Chris Austin Music

I have seen several people sharing their disgust over Canada’s residential school system over the last few days on social media.

The news of 215 children’s remains being discovered at a former B.C. residential school has compelled many people to educate themselves on this dark history—I think the fact that reconciliation is widely discussed and that Indigenous issues are being taken more seriously is encouraging. Nonetheless, social media activism can (sometimes) feel like an empty gesture when it is not backed up with real-world actions.

That statement is not meant to be an insult to anybody who has recently posted about the residential schooling system; these posts are an important part of bringing forward awareness and compassion. Rather, this statement intends to stress that going beyond social media or using social media in conjunction with other forms of advocacy, in my view, is what people should strive toward.

This year I had the pleasure of working as a TA at Western University’s Indigenous Student Center; the bright and passionate young students I tutored there taught me just as much as I taught them. This TA experience drove me to get special permission from my department to take a course called “Indigeneity and Decolonizing Research” with the Faculty of Education. This summer intersession course has been such a rewarding and challenging learning experience.

In our last meeting, we had a guest speaker, Karen Chaboyer, who shared her experiences with us as a residential school survivor. This was one of the most profound experiences I have ever had in a seminar course throughout my decade in post-secondary education. If you’re wanting to learn more about the abhorrent residential schooling system, I would strongly encourage you to buy a copy of this book and support Karen’s brave and important work. I am doing a presentation in my meeting this coming Wednesday, and Karen’s book was instrumental to preparing for this presentation.

Intergenerational trauma is real; there is a lot of work to be done towards reconciliation, and despite some progress (whether in the academy or in a more broad social sense) Indigenous people are still treated horribly today. I have always liked the word egalitarianism as a telos in these kinds of conversations—hoping that we can all continue to progress towards building more egalitarian cultures.