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A Knock on the Door
A Knock on the Door: The Essential History of Residential Schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Edited and Abridged | Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
17 posts | 5 read | 6 to read
It can start with a knock on the door one morning. It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer. So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools prepared by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Between 2008 and 2015, the TRC provided opportunities for individuals, families, and communities to share their experiences of residential schools and released several reports based on 7000 survivor statements and five million documents from government, churches, and schools, as well as a solid grounding in secondary sources. A Knock on the Door, published in collaboration with the National Research Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, gathers material from the several reports the TRC has produced to present the essential history and legacy of residential schools in a concise and accessible package that includes new materials to help inform and contextualize the journey to reconciliation that Canadians are now embarked upon. Survivor and former Grand Chief of the Assembly First Nations, Phil Fontaine, provides a Foreword, and an Afterword introduces the holdings and opportunities of the National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, home to the archive of recordings, and documents collected by the TRC. As Aime Craft writes in the Afterword, knowing the historical backdrop of residential schooling and its legacy is essential to the work of reconciliation. In the past, agents of the Canadian state knocked on the doors of Indigenous families to take the children to school. Now, the Survivors have shared their truths and knocked back. It is time for Canadians to open the door to mutual understanding, respect, and reconciliation.
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review
Daisey
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Pickpick

This is packed full of information and includes numerous short personal anecdotes. It also includes a balance of details from different perspectives including students, family, and staff. However, it is written in a very straightforward report style and does not elaborate on any of the personal stories.

Audio duration: 8 hours 14 minutes

* I received this #audiobook through the Libro.fm ALC program for educators.

#Nonfiction #Librofm #ALC

Daisey @TheAromaofBooks This is also my November #DoubleSpin book 20. 3y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
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MandaMT
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Pickpick

This one is pretty heavy, as one might expect a report on residential schools to be. It covers the history of invasions and colonialism leading up to the schools, what the school experience was like, the legacy they left behind, what reconciliation should look like, and action steps for what comes next. It‘s written as a report, so the writing “style” is very matter of fact. Still delivers an emotional punch though.

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WanderingBookaneer
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Leftcoastzen 😢 3y
Gissy So sad!! 1990‘s still using that practice! Unbelievable ☹️😠 3y
Prairiegirl_reading @Gissy yes the last residential school was closed in 1996. This is why it‘s so disgusting that people say “it‘s in the past” and we should just move on. This is still within living memory. 3y
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teebe @gissy @Prairiegirl_reading the last federally-run school closed in 1996 but the last actual residential school didn‘t close until 1997. It was run by the government of the Northwest Territories. (edited) 3y
WanderingBookaneer I did not know thst @teebe . By the way, I ordered the book you tagged yesterday. 3y
teebe @WanderingBookaneer awesome! It focuses on Australia but we see similar issues in Canada and the US. 3y
teebe @WanderingBookaneer as for residential school info, it can sometimes be a mixed bag. The one that closed in 97 (Grollier Hall) is often left out of overviews, unless you‘re specifically googling it. Mainstream coverage tends to take one fact and run with it. Much like how everyone right now is (rightly) focused on the Catholic Church but not discussing that Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians and the United Church ran them too. (edited) 3y
WanderingBookaneer @teebe: This book mentions the other religions, but says that the Catholic church had twice as many schools as the Protestants. It also says that among Protestants, Anglicans had more schools than the Methodists and Presbyterians. It mentions Baptists, United Church, and Mennonites as well. 3y
WanderingBookaneer @teebe: I‘m interested in Decolonizing Solidarity. I am from Puerto Rico where the Spaniards worked Taíno men to death and raped Taíno females until all that was left after just 50 years of colonization were Taíno genes these women left in our DNA. 3y
tpixie I can‘t believe how ignorant of this I was until watching of all things Anne of Green Gables on Netflix. Then read more about it in (edited) 3y
teebe @WanderingBookaneer yep, anything coming from the TRC or the Aboriginal Healing Foundation / Legacy of Hope are usually good. They did comprehensive research and worked directly with survivors. (edited) 3y
WanderingBookaneer @teebe : Yes, I have been impressed at the sheer number of sources. I have appreciated this conversation with you. Do you have any other reputable sources or other book titles to recommend for those of us who are just beginning to learn more about this? 3y
teebe @WanderingBookaneer for residential schools specifically… book titles are numerous so I always first recommend reading the TRC reports themselves (all TRC documents can be found through the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation). I also recommend looking at resources from the Legacy of Hope Foundation. Their mandate is to educate about this topic so they have a lot resources including videos and podcasts. (edited) 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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WanderingBookaneer
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Purpleness Thanks so much for sharing this. It really gives a clear answer to the dismissive attitude that focuses on “the child mortality rate was higher back then”. 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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Gissy Wow! So sad all this information but so important to tell the truth behind these events. Documents destroyed because they wanted to hide the real information. 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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wanderinglynn That‘s deplorable. 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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ManyWordsLater Terrible. 3y
wanderinglynn The horrors these students must have faced. 😔 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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WanderingBookaneer
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Books in the late 1950s. #CanadaDay

Avanders ☹️😔😟😢 (edited) 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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First part of the quote. #CanadaDay

MayJasper All the arguments would be dressings for lies to cover greed. 3y
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WanderingBookaneer
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Second part of the quote. #CanadaDay

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WanderingBookaneer
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#CanadaDay

I used to teach Joseph Bruchac‘s Code Talker and it had chapters set in “Indian School.” That fictional book broke my heart, but the real stories I just read affected me more. And I‘m just on page 40!

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WanderingBookaneer
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Pictured: Gordon Residential School (Saskatchewan) which closed in November 1996. #CanadaDay

Jess861 💔 3y
SamAnne So heartbreaking. 3y
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blurb
WanderingBookaneer
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review
DaydreamingBookworm
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Pickpick

I picked up this book because I plan on reading all volumes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this summer. This comprehensive overview of the residential school system should be a mandatory read. It explores the overwhelming evidence of the horrors of residential schools. But the book also highlights the complexities of the system by examining resilience, sports, and FASD. These topics gave me a new nuanced view on residential schools.

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Chaggarty
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"I have always believed that, I think at that particular moment, my spirit left." ?

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