Aboriginal Healing Foundation Releases Second Volume on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Journey

MEDIA ADVISORY

June 11, 2007 (OTTAWA) – Today at a National Gallery of Canada reception, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation released the much-anticipated “Response, Responsibility, and Renewal: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Journey.” This 409-page volume, the second in a two-volume series, features the perspectives of twenty-five individuals, including Richard Wagamese, Taiaiake Alfred, John Ralston Saul, Roland Chrisjohn, and Jose Kusugak.The reception followed a roundtable conversation on reconciliation and residential schools hosted by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, with the participation of the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Mr. Phil Fontaine, Mr. John Ralston Saul, and Chief Robert Joseph, Special Advisor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Aboriginal Healing Foundation President, Georges Erasmus, marked the occasion by noting the timeliness of this event and expressing his hopes for “a candid, productive, and edifying dialog in the years ahead.”

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 nationwide, 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: Wayne K. Spear, Director of Communications, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 613-237-4441 extension 237, or toll-free 1-888-725-8886.

» To download the publication in Adobe Reader PDF, click here.