Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series: "�Why We �Care�: Thoughts on Canada�s Indian Residential School History, Medical Care, Consent and the Law,�

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Friday, February 19th, 2016
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Professor Laurie Meijer Drees's talk,“Why We ‘Care’: Thoughts on Canada’s Indian Residential School History, Medical Care, Consent and the Law,” will investigate the significance of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Final Report, and will offer an overview of Residential Schools, published histories, the work of the TRC, and recent community-based initiatives.

In addition, Meijer Drees uses newly-released details gained from her work as a TRC researcher and oral historian to illustrate and share perspectives on why the need to care about this history remains important. Meijer Drees notes that the report supports and builds on the Survivor testimonies that have so far provided our insights into these institutions.

On the positive side she sees that Canadian citizens have responded to the TRC’s work with a variety of community-based public initiatives aimed at increasing wider appreciation and understanding of this history, ranging from blogs to workshops, cultural events and public lectures: Canadians’ efforts to cast light on this history are now gaining momentum. Nevertheless, Meijer Drees speaks of the “dark shadow” that the Residential School system continues to cast over the nation, and observes that “despite the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s efforts to acknowledge and record Residential School experiences, impacts and consequences, many gaps in our collective understanding of these institutions still exist.”

Part of the problem is the fact that that the multifaceted history of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools is very complex, and the sheer volume of this material in itself poses a challenge to our collective understanding and action. The new National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg houses 7,000 video statements of Survivors and intergenerational Survivors of the schools, and millions of documents from government and churches. Meijer Drees questions how we make sense of these so-called “schools” and what happened in them, and who should be interested in these histories and why.

Meijer Drees is a professor in VIU's First Nations Studies Department. She holds a doctorate from the University of Calgary, and worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a researcher for its Missing Children and Unmarked Burial Project. Courtesy parking for this presentation will be available. Enter through Gate 5D (access from Fifth Street) and park in the lot to the right. From 9:15 to 10:00 am, a student in a safety vest will be near the entrance to guide you and provide you with a pass for your dashboard. The pass will be good until 1:00 pm.

Please click on the link for a view of the campus map to see the locations of the lots. https://www2.viu.ca/map/

https://www2.viu.ca/artsandhumanities/Arts_Humanities_Colloquium.asp