{"id":503,"date":"2013-09-25T14:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/?p=503"},"modified":"2013-09-27T14:17:07","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T21:17:07","slug":"ufv-and-the-progress-report-on-the-day-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/2013\/09\/25\/ufv-and-the-progress-report-on-the-day-of-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"UFV and the Progress report on The Day of Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The events\u00a0 of September 18, 2013\u00a0are elegantly documented by UFV Marcom’s senior editor Anne Russell in her post, UFV Indian Residential School Day of Learning examines Canada’s “greatest moment of shame”<\/a><\/h3>\n

Her post is repeated here:<\/p>\n

By Anne Russell<\/a> on September 26, 2013<\/abbr><\/div>\n
\n

\"IRSElderLady\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u201cChildren are supposed to grow up with their parents and families.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Dr. Eric Davis<\/em><\/h3>\n

It sounds like a basic human right, but for several generations in Canada, it was a right that was denied to most Aboriginal people, as children were forcibly taken away from their families to attend church-run residential schools. It was a federal government policy that was unapologetically assimilationist.<\/p>\n

When Eric Davis, UFV\u2019s provost and vice-president academic, spoke at UFV\u2019s Indian Residential School Day of Learning<\/a>, he drew a connection between some of the worst episodes in human history and the Indian Residential School experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany countries have had a moment of great shame,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGermany had the Holocaust, and South Africa had Apartheid. The Indian Residential Schools are Canada\u2019s greatest moment of shame. It should be unimaginable for Canadian students to graduate without some understanding of this experience, but the vast majority of students do graduate from university without that understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holding a day-long, multi-campus symposium that transformed the entire university curriculum for one day was UFV\u2019s way of giving its students the opportunity to learn about the history of residential schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we all learned something about the truth of the residential schools, and it is an awful truth. Children are supposed to grow up with their parents and families, and find school a liberating, positive, experience. This didn\u2019t happen. The residential schools were a perversion of education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my country, Canada, created, funded, and oversaw the residential schools in order to commit cultural genocide, to eliminate the culture and identity of Indigenous people, it tore the world. We all have responsibility for repairing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened at UFV on September 18 was a step in the direction of reconciliation.<\/p>\n

There was ritual, ceremony, dancing, drumming, and singing \u2014 all part of the Aboriginal tradition \u2014 but there were also deeply personal, grief-filled, hard-hitting, emotional sessions featuring survivors of the residential school system sharing their stories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SHARING EXPERIENCE & HOPE<\/h2>\n

At the afternoon presentation by 3 Crows Productions, UFV alumnus Dallas Yellowfly<\/strong> showed excerpts from a video he produced relating the experiences of Cyril Pierre<\/strong> and the abuse he suffered at the St. Mary\u2019s Indian Residential School in Mission.<\/p>\n

Pierre and fellow sexual abuse survivor Joe Ginger<\/strong> then spoke about their experiences to a hushed audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out of residential school with huge sense of rage,\u201d said Ginger. \u201cIt is difficult to tell the stories of our experiences. The process to be able to speak about this is a long one. My version of reconciliation is that I accept what has happened to me and that as a child I had no control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to us as young children was real,\u201d said Pierre. \u201cIt is still a problem today. I personally find the idea of reconciliation very difficult. I was robbed of my childhood. I cannot forgive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReconciliation, or indigenization, doesn\u2019t happen overnight,\u201d said Eric Davis<\/strong>. \u201cIt is a process, one we began a few years ago, one which will stretch on for years to come. We must make it an integral part of the UFV experience. Making truth and reconciliation an integral part of the UFV experience is not a burden; it is a gift. A gift we share with our students and communities. It brings us together, and together we are strong enough to heal, repair, and transform the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herb Joe<\/strong>, a highly respected educational and cultural leader in the St\u00f3:l\u00f5 community and emcee for the event, said that 100 per cent of Aboriginal Canadians are affected by the residential school experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took my mom until she was in her 60s to be able to say \u2018I love you\u2019\u2014 and then she wouldn\u2019t stop. You can close wounds, but scars do not go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, UFV Elder-in-Residence Eddie Gardner<\/strong> shared his vision of hope: \u201cWe can rise from the ashes of the IRS experience and pull together for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was asked to \u201cwitness\u201d and share his thoughts based on his experience at the IRS Day of Learning, UFV theatre department head Bruce Kirkley<\/strong> recalled living near a residential school briefly as a boy in Portage La Prairie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would drive by those kids behind the fence and wonder why they couldn\u2019t come out and play,\u201d he recalled.\u201dThrough today\u2019s experience, through the work we\u2019re doing, and through watching those little boys dancing their traditional dances with joy at the opening ceremony this morning, we are tearing down fence that kept me from connecting with those trapped behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several people thanked UFV via social media for arranging the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hands are raised up to UFV for organizing a successful event that brought much-needed awareness to others,\u201d said one person.<\/p>\n

See more photos of the event on UFV\u2019s Facebook page: Facebook.com\/goUFV<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The events\u00a0 of September 18, 2013\u00a0are elegantly documented by UFV Marcom’s senior editor Anne Russell in her post, UFV Indian Residential School Day of Learning examines Canada’s “greatest moment of shame” Her post is repeated here: By Anne Russell on September 26, 2013 \u00a0\u201cChildren are supposed to grow up with their parents and families.\u201d \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/indigenizingtheacademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}