An apology: more harm or more good?

June 11th was a historic day in Canada. Yesterday, the Canadian government formally apologized for the racist policies that created and perpetuated the Residential School, one of the most tragic institutions in our history. The Residential School was the result of government and religious leaders getting together to legalize the complete assimilation of aboriginal peoples into the white population, socially, spiritually and culturally. The idea was that school-aged aboriginal children were not just mandated, but often forcibly removed from their homes and communities, and taken long distances to these schools, where their language and culture were forbidden, and the punishment for non-compliance could be harsh or even brutal.


The Government, viewing the Aboriginals as somewhat second-class citizens who needed civilizing, got together with the churches who viewed Aboriginals as godless heathens, and worked out a deal where the Churches would run these schools, and the Feds would fund them, thus solving the "Indian problem." Estimates are about 150,000 kids went through these schools, and while many suffered no direct physical or sexual abuse, the fact remains that children were abused, and regardless of any physical or sexual abuse, they were still culturally violated.

I'm having a hard time dealing with this subject, given my already well-documented neuroses regarding my identity. My experience can't count for much, given that I am one of the lucky ones in regards to residential schools. I never had to attend one, and perhaps more crucially to my generation (since we were generally not required to go to these schools), I suffered no incidental trauma because my father did spend a year in the Residential system in high school. But (and there always a but with me)...I do live with the straining legacies of those who attended. I, like many, have lost the language of my heritage because it was deemed 'uncivilized.' The isolation felt by students, their families and friends permeates throughout everyday relations, which leads to so many problems when it comes to interacting with Canadian society at large. And it is a community marked with ugly stereotypes of addictions, violence and sloth by a few ignorant people.

This apology has been a long time coming from government. Now that deals have been made, and reparation monies doled out to surviving students, it is safe to make this apology, as cynical as that sounds. You know, it's odd...Jette said something to me recently about how 'sorry' never does anything (and I'm the cynic??), it never fixes anything. But the more I think about it, the more I have to hope that 'sorry' is a start to healing.