With great sadness, we recognize the passing of Honourable Murray Sinclair, Mizhana Giizhik (The One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky). An Anishinaabe and member of Peguis First Nation with a long career in law and reform, he is well known for serving as a Commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Residential Schools which released their final report in 2015.
Initially when approached to sit on the TRC he declined due to the emotional toll it was likely to take, but accepted when it was offered to him again. The TRC heard testimony from over 6,000 Survivors and others about what they had endured.
He bravely shared the role of listening to Survivors and stressed that reconciliation was about respectful relations between settlers and Indigenous people. This requires that the truth of residential schools and Canada’s cultural genocide is recognized.
When the final reports were released he said “We have described for you a mountain, we have shown you a path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.”
In his memoir, Who We Are, he wrote “We know that making things better will not happen overnight. It will take generations. That’s how the damage was created and that’s how the damage will be fixed,” Sinclair wrote. “But if we agree on the objective of reconciliation, and agree to work together, the work we do today will immeasurably strengthen the social fabric of Canada tomorrow.”
We are all treaty people, and it is our responsibility to do the work.
Have you read the 94 Calls to Action? You can read the Commission's other reports here.
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