 Hi, everyone, and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade, and this is Adam Navas. Hi, Adam. Hello. And today we are talking about the Spotlight English Program, Truth and Reconciliation for Canada. And I did want to start out this video or podcast saying that this program is kind of an, not kind of, it is an upsetting program, and it does talk about things that are very difficult to talk about and are issues that people still face today. So if this is a program that is just too much for you, I get it. And yeah, this isn't going to be an uplifting one. And we're going to try and talk about it, even though it's a very difficult issue. And so I did want to make that clear before we start talking about this program. Yeah, so with that, with that warning out of the way, if you have not listened to this program and you do want to listen to it, you can find it on YouTube or you can follow along with the script on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also download our app for either Android or Apple devices and check out our videos and podcasts that way. So without further ado, as they say, yeah, let's get into this program. I did want to talk about a little bit about what the program is about to start off with. And it really begins with something that, is there a country in the world that this has not touched? Colonialism. Yeah. Which, yeah, maybe you want to introduce that part, Adam. Well, colonialism, a colony, that's the word, to make, one country sends out a group of its own people to another place and establishes a colony. Now colonialism would be that that group of people takes control of that country or influences that country in ways that kind of hurts the people who are already there. Right? Now I'm simplifying. Maybe thinking that they're doing good. Thinking that they're doing good, thinking that they're better, thinking that they're bringing some kind of benefit to that society, but it is historically destructive. Yes. You know, of course, people already living there. I'm going to take the states as an example, right? There have been people living in the United States for many, many, many years. Long before there was a United States. Yes. Exactly. Native Americans, right? Different tribes of indigenous people lived here and then Europeans came over and started their colonies, took over those people. Often and even today, those people are looked down upon or treated differently or told that they're maybe just that their culture isn't as good and they're tried to be brought over to Western culture. That is an example from the United States where we are, but this program specifically focuses on this issue in Canada and especially for children's schools in Canada. This program starts with colonialism and then goes into how the Europeans who settled in Canada, how they started to deal with what they called the Indian problem, which even saying those words is very difficult. I feel like it's a horrible thing to say. Basically trying to get the people who were natively there, the indigenous people or the First Nations people, I think is the other. We should say that for those people who'd be confused why they would be called Indians, which is a very, I'm using it cringey because it's not a label that we apply, but in this context we're talking about it historically. Europeans thought they had found the country of India, so they made a huge mistake and they called people Indians. Maybe you know this as viewers, but that's when we say native peoples or Indians, they're not people from India, so generally that is not a label that is used by people much anymore. And it is offensive. Generally. So really we should be using terms like First Nations people or indigenous people. Some people will use the word Aboriginal people, but I think a more general term is actually First Nations or Native Americans. Anyway. But we're using it here and it just supports your point of that this was the language that was being used at the time and calling it a problem was also, so it's doubly problematic. Yes. That's all I wanted to. So the Europeans who settled there, they were trying to get rid of the culture of the native people there and bring them over to the culture of the Western people, which they said was it was just better, right? That they were more civilized or that they were smarter, that they were better. Any way you can measure better. Right. And so there was a campaign by the Canadian government and I do want to be clear. This program is about Canada, but this problem has happened in many places of the world. So I don't want to say that only Canada is the bad guy or this hasn't happened anywhere else but Canada because that's not true. This program is focused on Canada. And we will get to some of the good things as we later on in the program that Canada did. So let's give them a thumbs up. But to set up the history, the Canadian government actually did take part in trying to remove the culture of the First Nations people there. And part of that was taking native children and trying to... It's hard to even articulate that this happened, right? Yes. Oh my goodness. They took native children from their families and put them in these residential schools. That's what they call them. That were managed by churches, by religious leaders, or I believe somewhere by the government as well. And the purpose of those schools was to basically strip their native culture and give them Western culture, European culture. So they couldn't speak their native language. They had to wear... They couldn't wear their clothing or basically anything. They could wear clothing, yes, but anything that was part of that culture. So food, I mean, food, clothing, language, traditions, all of that was forbidden. And if that weren't bad enough, the conditions in many of these schools were... I'm trying to think of a word deplorable. Here's a good word. It's like horrible, deplorable tragic. They were not conditions that were good for children or any person. Or any person at all. Yes. So there were things that children would die in very large numbers because of these conditions and they would be buried at the schools. And the parents would never know. They just wouldn't be told. It wouldn't be informed. And it... Yeah, that is... I just want to pause here and just really think about that fact that so many parents were never told that their children had died. I can't even think of a word that can convey how tragic that is. If my children were taken away from me and they disappeared forever, I would be broken. Yeah. And I'm sure those parents were. Like I think part of the difficulty of what we're talking about today is if I was backing up my car and I hit your car lives and it made a dent, that would be a bad thing, right? But I could apologize for it and no one was hurt. Okay, if I accidentally hurt one of your children and was felt bad about it but you knew it was an accident, it would be more serious, but we could find a way forward. But this program is about when things are so bad, like the worst of the worst. In a way that it