Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

There are 5 components of the TRC under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, and they are as follows:

a) National Events - The Commission shall fund and host seven national events in different regions across the country.

b) Community Events - Designed by communities and will respond to the needs of former students, their families and those affected by the residential school legacy.

c) Individual Statement-Taking/Truth Sharing - This component consists of a collection of individual statements by written, electronic or other appropriate means. All survivors are encouraged to participate in the TRC and have their stories heard.

d) Closing Ceremony - A closing ceremony after the five mandated years of the TRC. With involvement and participation from the various government officials and high level church officials.

e) Commemoration- This initiative is an opportunity to honour, educate, remember, memorialize and pay tribute to former residential school students, their families and communities.

The newly selected commissioners Justice Murray Sinclair, Marie Wilson, and Chief Wilton Littlechild along with a 10 member Survivor committee have been working diligently to get this TRC mandate initiative underway again. On Oct 15, 2009 the TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair announced the seven regions that will host a national event; Saskatchewan was selected to host a national event with the date yet to be announced. The first national event will take place in Winnipeg, MB on June 15-19, 2010.

Commemoration – (subheading)

The Commemoration Initiative is one component of the Settlement Agreement and provides former students, their families and their communities the opportunity to:

• Pay tribute to

• Honour

• Educate

• Remember

• Memorialize their experiences

• Acknowledge the systemic impacts of the residential school system

Commemoration will also acknowledge the intergenerational effects from the Residential School system on former students, their families and communities.

The main objectives of the Commemoration Initiative are to:

• Assist in honoring and validating the healing and reconciliation of former students and their families by acknowledging their experiences;

• Provide supports in an effort to improve relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people;

• Provide an opportunity for former students and their families to support one another and to recognize/celebrate their strengths, courage, resiliency and achievements;

• Promote Aboriginal languages, cultures, traditional values and spiritual beliefs;

• Ensure the legacy of IRS, former students and their families' experiences and needs are affirmed; and,

• Memorialize the Residential School experience in a tangible and permanent way.

• Former students of Residential Schools are eligible for commemoration funding, as well as organizations that act on behalf of former Residential School students to develop and deliver commemoration activities.

Former students of Residential Schools are eligible for commemoration funding, as well as organizations that act on behalf of former Residential School students to develop and deliver commemoration activities.