Several years ago a celebrated aboriginal artist called an ordinary journalist, who now works for the St. Albert Gazette, to ask for help concerning a court case he was fighting. Due to a number of circumstances, that help never amounted to much, but the first words of that artist were burned into that reporter’s memory: “I heard that you are a good white man.”
A good white man? That reporter had never done much but honestly listen to and write the stories of a relatively small number of native and Metis people. Some of the stories were adventurous, such as taking part in a sweat or witnessing a sun dance. Some were tragic, detailing the struggles of residential school survivors. Others were just about the everyday lives these people experienced as they dealt with family, employment, health and social issues.
Still the responsibility that artist bestowed with his words come to mind, particularly after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its report this week. As good people, or good citizens if you will, the rest of us have an obligation to read the report and to honour its intent to the best of our ability.
Canada’s aboriginals are politely, but seriously asking us to listen to them in English – our language and not necessarily their first tongue. They frame their arguments so that we can understand the way they see things. If Justice Murray Sinclair, head of the commission, says Canada’s treatment of aboriginal peoples is tantamount to cultural genocide, then we should take his carefully considered words seriously. He is not kidding. When one out of two children forced into residential schools in the early days of the program didn’t make it out alive, then an argument could be made that this catastrophe, through disease, neglect or abuse, may have been more than cultural. It is not enough for good people to argue the legality of the words. Arguing semantics, in this case, is quite frankly demeaning and missing the point.
With the report, the aboriginal community is also asking for our help in practical terms. It spells out what it needs to address the many problems it faces in 94 recommendations. The recommendations are not wishy-washy. They are indicative of a people who want to move forward, but cannot as they continue to carry burdens of the past. When the report asks for Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, our leaders should listen. When the report asks for protections of aboriginal languages, after our terrible shared history, how can we argue? When aboriginals come together to ask for a full inquiry into the unsolved deaths and disappearances of more than 1,000 aboriginal women – their daughters, wives and mothers – we owe it to them to listen.
And when the aboriginal community asks governments to help them find and identify the thousands of children who died without a trace, we should all take a moment to think of our own children. Good white men, as that artist put it long ago, cannot look the other way. Our entire society demands no less. Justice Sinclair says: “Words are not enough.” True, but they are a start and now we must act as good Canadians.
