Before Truth: The Labors of Testimony and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Abstract

Truth commissions are based on the premise that dialogue about past crimes, violence, and abuse can alleviate the suffering of victims and ease the relationship between oppressed and oppressor. They also assume a certain relationship between history and memory, presuming a duty to remember and the need for a re-articulation of history through memory. This paper examines the context and dynamics of the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission (IRS TRC) established in Canada in 2008. By exploring the uses of testimony at the IRS TRC's first national gathering, the essay focuses on the interplay between constructs of nationhood and forms of public intimacy. In considering both the public testimony given at the gathering and the larger, nascent narratives formed there, the essay demonstrates how survivors participating in the IRS TRC negotiate and challenge colonial relations of power while also strengthening and repairing intimate, familial relations.

Notes

¹ This research has been funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

² Wherever possible, I have included the Indigenous identities of authors in this text. For discussion on the role of Indigenous identity and location in relation to research practices, see Absolon (Anishinaabe) and Willett (Cree) 2005.

³ For the purposes of this paper, I use the term ‘Indigenous’ to refer to Inuit, Métis, and First Nation populations in Canada. Each was affected by the IRS system. My intention is not to flatten the differences between these distinct groups. I also use the term ‘Native’ interchangeably with ‘Indigenous.’ The term ‘Aboriginal’ is generally used by government bodies to refer to Indigenous peoples in Canada and is also used colloquially by many Canadians to refer to Native populations. For the reasons outlined by Alfred and Corntassel (2005), I use the term ‘Indigenous’ over ‘Aboriginal’ unless quoting sources directly.

⁴ The original mandate was set to end in 2013. However, within the first year of the commission's work, the original three commissioners resigned. Arguments regarding the mandate, relationships with key stakeholders, and infighting led to a failed first commission (‘Justice LaForme Resigns’, 2008). In 2009, the commission re-grouped with three new commissioners: Justice Murray Sinclair (Anishinaabe), Chief Wilton Littlechild (Cree), and Marie Wilson. The mandate was extended to 2014.

⁵ The traditional ceremonies depend on where the event takes place. In Winnipeg for example, the commission held a Powwow. In Inuvik, certain forms of drumming and dancing, and the lighting of the qulliq (a type of oil lamp) were incorporated. All three of the events included the lighting and maintaining of the sacred fire. At the end of each of the events, a portion of the ashes from the fire was saved to be brought to the following national gathering.

⁶ For a discussion of how these colonial regimes worked in Canada to define ideas of family, gender and sexuality, negatively affecting Indigenous cultures and traditional practices, see Emberley (2007).

⁷ ‘Survivors’ is the term used by both former students and the Commission for those who attended the IRS system.

⁸ The literature on truth and reconciliation commissions encompasses a diverse range of work. Some of the relevant literature focuses on comparative analysis (Hayner 2002; Grandin 2005), literature and narrative (Krog 2000; Sanders 2007; Slaughter 2007; Corntassel et al. 2009), memory studies (Amadiume and An-Na'im (eds) 2000; Gomez-Barris 2009) and broader legal frameworks and transitional justice (Arendt 1994; Regan 2007).

⁹ This is not to suggest that preceding commissions conformed to uniform standards. There is variation and difference among the commissions. See also the International Center for Transitional Justice's Fact Sheet, ‘Canada's TRC: Special Challenges’.

¹⁰ See Magarrell and Wesley's (2010) Learning from Greensboro: Truth and Reconciliation in the United States for a case study that, although not a national TRC, also arose from the bottom up. In 2007, the Qikqiktani Inuit also established a local, community-based TRC to deal with the treatment of Inuit people by the Canadian government (see www.qtcommission.com). Gacaca courts in Rwanda have also been touted as arising from the bottom up (see Venter 2007; Thomson and Nagy 2011).

¹¹ In May 2006, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was approved by all parties involved in the lawsuit (initiated in 1998). The Agreement included financial compensation for IRS survivors and called for a national truth-telling commission to bring greater awareness to the history and legacy of the IRS system.

¹² I use ‘collective memory’ here to highlight that individual memories are framed through social structures including religion, family, and community (Halbwachs 1992). I distinguish collective memory from official history in that collective memory is often transmitted through ‘unofficial’ means – folklore, oral traditions, ritual and so on (Hirsch 1997). At the same time, it is important to note that this distinction is not absolute and there is much overlap between history and memory (Jelin 2003).

¹³ Other projects include Isuma TV's online channel devoted to residential school survivor testimonies, largely recorded in Inuktitut (with translations in English available), and the testimonies gathered by the Legacy of Hope Foundation (see http://www.isuma.tv/testimony-isuma and http://www.legacyofhope.ca/projects/our-stories-our-strength).

¹⁴ See Basil H. Johnston's foreword in McKegney (2007) for a personal account of an IRS survivor's frustrations with clinical psychology's approaches to healing.

¹⁵ The official apology was met with mixed responses. At a G20 event in Pittsburgh on 26 September 2009, Prime Minister Harper denied that Canada had a colonial past, adding fuel to debates about the apology's sincerity. For a greater discussion of the Prime Minister's remarks see Henderson and Wakeham (2009) and Dorell (2009).

¹⁶ Elizabeth Povinelli (2002) writes about these two registers in relation to multicultural rhetoric in Australia.

¹⁷ For the most part, I have focused specifically on the Indigenous or Canadian issues in dealing with testimony. However, the literature on testimony has largely taken shape through studies on trauma, narrative, and the Holocaust. In addition to Laub and Felman (1992) see Miller and Tougaw (2002), Caruth (1995), and Derrida (2000). See Krog et al. (2009) for one complex example of testimony from the South African TRC and the labors of listening.

¹⁸ The events in Inuvik and Halifax included simultaneous translation for several indigenous languages for most events. The Winnipeg event did not.