Article Link: Inuvik to host next truth commission event
April 29, 2010
The IRS TRC has announced that it will host its next national gathering in Inuvik in June 2011. The commission is currently still planning the first national gathering to be held June 16 – 19, 2010 in Winnipeg. See an excerpt from the CBC.com article below or to read more, click here.
The Inuvik hearing will allow former residential school students across the North to share their personal stories and feelings with the commission, which will compile an historical account of the Canadian residential school experience.
Organizations representing the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit peoples in the N.W.T. worked together on a motion to have the national meeting in Inuvik, given the high number of students who attended residential schools there and in Aklavik, N.W.T.
It is also believed that the Delta has the highest concentration of former residential school students in the country.
Upcoming Event: Visual Citizenship at NYU
April 21, 2010
I’m excited to attend! See the program for the conference here: Visual Citizenship: Belonging Through the Lens of Human Rights and Humanitarian Action – April 23 – 24
On April 6th, I posted a link to an article about the church’s involved in the IRS TRC process. The article, largely based on comments made by the IRS TRC’s Research Director John Milloy, suggested that several of the churches, particularly the Catholic church, were reluctant to hand over relevant documents. The IRS TRC has since offered an apology for these statements. Read an excerpt below:
Mr. Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the commission, has sent a letter of apology to representatives of the Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and United churches to distance the commission from John Milloy’s comments, which first appeared in a Trent university newspaper.
“It was, in fact, Professor Milloy himself who brought the matter to my attention, with his assurance that he profoundly regrets the tone, language, and assumptions cast within his statements,” states the letter. “The Trent article, I am assured, is an example of one’s impatience winning over one’s passion to ‘get the job done.’”
For the full article in the Globe and Mail, click here.
(Thanks to Max, Leonard, and Nicole for sending me IRS TRC related news coverage!)
“I believe that in the indeterminacy of drawing – the contingent way that images arrive in the work – lies some kind of model of how we live out lives. The activity of drawing is a way of trying to understand who we are and how we operate in the world.”
- William Kentridge
An exhibit of William Kentridge’s work is currently on display at MOMA in New York until May 17, 2010. I went to see it the other day with my friend Lauren and am now completely enamored with his work. Before visiting the exhibit, I knew a bit about the artist, mostly through his work on an amazing play called Ubu and the Truth Commission, but didn’t have a sense of his range and diversity. For the most part, Kentridge, a South African artist, deals with the realities of living in an apartheid and post-apartheid state. He engages issues of oppression, resistance, hatred, love and desire through several mediums including drawing, film, printmaking, collage, and theatrical performance. Go see it!
The image above: William Kentridge. Drawing from Stereoscope 1998-99. Charcoal, pastel, and colored pencil on paper. For more on Kentridge at MOMA click here or for a review, click here.
In today’s Globe and Mail, there is an article about the difficulties facing the IRS TRC in procuring records from the Indian Residential Schools run by the Catholic church. The church cites privacy laws in an effort to withhold their documents. Read the article here, and an excerpt from journalist Bill Curry below:
The Roman Catholic Church is balking at the release of Indian residential schools documents that name individual church members, insisting its concern is purely about respecting Canada’s privacy laws and not an attempt to cover up new allegations of abuse.
But the research director for Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission says the denominations involved in residential schools are being unco-operative, and suggests the Catholic church in particular fears more abuse stories will come out against living members.
The Conservative government and the churches that helped run Canada’s Indian residential schools are sitting on mountains of archived material, but not a single page has yet been turned over to the commission.
The above image runs alongside the Globe and Mail article and is from the Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, date unknown.
UPDATE: IRS TRC issues apology for tone of recent statements regarding the handing over of documents from churches. See my April 8th post or read more here. The original interview given to the Trent University paper is available here.
April 8th, 2010 – IRS TRC Open House
April 2, 2010
The IRS TRC is holding an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at their new offices in Winnipeg. The event is open to the public. See the invitation below:
INVITATION
Open House and Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
Thursday, April 8, 2010
11:30AM – 3PM
1500-360 Main St., Winnipeg, MB.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
will host an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday
April 8, 2010, to officially open the TRC’s offices at
1500-360 Main St., Winnipeg, MB.
We would be delighted if representatives from your office would join Chair Justice Murray Sinclair and Commissioners Marie Wilson and Chief Wilton Littlechild as well as municipal and provincial dignitaries as we ‘cut the-ribbon’ to our Winnipeg Headquarters. The proceedings will begin at 11:30AM. The open house will be an opportunity for you to visit our Winnipeg facility, chat with the Commissioners, TRC staff, and learn what we have planned for the coming weeks and months.
A light lunch will be served starting at 12:00 (Noon).
