The Aboriginal Healing Foundation Releases Publication – “The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Common Experience Payment and Healing: A Qualitative Study Exploring Impacts on Recipients.”
MEDIA ADVISORY
March 31, 2010 (OTTAWA) – Today, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has released “The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Common Experience Payment and Healing,” a follow-up to the 2007 AHF report, “Lump Sum Compensation Payments Research Project.” The 2007 study anticipated the thenforthcoming CEP by looking at previous lump sum payment initiatives, while this new study concerns the ways in which Survivors of abuses in the Indian Residential School System have been impacted by the Common Experience Payment (CEP), a component of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.This latest AHF report was prepared with two main objectives: 1) to gather experiential data eliciting recipients’ explanations of the CEP impacts on Survivors and their engagement in healing and 2) to gather insights concerning the roles of support services in assisting applicants during the compensation process. This report is not an evaluation of the CEP, or of its support services; it is intended to complement the community-level findings captured by Indian and Northern Affairs’ recently released independent evaluation of the AHF and its programs.
Findings are derived mainly from interviews with two hundred and eighty-one First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Survivors from across Canada who applied for the Common Experience Payment. “The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Common Experience Payment and Healing” is available in hardcopy from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation office and is downloadable at www.ahf.ca.
Aboriginal Healing Foundation President, Georges Erasmus, noted that this report reflects “the complex and varied experiences of Survivors, both positive and negative, throughout the CEP process.” “Once again,” he added, “the words of people in the communities underscore the importance of accessible support services provided by people who understand the full implications of the Indian residential school legacy.”
Between 1892 and 1969, the Indian Residential School System operated across Canada through a partnership of the Federal Government and various church entities. Under federal law, Aboriginal children were institutionalized in hostels, industrial schools, and residential schools for the purposes of Christianization and assimilation.
On June 11, 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada issued a formal apology for the Federal Government’s role in the Indian Residential School System. As part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, an Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been established to undertake a nation-wide, five-year truth-telling and reconciliation process.
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a not-for-profit, Aboriginal managed national funding agency which encourages and supports community-based healing efforts addressing the intergenerational legacy of physical and sexual abuse in Canada’s Indian Residential School System.
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For more information:
Miche Jetté, Communications, the Aboriginal Healing
Foundation, 613-237-4441 extension 308, or toll-free 1-888-725-8886.
Download the full PDF document here .
