Holding Ourselves Accountable: Reconciliation and Truth Telling in a Post Truth World

Kristin Burnett and Shannon Stettner

The mandate of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was to “inform Canadians about the history and lasting impacts of the Residential School system by documenting the experiences of Survivors, their families, and communities.” From 2008 to 2015, when the final report and Calls to Action were issued, the TRC hosted seven national events and collected more than 6,750 recorded statements from Survivors and millions of archival records. Centering the experiences and voices of Survivors, the TRC generated voluminous reports detailing the purpose and histories of Residential Schools in Canada and the roles played by the churches and the state.

This was followed in 2024 by the report from the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites, Kimberly Murray, entitled “Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience: Unmarked Burials and Mass Graves of Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children in Canada.” Building on the work of the TRC, her report provided a glimpse into the ways children were frequently disappeared as they were transferred across and between health-related institutions (i.e. hospitals, sanatoria, institutes for children with disabilities), church-run institutions (schools, Good Shepherd Home/Institutions, reformatories, training schools, etc.), child welfare agencies, homes for unwed mothers, rescue homes, and the “working out/outing system.”[1] Many Canadians worked in, adjacent to, or contributed financially to these institutions and none of them operated in isolation either ideologically or materially from the broader Canadian society. Unfortunately, the extent of these interconnections remains underacknowledged and unexplored, especially in the face of growing Residential School denialism and the lack of progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.[2]

To date what has become painfully clear is that the responsibility and burden of truth telling has fallen largely on Indigenous Peoples, communities, and Nations. Survivors have been forced to continue to fight the church and state in court to have their records released and their experiences validated. We only have to consider the infamous St. Anne’s Residential School, where Survivors are in a legal battle for their records. According to Veldon Coburn, the continued failure of Indigenous and Northern Affairs[3] to release these illustrates,

There is no difference between the suppression of the truth and denial of the truth. Both tactics – whether deployed to advance reconciliation or resist it – subordinate Indigenous Peoples and their truth of Residential Schools and the integral part this system of cultural genocide played in colonialism.[4]

The preservation of the truth is placed at further risk due to the pending destruction of Survivors’ testimonies scheduled for September 19, 2027. According to Kimberly Murray, very little effort and resources have been allocated to notifying Survivors of this possibility.[5] Currently, only 30 Survivors out of the more than 35,000 Survivors who submitted claims to the Independent Assessment Process have chosen to have their testimonies retained.[6] The gatekeeping of these histories needs to end before Reconciliation can move forward. We all have an obligation to actively participate in the processes of truth telling, and we cannot abrogate this responsibility. As historians or individuals who engage with the historical record, we are obligated to undertake this work in an ethical manner.

Continuing truth telling

The late Murray Sinclair, Chair of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, observed that it will take generations to undo the damage created by Residential Schools:

We cannot look for quick and easy solutions because there are none. We need to be able to look at this from the perspective of where do we want to be in three or four or five or seven generations from now, when we talk about the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in this country.[7]

Conversations about the histories of Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals and the ongoing impact of these systems have to continue. In April of this year, we published a blog post outlining the report we wrote about YWCA Canada’s involvement in Residential School and Indian Hospitals. The blog also served as a call for contributors to continue the conversation about the legacies of colonialism, inviting submissions that:

• Trouble both the current state of the historical discipline and reconciliation and
• Explore the role of historical inquiry in responding to the “minimization, distortion, and denial” of settler colonialism.

We received several submissions in response to our call and will publish them here in the coming days, as a collection of possibilities and reminders. What is notable about these submissions is their heterogeneity. While there is some overlap in interests, they reflect varied and unique paths to reveal the ways in which settler colonialism seeks to erase and minimize Indigenous presence on Turtle Island. Each blog illuminates interesting ways people can consider their roles in processes of reconciliation, including reminding us, as Miranda Jimmy does, that archives remain unfriendly spaces for many Indigenous Peoples seeking information. We also see the incremental ways in which we can push the dial on reconciliation – for example, through policy decisions, as Matt Dance explores.

