Reconciliation | Facing History & Ourselves
Facing History & Ourselves
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Reconciliation

Richard Wagamese describes his road to reconciliation with the legacy of trauma, violence, and abuse of the Indian Residential Schools.  
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This resource is intended for educators in Canada who are teaching in English.

At a Glance

Reading

Language

English — CA
Also available in:
French — CA

Subject

  • History
  • Culture & Identity
  • Human & Civil Rights

Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway man from the Wabasseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He is a professor, a journalist, and the author of many books, including Indian Horse. Although not a residential school graduate, Wagamese was deeply affected by the residential schools. The majority of his extended family went to these schools, and he grew up in the context of their legacy of trauma, violence, and abuse. In the following essay, he describes his road to reconciliation. The essay explores the strength, spiritual resources, and resilience many indigenous people turned to in their personal journey to peace.

I lived in two foster homes until I was adopted at age nine. I left that home at age sixteen; I ran for my safety, my security, and my sanity. The seven years I spent in that adopted home were filled with beatings, mental and emotional abuse, and a complete dislocation and disassociation from anything Indian or Ojibwa. I was permitted only the strict Presbyterian ethic of that household. It was as much an institutional kidnapping as a residential school.

For years after, I lived on the street or in prison. I became a drug user and an alcoholic. I drifted through unfulfilled relationships. I was haunted by fears and memories. I carried the residual trauma of my toddler years and the seven years in my adopted home. . . .

My brother Charles tracked me down with the help of a social worker friend when I was twenty-five. From there, I returned to the land of my people as a stranger knowing nothing of their experience or their pain. When I rejoined my people and learned about Canada’s residential school policy, I was enraged . . . I knew that those schools were responsible for my displacement, my angst, and my cultural lostness. For years I carried simmering anger and resentment. The more I learned about the implementation of that policy and how it affected

Aboriginal

people across the country, the more anger I felt. I ascribed all my pain to residential schools and to those responsible. . . .

But when I was in my late forties, I had enough of the anger. I was tired of being drunk and blaming the residential schools and those responsible. I was tired of fighting against something that could not be touched, addressed, or confronted. My life was slipping away on me and I did not want to become an older person still clinging to a disempowering emotion like the anger I carried.

So one day I decided that I would visit a church. Churches had been the seed of my anger. . . . I chose a United Church because they had been the first to issue an apology for their role in the residential school debacle. They had been the first to publicly state their responsibility for the hurt that crippled generations. They were the first to show the courage to address wrongdoing, abuse, forced removal, and shaming. They had been the first to make tangible motions toward reconciliation. . . .

I was uncomfortable at first. . . . Then I noticed the old woman beside me sitting with her eyes closed as the minister spoke. She looked calm and peaceful, and there was a glow on her features that I coveted. So I closed my eyes too and tilted my head back and listened.

I ceased to hear the liturgy that day. . . . Instead, with my eyes closed, all I could hear was the small voice of the minister telling a story about helping a poor, drug-addicted woman on the street despite his fear and doubt. All I heard was the voice of compassion. All I heard was a spiritual, very human person talking about life and confronting its mysteries. . . . I went back to that church for many weeks. The messages I heard were all about humanity and about the search for innocence, comfort, and belonging. I do not know just exactly when my anger and resentment disappeared. I only know that there came a time when I could see that there was nothing in the message that was not about healing. . . . After I came home to my people I sought out teachers and healers and ceremonies. . . . What I heard from that minister those Sunday mornings was not any different from the root message of humanity in our teachings. With my eyes closed there was no white, no Indian, no difference at all; the absence of anger happened quietly without fanfare. . . .

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes its tour of the country and hears the stories of people who endured the pain of residential schools, I hope it hears more stories like mine—of people who fought against the resentment, hatred, and anger and found a sense of peace. Both the Commission and Canada need to hear stories of healing instead of a relentless retelling and re-experiencing of pain. They need to hear that, despite everything, every horror, it is possible to move forward and to learn how to leave hurt behind. Our neighbours in this country need to hear stories about our capacity for forgiveness, for self-examination, for compassion, and for our yearning for peace because they speak to our resiliency as a people. That is how reconciliation happens. 1

Although the term reconciliation is quite popular among activists and scholars in the field, it is not entirely accepted by some Indigenous Peoples. 2 They argue that the term does not fit Canada’s history—that there was never a period of peaceful relationship between the Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian settlers, and so the re in reconciliation is wrong. They argue that they aim for conciliation instead. John Amagoalik told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,

Since Europeans arrived on our shores more than five hundred years ago, there has never really been a harmonious relationship between the new arrivals and the original inhabitants of North America. The history of this relationship is marked by crushing colonialism, attempted genocide, wars, massacres, theft of land and resources, broken treaties, broken promises, abuse of human rights, relocations, residential schools, and so on. 3

Connection Questions

  1. What does the word reconciliation mean?
  2. What were the milestones in Richard Wagamese’s process of reconciliation? What did he find in the church? How did it alter his views about the church? About his pain?
  3. Wagamese argues that “both the Commission and Canada need to hear stories of healing instead of a relentless retelling and reexperiencing of pain.” Do you agree with his statement? What might be gained from hearing stories of conciliation and reconciliation?
  4. Why does John Amagoalik prefer the term conciliation over reconciliation?
  • AboriginalAboriginal: Stemming from the mid-seventeenth-century Latin term aborigines, meaning “original inhabitants,” Aboriginal is the preferred legal term in Canada for the large and diverse grouping of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit nations. It is used synonymously with the term indigenous in various parts of Canada.
  • 1Richard Wagamese, “Returning to Harmony,” in Speaking My Truth: Reflections on Reconciliation & Residential School, 153–158, available at the Speaking My Truth website. Reproduced by permission of Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
  • 2John Amagoalik, “Reconciliation or Conciliation? An Inuit Perspective,” in Speaking My Truth, 37–38. Reproduced by permission of Aboriginal Healing Foundatio.
  • 3John Amagoalik, “Reconciliation or Conciliation,” 37. See also Rupert Ross, “Telling Truths and Seeking Reconciliation: Exploring the Challenges,” in Speaking My Truth. Reproduced by permission of Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, "Reconciliation," last updated September 20, 2019.

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