Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild awarded a 2018 Concordia Honorary Doctorate

The following introduction and video was originally published by Concordia University. 

On 11 June 2018, Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild was awarded a 2018 Concordia Honorary Doctorate. In his closing, he challenges the Falculty of Arts and Science graduates to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, urging them to “pick one that speaks to you and implement it.”  Watch his full address at the ceremony >

For more than 40 years, Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild has worked to build bridges between Indigenous and non- Indigenous people through athletics, politics, and law. An accomplished lawyer, he is the first Indigenous person appointed to Queen’s Counsel by the Alberta Law Society. He brought Native issues to public attention while serving as the first Treaty Indian Member of Parliament. Littlechild has been active with a number of organizations both within Canada and abroad, including the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, the United Nations, the National Indian Athletic Association, and the Canadian Council of International Law. He has given lectures on various occasions, including at the Human Rights Institute of the University of Hawaii. Littlechild served as a Commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, whose final report was released on December 15, 2015.

Statement from the Commissioner, Chief Wilton Littlechild

(From Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939 – The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1)

“When you work for our community, you must do everything you can to make it better, then pass it to the next one….” These were my late grandfather’s (Chief Dan Minde) words to me in Cree as a twelve-year-old. I was and had been a residential school student for six years already. The true meaning of this instruction really took on full significance for me during these past six years. Thank you to my fellow Commissioners—Justice Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson—and all those who helped me focus our work as a sacred trust. What a blessing it has been.

We have listened very carefully to many courageous individuals in our search for the truth. Through pain, tears, joy, and sometimes anger, they informed us about what happened. My gratitude and admiration of your strength and resilience to those who shared your views on how we can and how we must work together very hard for reconciliation going forward. The encouraging advice from one of my schoolmates was, “It starts with me, I need to make things right with our Creator, the Great Spirit.” The one recurring message for me throughout the public hearings was the necessity for the essential step of returning to spirituality through our languages, cultures, and land. We have all been guided in our journey by the seven universal gifts, sacred teachings towards having good relations or better relationships with mutual respect. In the many different ways we gathered stories in a safe setting, thank you to those who provided medical, cultural, and spiritual support. Also, to the many who prayed for us throughout the years, hai hai! Thank you.

While there are many significant highlights, for me, four solutions for “making things better” stand out. I believe Treaties are a solution. They are a basis for a strengthened partnership that calls on us to work together. I believe that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a global consensus, offers us a true framework for reconciliation. I believe the greatest opportunity for positive change is in lifelong learning, holistic education. I also believe these are best achievable if we work very, very hard on unity. We now know from many Survivors’ testimonies that in building on the strengths of our people, the power is in family. Reconciliation will come through concrete action on these priorities.

Finally, let me conclude by extending the best I learned from fellow Survivors to my own and extended family for their sacrifice, patience, and being there for me: Helen, Megan, Neil, Teddi, and my grandchildren Shaynna, Cleveland, Summer, Keeshon, Nea, Jack, Ava, Jaylynn, and Konnar. The seven most powerful words: “I’m sorry, I love you, thank you.”

Chief Wilton Littlechild
Commissioner

About Canada’s Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume 1-6

“These volumes contain a tremendous amount of information and data. Of special interest are the first-person accounts and the black-and-white photographs taken at the various schools. Anyone interested in Canadian history and the history of Native peoples will be intrigued by these publications, which are sure to be eye-opening.” Library Journal

Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities.

For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed. Education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers.

Legal action by the schools’ former students led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008. The product of over six years of research, the Commission’s final report outlines the history and legacy of the schools, and charts a pathway towards reconciliation.

Learn more >