Nathan Matthew was an administrator at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. He's also the former chief of Simpcw First Nation near Barriere (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

FIRST NATIONS RECONCILIATION

More reconciliation needed to right wrongs of the past: Nathan Matthew

Jun 10, 2021 | 2:10 PM

KAMLOOPS — The recent discovery of 215 unmarked graves on Tk’emlups te Secwepemc has opened up wounds for residential school survivors and others impacted.

“It just brings back the realization that there’s real evidence out there that all the negative stuff has happened,” noted former administrator at the Kamloops Residential School Nathan Matthew, who’s also the former chief of Simpcw First Nation near Barriere. “It doesn’t take much reflection to bring up that understanding that the residential school system and what happened to those children is just part of a much larger, more comprehensive, purposeful, strategic plan of cultural genocide.”

It’s also brought to light the lack of progress in reconciliation with First Nations across the country following the Truth and Reconciliation findings were released in 2015 with 94 calls to action for the federal government.

“We’re still in that colonized state in so many ways,” said Matthew, whose parents and family attended the Kamloops residential school. “Every time there’s an opportunity to do something relevant, both governments have shown that they’re more than willing to take the minimalist route, the easiest route for them at the least cost. Even though you can say there’s so many millions of dollars going out there, that is nothing compared how the total wealth of this nation is being divided up.”

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Matthew says with the Indian Act relatively unchanged in Canada since it came to be in 1876, it has made First Nations people to still feel colonized. In general terms, the Indian Act is the primary law the federal government uses to administer Indian status, local First Nations governments and the management of reserve land.

“The laws that are written in the province and federal government, they’re struggling to change them to more appropriately-recognize Indigenous peoples rights. That’s a real challenge,” he said. “I’d really like the see the laws change, so that the rights of Indigenous people, of Secwepemc, are recognized — the rights to make our own laws, to do our own deciding about how we’re going to live, and to recognize that we live in a territory, a physical geographic space, that we have a legal title to.”

Indigenous leaders feel this is all part of the reconciliation process.

Another part of reconciliation is an apology from the Vatican. On Sunday, Pope Francis acknowledged the suffering of Aboriginals in Canadian residential schools, but offered no such apology.

The religious order that ran the Kamloops residential school, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, issued a formal apology in 1991. However, to this day, its leadership feels the shame for what happened.

“As the leader for the Missionary Oblates, [there’s] a real sense of shame that continues to be with me today,” said Father Ken Thorson. “Shame at the history that we were a part of, a colonizing project. That’s clearly what it was. It was a project of assimilation. It’s clear now the residential schools should never have happened. Certainly as a Christian order, our participation in them is contrary to who we’re called to be.”

A part of reconciliation also is Canadian residents educating themselves on what happened at residential schools. Matthew wants people to use this discovery as an opportunity to learn about the historical imbalanced relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. He says it could be a real catalyst for change across the country.

“To recognize the rights of Indigenous people to self-determination, to be the people who decide on where, how they’re going to live, and to recognize the rights that they have that are related to their land and the resources,” said Matthew.