{"id":77712,"date":"2021-06-24T16:06:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T20:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=77712"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:13","slug":"more-residential-schools-discoveries","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/more-residential-schools-discoveries\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid more shocking residential schools discoveries, non-Indigenous people must take action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Amid more shocking residential schools discoveries, non-Indigenous people must take action\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Indigenous communities are beginning to use ground-penetrating radar to find hundreds of unmarked graves<\/a> long known to be at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools<\/a>. This week, 751 more children\u2019s bodies were discovered at former Marieval Indian Residential School<\/a> in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says<\/a> he\u2019s \u201cappalled by the shameful policy that stole Indigenous children from their communities.\u201d And Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller characterizes it as \u201cshameful\u201d<\/a> that the Pope has declined to apologize for the Catholic Church\u2019s role<\/a> in running the schools on Canada\u2019s behalf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-Indigenous Canadians may likewise feel ashamed and implicated in Canada\u2019s genocidal practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Indigenous<\/a>
\n Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller stands during a moment of silence in the House of Commons for the 215 children whose remains were found at a former residential school in Kamploops, B.C. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld<\/span>)<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scholars make a distinction between guilt and shame<\/a>. Guilt is when I recognize that I have done<\/em> something wrong. If I\u2019ve hurt someone, or broken something through carelessness, I might feel guilt. Shame is a feeling of being<\/em> wrong, or bad. It is sticky, and it attaches to our sense of self rather than our actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, shame is the kind of bad feeling we are encouraged to reject, because it\u2019s been forced upon us about things that there\u2019s no inherent shame in \u2014 our bodies, our faith traditions, our sexuality. However, there is a place for naming the feeling of being implicated in collective wrongdoing<\/a> as \u201cshame.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research<\/a> has shown that many white people started what became valuable contributions to collective anti-racist transformations when they felt shame about benefiting from racism or racist structures. Recognizing and naming the shame pertaining to Indian Residential Schools can be an important starting place. But what comes next? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many suggest<\/a> that settlers educate themselves. They can read the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)<\/a>, follow investigative initiatives<\/a>, watch films<\/a> and read books<\/a> from the viewpoint of survivors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A next step is to demand accountability from the Canadian government by writing to<\/a> elected representatives and lobbying for legislative change. And non-Indigenous people can donate money<\/a> to support survivors or reparation work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shame turns us inwards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

White settlers in particular may have a tendency to focus too much on themselves when confronted with racism and colonialism in terms of their self-education and political self-expression. The feeling of shame tends to turn people inwards<\/a>, yet we\u2019re all connected in some way to Canada\u2019s genocidal past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White people can participate in collective work by standing with Indigenous Peoples. After listening and advocating, we can respond to the TRC\u2019s Calls to Action<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
\n A boy puts down tobacco as a tribute to all the victims of the residential school system outside St. Francis Xavier Church in Kahnawake, Qu\u00e9bec. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graham Hughes<\/span>)<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Non-Indigenous people who aren\u2019t white might also find some traction in these approaches, but since racialized people have been and are themselves targeted by both the Canadian state<\/a> and white racists<\/a>, their collective work will be different<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often instances of shame, such as an implication in genocide, are points of connection in our lives. They might show us things we are genuinely moved to work on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone is deeply committed to their church community, for example, and discovers that it was directly involved in residential schools, educating their congregation and initiating its responses to the TRC Calls to Action might be a natural next step. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A person who cares about the environment might turn towards supporting Indigenous land defenders<\/a> in places they care about, here and abroad<\/a>. Someone who cares about teaching and education can support school-centred<\/a> actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past efforts to show solidarity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Non-Indigenous people have been involved in solidarity work for many years in ways that might be instructive for responding to the legacies of Indian Residential Schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1990s, there were examples like Settlers in Solidarity with Indigenous Sovereignty<\/a>, Anti-Racist Action members in Toronto who fought against<\/a> white supremacist fishing and hunting groups and Reaction SIDA members who supported the Kanien\u02bckeh\u00e1\ua789ka people<\/a> as they defended their land from development during the Oka Crisis at Kanehsat\u00e0:ke<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we see some settlers protesting alongside Wet’suwet’en<\/a>, Secwepemc and Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations in their efforts to defend their land<\/a> against logging, chemical spills from mining slag and the effects of petroleum pipelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing solidarity and getting involved are connected to the work of actively responding to the TRC Calls to Action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Thousands
\n Thousands of people, including Indigenous leaders and environmentalists, march together during a protest against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Burnaby, B.C., in 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/span>)<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most effective non-Indigenous participants in this kind of work<\/a> resist the impulse to act like individual heroes<\/a>, martyrs or \u201cwhite saviours.\u201d They support and stand by Indigenous people instead of making it about themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For people getting involved in ongoing projects \u2014 of which there are many \u2014 key starting points include listening more than talking, not trying to introduce big new ideas, taking up the non-glamorous work and not speaking for others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who don\u2019t burn out by trying to do everything, who are in it for the long haul and who help build useful collective organizations<\/a> \u2014 those who other people can count on for years of support and collaboration \u2014 turn out to be the most effective contributors to social transformation at the scale needed for addressing Canada\u2019s treatment of Indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Carleton University is a member of this unique digital journalism platform that launched in June 2017 to boost visibility of Canada\u2019s academic faculty and researchers. Interested in writing a piece? Please contact Steven Reid<\/a> or sign up to become an author<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nCarleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Indigenous communities are beginning to use ground-penetrating radar to find hundreds of unmarked graves long known to be at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools. This week, 751 more children\u2019s bodies were discovered at former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he\u2019s \u201cappalled by the shameful policy that stole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":77713,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-77712","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-expert-perspectives"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77716,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77712\/revisions\/77716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=77712"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=77712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}