On November 14, the UBC First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) hosted “Confronting Indian Residential School Denialism,” a panel discussion featuring Michelle Good, lawyer and author of the award-winning novel Five Little Indians, Dr. Sean Carleton, an assistant professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba and UBC Anthropology Professor Dr. Andrew Martindale, who talked about his work with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology and archaeological methods used to locate unmarked graves.
While residential school denialism has been prevalent throughout Canadian history, there has been a disturbing rise in the peddling of these harmful narratives in recent years, which was outlined in the discussion. this growing denial has prompted recent calls to criminalize residential school denialism, one such by Kimberly Murray, the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites.
In this context, FNHL’s event came at a critical time, arming attendees with the tools to understand denialist narratives and the colonial power structures which uphold them, and enabling them to effectively recognize and deconstruct these ideas.
When asked what she hoped attendees would take away from the event, FNHL Associate Director Joely Viveiros spoke to the importance of taking a deeper look into why Residential School denialism persists. She noted that for some, the violent truth of Canadian colonialism feels like a threat to their positionality and identity as Canadians. This supposed threat leads to denialist narratives despite overwhelming proof of Residential Schools' genocidal nature, she explained.
“There [are] a lot of things that are causing people to speak like this,” Viveiros said in an interview with The Ubyssey, “and none of them really have to do with the truth.”
At the event, the recent passing of Murray Sinclair felt heavy in the air, so the opening included a minute of silence to honour his spirit and the vital work he achieved in furthering truth and reconciliation in Canada. Sinclair’s words — “Education got us into this mess and education will get us out of it” — were an underlying through line that evening, setting a tone for attendees to draw knowledge from the panel and to take action toward practicing reconciliation in their daily lives.
In the event’s panel, Carleton offered advice on how to identify and confront residential school denialism, and provided context on its long and persistent history in Canada. He explained that this history stretches back to early propaganda spread by the Church to justify residential schools by framing them as a humanitarian effort.
"Denialism particularly is not new, but it is on the rise," Carleton said. He continued by explaining that a contemporary version of this mindset is essentially “the rejection, misrepresentation, twisting or distorting basic facts about residential schooling to try and undermine truth and reconciliation efforts.”
Carleton echoed Viveiros' thoughts on the psychology of denial.
“A denialist stance hits off cognitive dissonance between one's preferred views of self or country and the grimmer reality,” he said. “Denialism, then, can be understood as a conscious or unconscious strategy of selectively remember the past to protect one's power and privilege in the present, and most importantly, to perpetuate it into the future.”
Michelle Good continued with a powerful conversation on the legal dimensions of residential school denialism and its implications on law and policy.
“The truth will always be skewed to support the power structure, to support the colonial underpinnings of all law and policy in this country,” said Good. “For us to offer a different storyline is a deep challenge to the way Canadians identify themselves and the way the country identifies itself.”
She stressed that through the acceptance of Canada’s violent colonial history, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians can operate on a level playing field to incite productive dialogue and action.
In the face of ongoing violence and environmental devastation under colonial rule, she said, we no longer have the luxury to be patient with confronting these issues.
“We’re so generous in the face of hatred … We have to respond to hatred, not in kind, but with the tools that are already available to us,” she said, explaining that by leveraging existing legal frameworks such as the Criminal Code and human rights legislation we can begin to face denialism head-on.
The event concluded with both panelists offering insight into how we can tell the truth in a way that invites people in.
Both Good and Carleton called on all Canadians, especially non-Indigenous individuals, to exercise their voice and vote to advocate for truth and reconciliation, and to use what they learned during the panel to confront residential school denialism in the future. The event left attendees with a deeper appreciation of the idea that before there can be reconciliation, there must first be truth.
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