Sask Polytechnic dedicates specific place for TRC reports
- NC Raine | June 16, 2017
Saskatchewan Polytechnic took a critical step in recognizing the impact of residential schools and championing the Truth and Reconciliation's 94 Calls to Action, by dedicating a space specially for Truth and Reconciliation reports.
A set of reports donated to Saskatchewan Polytechnic by Eugene Arcand, member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Indian Residential School Survivor Committee, will be placed in permanent display in the Saskatoon campus.
“Without acknowledgement, reconciliation would not be possible. This Truth and Reconciliation display is one of the ways of bringing attention to one of the most important issues,” said Dr. Larry Rosia, President and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic. “Fostering an open and inclusive environment that embraces diverse cultures, heritages, and opinions, is one of our key values.”
Writing in the Globe and Mail, Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul has called the situation of the Indigenous people in Canada “the single most important issue before us,” while the TRC's 94 Calls to Action, issued two years ago, have urged all levels of Canadian government to work together and advance reconciliation.
“This country is now celebrating 150 years, but for us it's not a celebration. It's an opportunity to help correct that true history [of residential schools] and clear up the misunderstandings that have existed,” said Arcand during a presentation of the TRC's reports on June 15th.
“As you celebrate your time on Treaty 6 Territory, take a moment to understand that we're not celebrating, we're trying to make sure that people know the next 50 and 100 years have to be different,” said Arcand.
In 2015, Arcand was presented with five complete sets of the TRC Reports, which, along with Saskatchewan Polytechnic, have been gifted to the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, Saskatoon Public Schools, and the Saskatoon Public library.
The reports were incased in glass, and wrapped in red cloth, which Arcand says the colour of which “represents the darkest period in Canada's history.”
Arcand, a residential school survivor himself who spent ten years at the St. Michael Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, has been committed to increasing knowledge and understanding of the effects of residential schools.
“I want to give everyone a Call to Action everyday by pressing the reset button and asking 'what am I going to do different?' said Arcand. “The ugliness of the history contained in this report is something that can't be censored or cleansed. That is the true history, and the sooner we engage with the people who survived it, the better we'll be.”
Saskatchewan Polytechnic (formerly SIAST) has been an important educational institution in the province, as more Indigenous students attend Sask Polytech than any other post-secondary institution in the province. Indigenous students make up 18 percent of the student population, and the employment rate for Sask Polytech's Indigenous 2014-15 graduates was 84 percent.