photo by lazlo-photo
First, the good news! Professor Gerald L Gall, president of the John Humphrey Centre, won an award! Professor Gall is the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Service Awards for Legal Scholarship. Read the article here!
The University of Alberta’s International Week was always the highlight of the Winter Semester for me–being an U of A alumni, I still go every year if there’s something interesting happening. On February 2nd, Chelsea and Renee were part of a panel discussion as the JHC were the sponsors of “Thanks for the Apology But…” along with the Alberta Friendship Centres Association. Their panel discussed the legacies of Residential Schools, how they affected Canada’s Aboriginal populations and the subsequent policy, cultural, social, and economic turmoil that followed. Here’s a good article detailing the panel discussion. (You can check out the podcast here)
The history of Aboriginal rights in Canada is not well known and not taught in schools unless you count “history” as a quasi-anthropological survey of what the “natives” ate, wore, hunted and lived in. I was in university before I even heard of anything regarding the Indian Act and even then, it was glossed over as “that period in time” as though actions in the past have no consequences in the present. Residential schools are one such consequences since the forced cultural assimilation and the sexual, physical and mental abuse have led to an essential break down of culture, society and community.
Learn more about Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
