Two days before the final event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began in Ottawa on May 31, the hashtag #MyReconciliationIncludes took off on Twitter.
From grassroots activists to celebrities to non-indigenous people, users tweeted out what reconciliation looks like to them — and they are still tweeting today.
On Tuesday, the TRC released a 360-plus page executive summary with 94 recommendations. It comes after the commission travelled the country, listening to six years of testimony from nearly 7,000 witnesses. The report provides stories from survivors, including tales of children taken from parents, siblings separated and abuse and neglect at residential schools.
Visual artist Christi Belcourt began the hashtag with:
#MyReconciliationIncludes acknowledgement of the attempted “genocide” of Indigenous Peoples. Starvation policies were more than “cultural.”
— @christibelcourt
It didn’t take long before others began using Belcourt’s hashtag to share what reconciliation looks like to them.
#MyReconciliationIncludes a treaty card for every settler and immigrant to remind them of their treaty obligations.
#myreconciliationincludes the fact that reconciliation goes far beyond what the government is currently willing to acknowledge or commit to.
#MyReconciliationIncludes mandatory treaty obligation education in Canada’s citizenship process.
#MyReconciliationIncludes public knowledge that residential schools have had a long term intergenerational effect.
— @tagaq
#MyReconciliationIncludes not calling the outcomes of genocide and colonialism “native problem/issues”.
#MyReconciliationIncludes understanding that Treaty lands are still unceded territories.
— @apihtawikosisan
Even Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the TRC, tweeted about his personal reconciliation view.
#MyReconciliationIncludes a granddaughter proud to be Anishinaabe.
— @Sincmurr
Others acknowledged that the Inuit and Métis have been left out of the TRC process.
#MyReconciliationIncludes recognizing many indigenous ppls excluded from Indian Residential School settlement; everyone deserves justice
— @madinuk
People talked about who and what the reconciliation process includes.
#MyReconciliationIncludes Action from all Canadians
— @withonespirit
And the non-indigenous community responded.
Can you see the love and connection made when being inducted as an Honorary Witness? #MyReconciliationIncludes us all pic.twitter.com/8HlnGGN6O6
#MyReconciliationIncludes the acknowledgement that, as a prairie farmer, I’ve benefitted from the theft of Cree and Blackfoot territory.
— @Stuthefarmer
There were also several pleas to never forget the legacy of residential schools in Canada.
#MyReconciliationIncludes people to stop asking, “Why can’t you just get over it?”
#MyReconciliationIncludes teaching new Canadians, and all generations of settlers, the truth of the Canadian residential schools tragedy.
#MyReconciliationIncludes teaching my students that it WAS in fact, a GENOCIDE. We can not hide our shameful past behind semantics.
What does your reconciliation look like? Tweet us at CBC_Aboriginal with the #MyReconciliationIncludes.
