UofM apologizes for its role in perpetuating assimilation

University of Manitoba President David Barnard not only apologized for his institution’s role in educating the people who taught at residential schools, but for “fail(ing) to recognize or challenge the forced assimilation of Aboriginal peoples and the subsequent loss of their language, culture and traditions.”

Barnard’s heartfelt apology, which was often punctuated with silence as he composed himself, was delivered on Oct. 27 in Halifax at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s third national event.

TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair, a graduate of the U of M, acknowledged the “generosity of the words offered and also to mark the significance of that gesture.”

The U of M is the first post-secondary institution to offer such an apology.

Barnard said the university felt it was necessary to take a leadership role “in helping expose the national shame that was the Indian residential schools system and the consequences of such a system.”

He added that the university was committed to working with the TRC to both “advance research efforts” related to residential schools, as well as in truth-telling and reconciliation.

Sinclair said the role undertaken by the university was significant and that it was “probably one of the more important gestures” the TRC had received.

“We pay our respects to the University of Manitoba for having commenced this part of the conversation,” said Sinclair.

National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo also commended the university.

“The idea that action is required as part of reconciliation; it’s more than just a concept. It requires people to participate actively. And that’s what they did,” said Atleo.
“Steps like this can help advance notions of mutual respect, notions of understanding between First Nations and Canadians, and hopefully generate action that’s needed to create a lasting change.”

“The University of Manitoba educated and mentored individuals who became clergy, teachers, social workers, civil servants and politicians who carried out assimilation policies aimed at the Aboriginal peoples of Manitoba,” said Barnard.

He pointed out that in the over 130 years the university has been in operation, there were 17 federally-funded residential schools in the province. The first opened in 1888 and the last closed a century later.

During that time, thousands of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their communities, placed in residential schools, with many being abused physically or sexually. Those who were spared abuse had their language and culture taken from them. Children who did not attend residential schools attended day schools and suffered similar experiences. Some children never returned from school. Those who did return had a hard time connecting with their families and home communities.

“Many institutions had a direct or indirect hand in perpetuating the misguided and failed system of assimilation that was at the heart of the Indian residential school system,” said Barnard.

He apologized to students of the university, who are the descendants of residential school survivors, as well as to Indigenous staff.

“We also apologize to First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders and Elders. We recognize that we need to build trust and fulfill our role as an open and welcoming community of learning, discovery and outreach,” said Barnard.

Barnard said the university wanted to “ensure that the values of First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures and communities infuse scholarship and research across the university.”

Sinclair said his experience in the post-secondary system was one that “has often not reflected who I am and what I think and how I think and how I want to be.”

Sinclair pointed out that not only were Aboriginal children taught in school that they were inferior, but that non-Aboriginal children were taught the same things about First Nations, Métis and Inuit children.

“As a result of that, one of the challenges we face as a commission is to go forward with a view to recognizing that if it was through the educational system that part of the legacy of residential schools has lived on so long and so deeply, then it must be through the educational system that change will occur and will occur in a more long-lasting way,” said Sinclair.

He noted that changes were beginning at the grade school level and had to continue into the post-secondary level.

“It is important for us to know that in the future when our children want to go on from their high school experience and become ... whatever it is they seek to be in life that they will be welcome within an educational institution that understands the importance of bringing balance to the knowledge that is shared, to bring respect to the conversation that goes on about Aboriginal history and Aboriginal people, both past and present, in this country, as well as in the future, and that in turn will gear them to be able to do their work as Aboriginal people with a complete sense of self and a full sense of respect for their identity as well as a full sense of self-respect about their identity,” he said.

Sinclair said there would continue to be people who would not understand the need for an apology, whether from the prime minister or from the University of Manitoba.

“Those people are not important to this conversation if they continue to refuse to see that it is indeed important that that conversation continue,” said Sinclair.