Abstract
This article aims to contribute to discourses of healing, Indigenous resurgence and spiritual regeneration within the context of the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place in Canada between 2008 and 2015. First, it considers to what extent the TRC’s restorative justice process can relate to Indigenous ways of conceptualising healing. Secondly, it reflects on the Commission’s exclusive focus on the Indian Residential School system and its legacies, which, according to many Indigenous scholars, overlooks a much broader and more complex history of colonisation, political domination, and land dispossession still ongoing. I underline that, from an Indigenous perspective, land plays a fundamental role to achieve healing, spiritual regeneration, and resurgence. In the last section, I move the discussion to the literary dimension as I explore Richard Wagamese’s 2012 novel Indian Horse. In particular, I argue that fiction, especially that fiction produced during the years of the Commission’s work, can be a crucial site for challenging the TRC’s restorative process and for bringing out the significance of storytelling and of an Indigenous deep sense of connection to the land as a source of learning, spiritual reclaiming, and healing.
Highlights
Charged with the task of addressing the harms caused by the Indian Residential School (IRS) system, the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place in Canada between 2008–2015 (TRC or Commission) was mainly designed toThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature 00(0)provide a culturally appropriate and safe setting for former IRS students, their families, and their communities as they came forward to the Commission and shared their stories
This article seeks to contribute to discourses of healing, reconciliation, and Indigenous resurgence by reflecting on the extent to which the concept of restorative justice promoted by the Commission relates to Indigenous epistemologies and perspectives
Drawing on the works of Glen Coulthard, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Jeanette Armstrong I underline the paramount role of the land — or ratherconnection to the land — for Indigenous pathways towards healing, spiritual regeneration, and Indigenous resurgence against past and present injustices caused by settler-colonialism
Summary
Charged with the task of addressing the harms caused by the Indian Residential School (IRS) system, the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place in Canada between 2008–2015 (TRC or Commission) was mainly designed toThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature 00(0)provide a culturally appropriate and safe setting for former IRS students, their families, and their communities as they came forward to the Commission and shared their stories. I argue that fiction, especially that fiction produced during the years of the Commission’s work, can be a crucial site for challenging the TRC’s restorative process and for bringing out the significance of storytelling and of an Indigenous deep sense of connection to the land as a source of learning, spiritual reclaiming, and healing.
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