By necessity, confronting how we have and continue to support colonial systems leads to uncomfortable feelings and conversations. Habkirk and Ferguson explore these uncomfortable spaces in their blog illuminating the work being done to understand how the Women’s Auxiliaries in 13 parishes of the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay supported Residential Schools through their volunteer work. Similarly, our own essay calls upon us to acknowledge how fully integrated into Canadian society the Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals systems were; the Edmonton YWCA, for example, was an essential component of the rehabilitation services offered by the Charles Camsell Hospital. Some people like to characterize Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals as “aberrations” in the history of an otherwise kind and benevolent nation – they were not. Indeed, Residential Schools and Indian Hospitals were and are the outward manifestations of a country built on genocide and Indigenous dispossession.

For those of us who are settler historians, it is tempting to see ourselves as objective observers detached from the topics we examine. But, all of these posts speak to the ways that historical research is not a detached process – instead we need to think in terms of ‘relational accountability.’  Opaskwayak Cree scholar Shawn Wilson teaches us about the importance of relational accountability, wherein researchers are responsible to “the people their research refers to.”[8] Settler historians should be mindful of the purpose and outcome of the research process – from the questions we ask, to how the research is carried out, to finally, questioning who benefits. Reconciliation is a “long and sometimes uneven journey,” and we agree with Sinclair that the journey will be neither quick nor easy. We conclude with the words of Gwichyà Gwich’in Elder Agnes Mitchell, shared by Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky, who offered the following wisdom in Dinjii Zhuh Ginjik: ““gwiizii ts’àt gwitàatsàh” or “we will make it better.” As Fraser and Komarnisky explained, “The mindset behind “we will make it better” is one of beauty since it allows people – of all backgrounds – to take on this work [of Reconciliation] in a gentle and achievable way.”[9]

Kristin Burnett is a Professor in the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University.

Shannon Stettner is a historian who works in the federal civil service.

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[1] Independent Special Interlocutor, Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience: Unmarked Burials and Mass Graves of Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children in Canada (2024):  https://osi-bis.ca/. Indigenous children were trafficked by Residential Schools to carry out labour on homes, farms, and businesses.

[2] Indigenous Watchdog, “Calls to Action,” https://www.indigenouswatchdog.org/calls-to-action/ [last accessed 15  November 2025]. According to Indigenous Watchdog only 14 of the CTA’s have been completed and more than 40% are either stalled or have not been started.

[3] In 2017 INAC became two new departments: Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).

[4] Veldon Coburn, “Reconciliation Can’t Happen Without Truth. So Why Do Some Suppress it?” Maclean’s (21 January 2018): https://macleans.ca/facebook-instant-articles/reconciliation-cant-happen-without-truth-so-why-do-some-suppress-it/. [last accessed 15 November 2025.

[5] Independent Special Interlocutor, Sacred Responsibility: Searching for the Missing and Unmarked Burials, Interim Report Findings (June 2023). Samantha Schwientek, “Files documenting worst abuses at residential schools to be destroyed unless survivors ask otherwise,” CBC News (7 May 2025): https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/iap-residential-school-nctr-1.7528980.

[6] Independent Special Interlocutor, Sacred Responsibility: Searching for the Missing and Unmarked Burials, Interim Report Findings (June 2023): 2. While the IAP process guaranteed confidentiality, it must be up to individuals, families, and community whether files are destroyed even if they are not released.

[7] TRC Mini Documentary – Senator Murray Sinclair on Reconciliation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjx2zDvyzsU

[8] The phrase ‘All my relations’ is often used to sum up the concept that everything in the universe (human and non-human kin, land, and knowledge) is interconnected.  Shawanda, Amy. “Nda-Nwendaaganag (All My Relations): A Relational Approach to Citation Practices”. Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health 1, no. 3 (June 6, 2023). Accessed November 20, 2025. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/tijih/article/view/38567. Shawn Wilson, “What is an Indigenous Research Methodology?” Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25/2 (2001): 177. Shawn Wilson, Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2008).

[9] Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky, “150 Acts 5 Years Later: What Does Truth and Reconciliation Look Like in 2022,” Active History (4 August 2022): https://activehistory.ca/blog/2022/08/04/150-acts-2022/.