Truth and Reconciliation Day resources

Truth and Reconciliation Day is marked on Sept. 30. These nonfiction resources provide information on the residential school system and how this has had an impact on communities. The library booklist provides readers with names of books and other material recommended by the staff of Western Counties Regional Library. All recommendations are posted at www.westerncounties.ca under Recommended Reading with links to our catalogue.

CANADA'S RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS, PART I by Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) painstakingly and often painfully demonstrates over seven volumes and 3,300 total pages the primary purpose of residential schools in Canada: "through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada ... which can best be described as 'cultural genocide.'"

FINAL REPORT OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OF CANADA. VOLUME ONE by Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth and the legacy of these schools. This report, the summary volume, includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy.

CANADA'S RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS, PART II by Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

This is Volume Two of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

RECONCILIATION & INDIGENOUS JUSTICE by David Leo Milward

The legacy of harm the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) caused provide vivid and crucial links between Canadian colonialism and Indigenous over-incarceration. This book provides an account of the ongoing ties between the enduring traumas caused by the residential schools and Indigenous over-incarceration.

BEYOND THE ORANGE SHIRT STORY by Phyllis Webstad

Beyond the Orange Shirt Story is a unique collection of truths, as told by Phyllis Webstad's family and others, that will give readers an up-close look at what life was like before, during and after their Residential School experiences. In this book, Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors share their stories authentically and in their own words.

PICKING UP THE PIECES by Carey Newman

This nonfiction book, illustrated with photographs, tells the story of the making of the Witness Blanket, a work by Indigenous artist Carey Newman that includes hundreds of items from every Residential School in Canada and stories from the Survivors who donated them.