From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V12 #134 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Friday, June 13 2008 Volume 12 : Number 134 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous People [handa] Re: [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous People [g] Re: [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous [handal@r] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:01:30 -0500 (CDT) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous People Hello: These kinds of trauma and their results are more than a little familiar to any Tori person. Patriarchal dominance takes many forms. I wonder if the U.S. Congress is gonna pass *our* apology resolution. I hope Tori hears that the Canadians took this historic step to end their institutional silence after all these years so some healing can begin. Violence of every type needs to end. We're killing our world and our selves. End of sermon. Richard Handal, H.G. _____________________________________________________________________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAmUe17nUdY [part 1, 7:06] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyxJ-zpYDkE [part 2, 6:12] http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=2146 [also with video] Prime Minister Harper offers full apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian Residential Schools system 11 June 2008 Ottawa, Ontario [ . . . ] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061100419.html Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous People By DeNeen L. Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 12, 2008; Page A01 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a long-anticipated apology yesterday to tens of thousands of indigenous people who as children were ripped from their families and sent to boarding schools, where many were abused as part of official government policy to "kill the Indian in the child." Harper rose on the floor of a packed House of Commons and condemned the decades-long federal effort to wipe out aboriginal culture and assimilate native Canadians into European-dominated society. "The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly," Harper declared. "We are sorry." [ . . . ] "The memory of residential schools cuts like merciless knives at our souls," Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which represents 633 indigenous communities across Canada, told the House yesterday. Fontaine, who wore a chief's headdress of eagle feathers in the legislative chamber yesterday, is widely credited with being the first aboriginal person to go public about abuse he experienced in a boarding school. "These were lonely places," he said in an interview. "We were separated from parents and families. I was one of the people who suffered physical abuse as well as sexual abuse. Sadly, I am not unique." Crowds of indigenous people poured onto Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday, many seeking words to help them heal individually and bring a balm to communities where poverty and alcoholism is rampant. Television images showed a woman in a black robe bowing her head and rocking. Sad and wrinkled faces of survivors watched large television screens on the lawn of the Parliament building. [ . . . ] Duncan Campbell Scott, who was Canada's deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, wrote in a government document: "I want to get rid of the Indian problem. . . . Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic." The "kill the Indian in the child" wording is attributed to Scott. Officials say the Canadian schools imitated industrial schools built in the United States. On Feb. 26, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that apologized for atrocities committed against Native Americans. "The Federal Government condemned the traditions, beliefs, and customs of Native Peoples and endeavored to assimilate them by such policies as the redistribution of land . . . and the forcible removal of Native children from their families to faraway boarding schools," it reads in part. The resolution, which urges President Bush to acknowledge the wrongs against Indian tribes, is awaiting action in the House. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Canada-Indian-Apology.html Prime minister apologizes to native Canadians By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 12, 2008 Filed at 3:46 a.m. ET OTTAWA (AP) -- Canada's native leaders say the government's apology for a policy that forcibly removed aboriginal children from their homes to assimilate them into Canadian society makes it possible ''to end our racial nightmare together.'' From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools. Their treatment at the schools where they were often physically and sexually abused was a sad chapter in the country's history, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. Harper apologized Wednesday from the House of Commons, with Indians packing the public galleries, gathered on the lawn of Parliament Hill and watching the live broadcast across Canada. The objectives of the program ''were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal,'' Harper said. ''Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country.'' ''We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions, and that it created a void in many lives and communities and we apologize,'' Harper said. Harper also apologized for failing to prevent the children from being physically and sexually abused at the schools. Hundreds of former students witnessed what native leaders call a pivotal moment for Canada's more than 1 million Indians, who remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group. There are more than 80,000 surviving students. Among those attending was the oldest school survivor, 104-year-old Marguerite Wabano. Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and one of the 11 aboriginal leaders seated near Harper, wore a traditional native headdress and he and other Indian leaders were allowed to speak from the floor after opposition parties demanded it. One man banged his drum inside the House of Commons during ovations after the day's speeches. ''Finally, we heard Canada say it is sorry,'' Fontaine said. ''The attempt to erase our identity hurt us deeply, but it also hurt all Canadians and impoverished the character of this nation. We must not falter in our duty now. Emboldened by this spectacle of history, it is possible to end our racial nightmare together,'' he said. The federal government earlier admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs. In 1998, Canada's former Indian affairs minister Jane Stewart expressed ''profound regret'' for the establishment of the schools, but some Indian leaders didn't consider that apology sufficient. The First Nations Leadership Council said earlier this week that there had still been debate over whether Stewart's statement constituted a full apology. Fontaine has said that it didn't come from the nation's top leader. And Michael Cachagee, president of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, has complained that statement lacked detail on ''children being ripped from their parents.'' That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations. Fontaine was one of the first to go public with his past experiences of physical and sexual abuse. Willie Blackwater, who said he was repeatedly raped and beaten by a dorm supervisor when he was 9 years old, called the apology a pivotal moment in his life. ''I think this is a start of a long healing relationship,'' Blackwater said. Cachagee, who was 4 years old when he was placed in a school where he was abused, said it was a sincere apology. ''It was a good day for Canada.'' The apology comes months after Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a similar gesture to the so-called Stolen Generations -- thousands of Aborigines forcibly taken from their families as children under assimilation policies that lasted from 1910 to 1970. But Canada has gone a step farther, offering those who were taken from their families compensation for the years they attended the residential schools. The offer was part of a lawsuit settlement. A truth and reconciliation commission will also examine government policy and take testimony from survivors. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and educate Canadians about a grim period in the country's history. - ------ On the Net: Assembly of First Nations: http://www.afn.ca Indian and Northern Affairs Canada: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca Truth and Reconciliation Commission: www.trc-cvr.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:29:34 -0400 From: gaseous clay Subject: Re: [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous People one time at band camp, Richard Handal (handal@r2d2.reverse.net) said: >These kinds of trauma and their results are more than a little familiar >to any Tori person. Patriarchal dominance takes many forms. I wonder if >the U.S. Congress is gonna pass *our* apology resolution. I hope Tori >hears that the Canadians took this historic step to end their >institutional silence after all these years so some healing can begin. i guess i should point out to all that i turned off the moderation setting on this list last week. figured it wouldn't be a big deal since there are few of us left on-list and those who post tend towards to judicious in our posts. i don't know if i would have approved richard's post or not. i certainly agree with the sentiment and i'm sure tori does as well but precious-things is intended for tori-specific stuff and it probably would not have passed muster -- at least as-is with all the text included. that said, i'm still going to leave the list unmoderated for the time being. dunno if it will generate more traffic or not (seeing as we're a quiet bunch) but it can't hurt too much considering just *how* quiet we are. so now y'all know! wheeee! woj p.s. non-subscribers, of course, can not post, so there will not be an influx of spam due to this change. in case anyone was wondering... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:49:02 -0500 (CDT) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: Re: [pt] Canadian Government Apologizes For Abuse of Indigenous Oh, I think that pointing out similarities between the ways Native peoples and women have been treated by the patriarchal systems in place in the world could scarcely be *more* related to Tori than anything else could be! The theme of silence in Silent All These Years is specifically like this Indian abuse issue; it's the same type of silence. The psychology is identical! The silence always needs to end before healing can start! Yikes! Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V12 #134 **************************************