The Survivors Speak - Preface

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

This report is in the public domain.

Anyone may, without charge or request for permission, reproduce all or part of this report.

2015

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Website: www.trc.ca

From pages XII - XIII of “The Survivors Speak: A Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada”

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Excerpt

As part of its work, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada provided former students-the Survivors of residential schools-with an opportunity to provide a statement on their experience of residential schooling. This volume of excerpts from those statements is being published as a part of the Commission’s final report.

At the beginning of the Commission’s work, we questioned the use of the word “Survivor.” It seemed to be a limiting, almost pejorative word. We saw it as referring to someone who was “just getting by,” or “beaten down.” We endeavoured to find an alternative, more suitable, word to ascribe to those who came out of the Indian residential schools.

However, over time, we have developed a whole new respect for the word. In “Invictus” (the title means “invincible” or “undefeated” in Latin), the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) wrote these words:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

A Survivor is not just someone who “made it through” the schools, or “got by” or was “making do.” A Survivor is a person who persevered against and overcame adversity. The word came to mean someone who emerged victorious, though not unscathed, whose head was “bloody but unbowed.” It referred to someone who had taken all that could be thrown at them and remained standing at the end. It came to mean someone who could legitimately say “I am still here!” For that achievement, Survivors deserve our highest respect. But, for that achievement, we also owe them the debt of doing the right thing. Reconciliation is the right thing to do, coming out of this history.

In this volume, Survivors speak of their pain, loneliness, and suffering, and of their accomplishments. While this is a difficult story, it is also a story of courage and endurance. The first step in any process of national reconciliation requires us all to attend to these voices, which have been silenced for far too long. We encourage all Canadians to do so.