CANADA
Times Colonist
By Maxine Matilpi, Times Colonist April 8, 2012 2
In February, I attended the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in my northern Vancouver Island Kwakiutl community of Fort Rupert. Although the event was open to the public, I was disappointed at how few nonindigenous people attended.
In a room of more than 100 people, there were maybe six non-indigenous people, including two Anglican ministers and my husband. I wondered about this absence of people of good conscience, those who consider themselves moral citizens and who are proud to call themselves Canadians.
I’d heard about the TRC hearings through the moccasin telegraph and the Kwakiutl band’s newsletter. Maybe non-indigenous people hadn’t heard about it.
Later, I worried that other people knew about the hearing, but thought it had nothing to do with them, that it was only for survivors or family members and communities. I don’t like to think it was wilful blindness, or that they think Canada’s history of residential schools and their legacy is about others, not them.
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