I found myself feeling somewhat nervous, perhaps a tad intimidated, when I set out to write this particular post.  I felt myself being drawn into writing something about residential schools and the upcoming Orange Shirt Day (Sept 30th every year), but I also felt incredibly inadequate:

• My understanding about our national history on residential schools is bordering on the ignorant.  I do not ever recall being taught in school about Canada’s shameful past experience with residential schools, and while I’ve listened to elders talk about their experiences, I still feel somewhat uninformed;
• I am not an indigenous person — none of my relatives are indigenous — and as such I do not pretend to begin to understand the pain and suffering felt by the thousands of persons who were sent to residential schools in Canada;
• I worry that my words and sentiments, because of my limited understanding, may inadvertently add to the hurt or pain already felt among many in our indigenous communities.

What I am NOT concerned about is whether this blog post might result in people talking about our nation’s past practices with Indigenous people.   In fact, I hope that it might encourage some conversation about our experience with residential schools.  Our country’s history with residential schools is shameful.

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