Letter from the Taoiseach

A Chairde Gael,

Two weeks ago, the remains of 215 children were uncovered in unmarked burial sites on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, on the former site of the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia. This may surprise many Canadians but is affirmation for the many Indigenous Peoples across Canada who have bravely told us their stories and asked us to hear and accept them. These schools explicitly operated to assimilate Indigenous children into Anglo- and Franco-Canadian culture. Over 130 Residential schools, with additional Day Schools, operated in Canada between 1831-1996. An estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential schools, with an estimated 6,000 dying at these schools. This is a time of severe grief and loss for Indigenous communities across Canada, and as more school sites are examined it is expected that yet more affirmation of the truths told by Indigenous peoples in Canada will be brought to light.

As Gaels, we are acutely aware of the devastation of state-enforced language and culture loss. The colonization of Ireland saw the hanging of native poets, the burning of Gaelic manuscripts, the dispossession and disenfranchisement of the native Gaels, and the English National School System shaming and punishing the Irish language nearly out of existence. The goal of this colonization of the mind was full assimilation, and this goal was subsequently spread across the English Colonial Empire.
Colonized peoples are left with gaping holes in their knowledge of themselves and their people, their land and their culture. Reversing this damage is a long and painful process of slowly recollecting the knowledge and wisdom that should have flowed naturally from generation to generation. I am reminded of the statement of Canadian Senator Thomas Osborne (NWT) in 1914 concerning the enforced Anglicization of Irish Gaels:

To impose another language on such a people is to send their history adrift among the accidents of translation -’tis to tear their identity from all places - ‘tis to substitute arbitrary signs for picturesque and suggestive names -’tis to cut off the entail of feelings and separate the people from their forefathers by a deep gulf.

However, even as he was writing these moving words, the Canadian Government of which he was a part was continuing its relentless genocidal work, with the Residential Schooling of Indigenous children continuing for another 82 years, ending only 25 years ago.

Canadian Gaels too must reflect on our own truth: though dispossessed from our own ancestral lands, we in Canada are settlers on Indigenous land. The Indigenous Peoples of North America into the present day have continued to experience relentless and wide-ranging cultural change, as well as severe marginalization in Canadian settler society. As of today, 126 Indigenous communities lack clean drinking water and 20% of Indigenous people live in unsafe or crowded homes. Indigenous children represent 8% of Canada’s population but make up 52% of those seized by child care services. At a low estimate, in the 23 years leading to 2012, Indigenous children spent a collective total of 180,000 years (66 million nights) in foster care. As the descendants of settlers and out of empathy as Gaels, we have a duty to ensure that the original peoples of this land are treated with dignity, respect, and self-determination.

I hope that we, as settler Canadians, and this country can learn from this history. We must confront the ongoing effects of colonialism in which many Indigenous Canadians still face abuse, indignity, persecution, and death. We must listen to Indigenous voices with open hearts to understand what is needed to improve the current and future situation of Indigenous People in Canada, along with their languages and cultures. Healing is not possible until our pasts are openly confronted. As Gaels, having our own understanding of language loss and disenfranchisement, our sincerest hope is for peace and healing. But more than hope, we must also in unison raise our voices in the face of the continuing effects of colonialism upon the Indigenous Peoples of Canada today. I encourage us as a community to demand accountability of our elected representatives and to personally recommit to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation commission. Below you will find helpful resources, including the Calls to Action and how to contact your local representatives.

We cannot fully celebrate the survival of our own language and culture in North America without reflecting on the state of the Indigenous languages and cultures of this land and working to support their revitalization, as well as the health and safety of their people. The resilience of colonized peoples globally and Indigenous North Americans specifically gives hope that these historic wrongs can be righted, through love, acceptance, understanding, and action.

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.

Dónall Ó Dubhghaill
Taoiseach, Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir

Resources
Read the Calls to Action: http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
Contact your local MP: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en

Any questions, info@gaeilge.ca