Photo: Simon Bedford
Photo: Simon Bedford
“When you work for our community, you must do everything you can to make it better, then pass it to the next one....” These were my late grandfather’s (Chief Dan Minde) words to me in Cree as a twelve-year-old. I was and had been a residential school student for six years already. The true meaning of this instruction really took on full significance for me during these past six years. Thank you to my fellow Commissioners—Justice Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson—and all those who helped me focus our work as a sacred trust. What a blessing it has been.
We have listened very carefully to many courageous individuals in our search for the truth. Through pain, tears, joy, and sometimes anger, they informed us about what happened. My gratitude and admiration of your strength and resilience to those who shared your views on how we can and how we must work together very hard for reconciliation going forward. The encouraging advice from one of my schoolmates was, “It starts with me, I need to make things right with our Creator, the Great Spirit.”
The one recurring message for me throughout the public hearings was the necessity for the essential step of returning to spirituality through our languages, cultures, and land. We have all been guided in our journey by the seven universal gifts, sacred teachings towards having good relations or better relationships with mutual respect. In the many different ways we gathered stories in a safe setting, thank you to those who provided medical, cultural, and spiritual support. Also, to the many who prayed for us throughout the years, hai hai! Thank you.
While there are many significant highlights, for me, four solutions for “making things better” stand out. I believe Treaties are a solution. They are a basis for a strengthened partnership that calls on us to work together. I believe that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a global consensus, offers us a true framework for reconciliation. I believe the greatest opportunity for positive change is in lifelong learning, holistic education. I also believe these are best achievable if we work very, very hard on unity. We now know from many Survivors’ testimonies that in building on the strengths of our people, the power is in family. Reconciliation will come through concrete action on these priorities.
Finally, let me conclude by extending the best I learned from fellow Survivors to my own and extended family for their sacrifice, patience, and being there for me: Helen, Megan, Neil, Teddi, and my grandchildren Shaynna, Cleveland, Summer, Keeshon, Nea, Jack, Ava, Jaylynn, and Konnar. The seven most powerful words: “I’m sorry, I love you, thank you.”
Chief Wilton Littlechild
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