We Need To Bear Witness To The Past

The final section of this gallery explores themes in Canadian history, and begins with the treatment of indigenous peoples, which has more often than not been to our shame.

Residential schools are the darkest chapter of our country's history, when children were routinely taken away from home and put into boarding school situations- with death routinely happening, abuse regularly happening, and generation after generation of harmed children becoming dysfunctional adults. It's within living memory, as the last of these schools only closed in the 1990s.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an inquiry into the residential schools from 2008-15. Testimony from those affected can be seen on a display screen. Their words are heart wrenching.

Murray Sinclair, an indigenous lawyer and judge, led the Commission. A quote by him speaks volumes as to the purpose of that Commission, and the lessons to be followed.

This is the ceremonial headdress of Phil Fontaine, a former National Chief Of The Assembly of First Nations, and another survivor of the residential schools.

Our relationship with our indigenous peoples is an ongoing part of the Canadian story, and an infinitely complicated one.

In 1990, a dispute broke out over land at Oka between Mohawks and the town over town plans for expanding on a golf course. The standoff that ensued captured a lot of attention.