"In May 2021, the world was shocked by news of the detection of 215 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. Ground-penetrating radar confirmed the deaths of students as young as three in the infamous residential school system, which systematically removed children from their families and brought them to the schools. At these Christian-run, government-supported institutions, they were subjected to physical, mental, and sexual abuse while their Indigenous languages and traditions were stifled and denounced. The egregious abuses suffered in residential schools across the continent caused--as the 2021 discoveries confirmed--death for too many and a multigenerational legacy of trauma for those who survived. "Tsqelmucwílc" (pronounced cha-CAL-mux-weel) is a Secwepemc phrase loosely translated as "We return to being human again." Tsqelmucwílc is the story of those who survived the Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS), based on the 1988 book Resistance and Renewal, a groundbreaking history of the school and the first book on residential schools ever published in Canada. Tsqelmucwílc includes the original text as well as new material by the original book's author, Celia Haig-Brown; essays by Secwepemc poet and KIRS survivor Garry Gottfriedson and Nuu-chah-nulth elder and residential school survivor Randy Fred; and first-hand reminiscences by other survivors of KIRS, as well as their children, on their experience and the impact of their trauma throughout their lives. Read both within and outside the context of the grim 2021 discoveries, Tsqelmucwílc is a tragic story in the history of Indigenous peoples of the indignities suffered at the hands of their colonizers, but it is equally a remarkable tale of Indigenous survival, resilience, and courage."-- Provided by publisher
"Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its Calls to Action in June 2015, governments, churches, non-profit, professional and community organizations, corporations, schools and universities, clubs and individuals have asked: "How can I/we participate in reconciliation?" Recognizing that reconciliation is not only an ultimate goal, but a decolonizing process of journeying in ways that embody everyday acts of resistance, resurgence, and solidarity, coupled with renewed commitments to justice, dialogue, and relationship-building, Pathways of Reconciliation helps readers find their way forward. The essays in Pathways of Reconciliation address the themes of reframing, learning and healing, researching, and living. They engage with different approaches to reconciliation (within a variety of reconciliation frameworks, either explicit or implicit) and illustrate the complexities of the reconciliation process itself. They canvass multiple and varied pathways of reconciliation, from Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, reflecting a diversity of approaches to the mandate given to all Canadians by the TRC with its Calls to Action. Together the authors -- academics, practitioners, students and ordinary citizens -- demonstrate the importance of trying and learning from new and creative approaches to thinking about and practicing reconciliation and reflect on what they have learned from their attempts (both successful and less successful) in the process."-- Provided by publisher.
"In 'Decolonizing Trauma Work', Renee Linklater explores healing and wellness in Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Drawing on a decolonizing approach, which puts the "soul wound" of colonialism at the centre, Linklater engages ten Indigenous health care practitioners in a dialogue regarding Indigenous notions of wellness and wholistic health, critiques of psychiatry and psychiatric diagnoses, and Indigenous approaches to helping people through trauma, depression and experiences of parallel and multiple realities. Through stories and strategies that are grounded in Indigenous worldviews and embedded with cultural knowledge, Linklater offers purposeful and practical methods to help individuals and communities that have experienced trauma. 'Decolonizing Trauma Work', one of the first books of its kind, is a resource for education and training programs, health care practitioners, healing centres, clinical services and policy initiatives."--Back cover.
"Orange Shirt Day is observed annually on September 30th to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember those who did not make it. It was initially envisioned as a way to keep the conversations going about all aspects of Residential Schools in Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia, Canada. It has now expanded into a movement across Canada and beyond. Orange Shirt Day was inspired by the story of a Residential School Survivor named Phyllis Webstad. When Phyllis was six years old she went to an Indian Residential School for the first time wearing a brand new “shiny orange shirt” bought by her Grandmother. When she arrived at the school her shirt was taken away, never to be worn again. To Phyllis Webstad, the colour orange symbolized that she did not matter. Today, she has learned to accept the colour, and even have fun with it, and now the orange shirt has instead become a symbol of hope and reconciliation. By wearing an orange shirt on Orange Shirt Day, you make a powerful statement that Residential Schools were wrong, and you commit to the concept that Every Child Matters"--Back cover.
