Upon entering the “Speaking to Memory” exhibit located in UBC’s Museum of Anthropology (MOA), I was greeted by the infamous Duncan Campbell quote regarding the “Indian problem” with an image of the dilapidated St.Michael’s residential school building as its backdrop. Right away, I was hit with mixed emotions. On one hand I admired the frankness in presenting the horrible institutionalized racism of the period, an era when the assimilation of First Nation peoples in this country was thought to be the morally right thing to do. However, I couldn’t help but feel a sort of presumptuous view that this sort of racist attitude is as dilapidated as the St. Michael’s building. I suppose these mixed emotions I felt were emblematic of the challenges in any attempt at creating a museum exhibition of a traumatic human experience.

The written testimonials that filled one of the main walls in MOA’s exhibition are probably the most powerful in terms of emotional impact. The quotes are taken from interviews with First Nations people who unfortunately had to undergo the residential school process. Many of them spoke of considerable corporal punishment, suppression of the indigenous language, and even sexual assault. Oddly enough however, the museum did include a few “positive” testimonials to balance it out. I suppose there’s a good and bad to everything and this was an attempt to show that the residential schools weren’t all that bad for every indigenous person…yet it still felt random amidst the vast majority of negative experiences plastered on the wall. One also wonders if those who said they had positive experiences might have been uncomfortable with sharing any trauma.

I then proceeded to examine the apologies from members of various churches in Canada as well as the Prime Minister. The Anglican Church was possibly the least heart-felt apology in my opinion. Possibly because I interpreted the apology as essentially saying ‘we did wrong, but God ultimately forgives…so should you!’ I found that there was still a hint of arrogance in the Anglican Church’s apology that disregards the extent to which they tried to de-legitimize the spirituality of Indigenous cultures. However, the Presbyterian Church’s apology was much more accepting of their actions and explicitly mentioned that they were perpetuating wrongly held ideals of colonization.  Arguably, the most important apology on display was by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper’s apology was well-articulated and had the right words, but the fact that First Nations groups in Canada have become more vocal in voicing their discontent with the Federal Government in these past few years (“Idle No More particularly gained strength in the last couple of years”) it is hard to believe his words as much more than political rhetoric.

In the end, I do believe that the “Speaking to Memory” exhibition in the Museum of Anthropology is a valuable educational tool. Although I do not believe that ‘curating’ the trauma of residential school victims adds any finality to their healing process, at the very least, it is a small step towards enlightening all Canadians to the darker side of our nation’s history.