Healing a Nation Through Truth and Reconciliation

TEDx Description:
Canada’s past held some dark and terrible secrets on the treatment of it’s First Nations peoples. Chief Robert Joseph experienced these destructive forces firsthand in the Residential School System and he now explains how sharing these truths was the first step to reconciling a nation. Helping to heal this racism and intolerance is to recognize ‘we are all one’.

Speaker biography (TEDx):
Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, O.B.C. is a true peace-builder whose life and work are examples of his personal commitment. A Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation, Chief Joseph has dedicated his life to bridging the differences brought about by intolerance, lack of understanding and racism at home and abroad. His insights into the destructive impacts these forces can have on people’s lives, families, and cultures were shaped by his experience with the Canadian Indian Residential School system. Chief Joseph is currently the Ambassador for Reconciliation Canada and a member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council. As one of the last few speakers of the Kwakwaka’wakw language, Chief Joseph is an eloquent and inspiring Ceremonial House Speaker. He shares his knowledge and wisdom in the Big House and as a Language Speaker with the University of BC, an internationally recognized art curator and as co-author of “Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast”.

Resource type: Digital / media / art

Age recommendation: Grades 4-6, 7-9

Keywords: Reconciliation, residential schools, TRC, Canadian values, hope, optimism, diversity, shared history, future, shared future, meaning of identity, children, kids

Year of publication: 2016

Publisher information: TEDx Talks