would break you as a parent. How do you move forward with that? And especially when those events happened over a hundred years span to so many people. And I just want to pause there too because even just this past summer in 2021, at least two more sites of like burial sites, mass graves of children were found at some of these residential schools. This isn't something that happened and then it was done and then it was, you know, exposed and dealt with. This is something that continues today that we are continuing to feel the repercussions, the results of today. Well and if we can move to what we can do, I think one of the things that I really took from this program was just because something happened a hundred years ago or two hundred years ago and I'm not, I didn't do it, I'm not, I didn't do any of those things. I still represent something, right, as a man, as a person who has white skin, who is not a native person, I still represent something and there can be value in me owning that representation and then acting out of that representation to apologize, to listen to someone's pain and someone's story, even if they weren't affected, like if it was a grandparent or something like that, who was affected like that. So I don't know how to live that out all the time, right, but I think that's one of the things we can recognize that there is a power in that and we can't just be like, that's a long time ago, it had nothing to do with me. Well that is one of the things that the Canadian government finally, I think it was in 2006 where they admitted that this was a wrong policy, which that's a very long time, right, but they admitted that it was a wrong policy and then this program specifically is titled after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, yes, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which had a job to talk to the people in the residential schools and hear their stories. And yeah, I mean, we have talked before many times about how stories are so important, right, and telling your story and feeling heard and learning from it, learning about people from their story is so important, right, and so part of that that was part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's job to hear those stories, to file them away, to remember them. Yeah, to memorialize. I mean, that's what we when we say memorial, sometimes we make a statue, but it's like no one wants to be forgotten and we don't want to repeat what happened, so we have to remember it and we have to, I mean, in some ways, us having a program, a spotlight program and talking about it is our small way of saying, we want to tell the world about this because these were real people, real children who died, real people who were affected. It's not just, oh, let's just hear this thing and move on. And it's just our way of saying, this happens around the world, but it shouldn't. Right. Yep. And when it happens, we can work towards steps to listen to people who it happened to. We can start steps of reconciliation and that takes work and it takes being willing to listen and to say, I was wrong and I am part of this bad system and I want to learn how to do better. And so the Truth and Reconciliation Commission actually, it is, it's already done. It went through Canada and it visited a bunch of cities. It made these stories and it tried to provide a way for the government and victims to talk together. And I mean, I don't, if you have the government say that they're sorry or provide money, it doesn't, it doesn't bring children back, right? Right. But hopefully, even how much money would a child, I mean, in some ways, that's not what people want, right? I mean, sure, it's great if you say, okay, we'll give you X amount of some amount of dollars because this bad thing happened. But that doesn't make it better. You know, like what, I think what people want is acknowledgement and they want someone to say this wasn't right. Right. And so there is a, there is an organization that is, that came out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and it's called the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation. And they have promised to keep those stories and those truths safe and honored, to honor them, to honor the memory, to make sure that these things don't happen again in Canada and hopefully, hopefully anywhere around the world that they're happening, right? But the program does end on a positive note. And I will say, it is a really difficult thing for me to think about personally. And I think forgiveness always is, maybe. But there is a person who, well, there is another program we have that is coming that talks about how two men formed a friendship working toward this reconciliation. One is a Canadian. He's a non-indigenous person. And then Isidore Charters is an Indigenous person. And these people formed a friendship over reconciliation, so working toward that. So that is a thing that we can, we can look forward to. I don't, I don't think it's an easy answer. Well, I think it is the only answer really, that reconciliation has to happen in relationship. And so it can't, I mean, in one way is the government had a responsibility to do something, but governments change and governments aren't, you know, you've got to have an individual, you've got to have someone you know, you've got to, you've got to reach out and try to understand people and understand their pain. So I think it's not a satisfactory answer, but it's the only answer. Yeah. Well, then I'm going to, I'm going to end this conversation, Adam, with a quote from this program that actually very, very smartly says what you just said. It is from, from the man Isidore Charters, who is an Indigenous person in Canada who is working toward reconciliation. And he says, we have got to work together. Now that you know the story, you can help by passing the story on by walking with us. And so that really is, that's the way that we can do it. You pass on the story, you learn, you do better, and you encourage others to do better. So if you are still here through this podcast or through this video, thank you so much for helping us tackle this really difficult issue. And for thinking through this with us and for being open to talking about difficult things, we would love to hear what your reaction is to this story. Did this, did this story impact you in any way? Like, have you lived an experience like this? Have you been part of an experience like this or reconciliation even? Write to us in the comments. And if you, if you like thinking about difficult things like this, hit the like button on this video. It helps us spread our videos over YouTube, to be honest. And it really helps us out and we can get more people talking about these difficult things. Be sure to check out our website, www.spotlightenglish.com. You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all the places. Get our app for Android or Apple if that's your preference and you can listen to our podcast anywhere that you can find podcasts. Until next time, we hope that you listen, watch, practice, and learn. Spotlight out.