Students in Yukon will be learning more about residential schools this year.
Yukon schools will be using material prepared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Commissioner Marie Wilson said the recordings made by the TRC belong
to all Canadians, which is why the TRC is putting its material online
and in the public domain.
"This is Canadian public history and is really essential," she said.
Anyone can reproduce the material, make physical copies of books or create publications with survivors' stories.
Different publishing houses are already adapting the TRC's material
"I think the point of it all is that there's no one publication that tells the whole story," Wilson said.
Making the material available for free also saves money, Wilson said.
"In Ottawa we had 500 copies of things that we prioritized in sharing
out with survivors who were there," she said.
"We can't say that we've provided enough copies for the 70,000 survivors that are alive today, not for all the schools."
In Yukon, the department of education has already worked with the
Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation to produce a hard copy book called
Finding Our Way Home.
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The Department of Education says it will use TRC materials in
classrooms this year. The department established a Grade 10 Social
Studies unit on residential schools last year.
The book
Survivors Speak and other titles can be downloaded for free from the TRC website.
A sense of relief and a sense of accomplishment is how Dene National
Chief Bill Erasmus described the mood in Ottawa as the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission released its 94 recommendations on how the
country can move forward after residential schools.
Now that the truth is out, it's up to Canadians to take on the role of reconciliation.
"All Canadians have a personal responsibility to learn about this
time in Canadian history," she said in a statement. "Before
reconciliation can truly move ahead, we all need to know the truth of
what happened."
It's estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 Inuit from Nunavut attended residential schools.
 |
| Therese Ukaliannuk of Igloolik, Nunavut, says
her 6-year-old daughter was taken to residential school while she was
in the south with tuberculosis. She never saw her daughter again, or
learned where she was buried. (CBC) |
"We still have much grieving to do for this time in our lives and our
families and our history, and must continue to work to find ways to
heal and move on to healthier futures," Towtongie said.
In a news release, the Makivik Corporation said it is pleased with the TRC's work and its final report and recommendations.
"Now we have been given the whole story and a blueprint to recovery.
Let's do it," said Jobie Tukkiapik, Makivik Corporation president, in
the release.
Therese Ukaliannuk, an elder from Igloolik, Nunavut, who now lives in
Iqaluit, told her story to Igalaaq host Madeleine Allakariallak in
Inuktitut.
Ukaliannuk's six-year-old daughter was sent south to residential
school while she herself was in the south receiving treatment for
tuberculosis. The little girl never returned.
Her mother never learned where she is buried.
