Open tribute on the occasion of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
September 30, 2021

On this National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, we come together. 

We join our voices to say that we can’t stop thinking about the children who never returned home after leaving for residential schools, children who died from the abuse they suffered, from the grief of being torn away from everything that anchored their lives, cut from their deep roots within their native land. 

We think of all those children who were scooped from their parents, their families, their communities. 

By the thousands and over several generations, they were violently robbed of their languages, their memory, their vital emotional ties, their rich tangible and intangible heritage, their civilization and cultural traits, their freedom, their dignity, their identity and their pride.

See the graves, long kept hidden, of children disappeared from their parents, now coming to the surface like so many distant screams of distress and cries for help. 

We stand in solidarity, holding to our hearts those who survived an ordeal of such harrowing magnitude that one can’t emerge unscathed, forever carrying the scars and the trauma.

Our thoughts also go out to the inconsolable relatives, forever burdened by the wound of grief and the pain of being denied the truth, the whole truth.

A National Holiday for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 will not be enough. It should not obscure nor absolve, even ease our conscience. The day should be used for reflection, dialogue, sharing, awareness, education, and action. Conscientiously, collectively, we must engage fully in the truth-telling exercise. Additional investigations must also be conducted, those responsible, decision makers and executioners for the hecatomb identified, brought to tell the truth and admit to the misdeeds, to recognize the devastating impact of what was done, to be made legally accountable. 

This history concerns us all, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It shatters the trust we placed in the high institutions that became accomplices in the criminal abuse, lies, silence and negligence. It speaks to the general indifference that allowed such crimes to be committed, and to endure. 

I want to honour the courage and perseverance of the Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada and its members, women of great merit working to safeguard the culture, the arts and the memory of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, upholding their rights in the process.    

The Michaëlle Jean Foundation is proud and honoured to stand by their side in this struggle, a struggle that we must wage with all our might.  

Michaëlle Jean
27th Governor General of Canada