Here in Canada, we are commemorating the first official federal day of remembrance for truth and reconciliation on September 30. Some are even fortunate enough to have the day off work to, hopefully, dedicate a few hours to better educating ourselves about our shared history.
For folks out of school, this likely feels overwhelming. While there is more education for children about residential schools, there is little structured education for those who went through the school system when we were still pretending to be a country free of sin. If you are one of these people who is interested in learning more and does not know where to start, I strongly suggest Seven Fallen Feathers.
This book takes the almost overwhelmingly broad concept of the loss of life suffered in Indigenous communities through Canadian efforts to supposedly educate their children both in the past and the present and distills it into the stories of seven children whose loss spans decades and educational systems.
If you live in Ontario, this book will be particularly relevant, as Talaga focuses on stories in Northern Ontario, around Thunder Bay and Kenora.
I have read a lot of books and textbooks and historical documents on events like these. While there is nothing more powerful than hearing these stories in person if you can, I found Talaga’s structure and prose to be particularly effective in making this dark chapter in our history more understandable both in the macro context of the rest of Canadian history and the micro context of the impact on individuals across generations. I say history, but Talaga also very effectively situates these issues in the present. This is our past, but this is also very much our present, both in terms of the intergenerational trauma that is carried but also in how current policies continue to fail Indigenous children in remote communities leading to tragic results.
Another very useful book to read in better educating yourself about the legacy of colonization we’re trying to untangle as part of reconciliation is 21 Things You Didn’t Know About the Indian Act, which is an excellent primer for folks getting familiar with the laws regulating Indigenous people in Canada and its implications.
