission has asked the Canada to look into the extremely high rates of violence against First Nations women, and Canada has refused. Said Elissa Goldberg, Canada’s UN Ambassador, “Canada is proud of its human-rights record, and our peaceful and diverse society.”
When Aboriginal women are 3% of B.C.s population, but 33% of women who are missing or murdered, is that a “peaceful and diverse” society? How about when the families of those women are told that their mothers, sisters, and daughters deserved what happened to them? A report* published by the Honourable Wally T. Oppal, QC Commissioner investigates this disturbing, upsetting pattern, focusing the missing women of British Columbia. Racialized violence is alive and well in Canada, and Stephen Harper’s apology was a solitary Governmental healing step amidst a slew of harmful ones. I hope that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is able to spark real change for Canada.
*This link is for the executive summary (time to apply your summary knowledge) of the report. It can be found in full on Connect (good luck…) under “Web Links.” I think it’s there as an additional resource for Missing Sarah, one of our books for next term. How’s that for connections?