Open letter to Japanese Canadians and their Allies in Canada to support Indian Residential School Survivors
July 3, 2021
July 1, 2021
This letter is endorsed by the Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians , Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association, Hamilton Chapter of the NAJC, Japanese Canadian Association of Yukon, and Ottawa Japanese Community Association. We are grateful for the assistance of members of the NAJC Human Rights committee.
If you need someone to talk to during these difficult times, or to assist you in navigating your way to help, support is at the end of a phone line:
Indian Residential Schools Crisis line: 1-866-925-4419
Native Women’s Association of Canada support services
Mon-Fri 9-12 & 1-4:
1-833-652-1381 (Esther Ward)
1-833-652-1385 (Joanne Bartibogue)
1-833-652-1382 (Isabelle Meawasige)
1-833-652-1379 (Bethany Tremblay)
This is an open letter to Japanese Canadians and our allies to support Indian Residential School Survivors. While many of us have already begun the important and lifelong processes of unlearning and unsettling ourselves with respect to our relationships with Indigenous peoples and with Canada, many of us have yet to start this important journey.
On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation confirmed the remains of 215 children who were students of the Catholic-run Kamloops Indian Residential School. Today, June 24, 2021, we heard the announcement of 751 unmarked graves at the Marieval school in Saskatchewan. While this might come as a shock to Canadians, survivors have been calling for investigations into these graves for years and it is expected that many more sites and similar horrific announcements are to come. Their voices and truths cannot be ignored any longer. Five years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released a report as part of its final findings that called explicitly for investigations into these deaths, the missing children, and unmarked burial sites. Their requests were denied. As the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) emphasizes and reminds, “we have the evidence of first-hand witnesses of the torture and abuse. In Canada, we live under the rule of law. The law does not allow those who are responsible for the deaths of children to walk free with impunity.” As Japanese Canadians, we must stand together and call for accountability.
As Japanese Canadians, we span every province of Canada and have the incredible privilege of living, working and playing in different regions of this part of Turtle Island from the Yukon to Manitoba, to Quebec – From sacred Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories to Anishinaabe Algonquin territories and beyond, our community represents different regions, workplaces, professions, unions, beliefs, faiths, sexualities, genders, and generations.
Many of our community members are themselves Sansei and Yonsei or third and fourth generation Canadians whose parents and grandparents were subject to the Canadian government’s racist policies of dispossession, confinement and assimilation during the 1940s that targeted our mothers, our brothers, our grandmothers, our great-grandfathers. Several community members who went through what is commonly referred to as the internment are still alive today. In the Spirit of Redress, or that spirit of courage and tenacity in the face of horrible injustice, racism, ignorance and denial of the truth and of the past, let us stand together in support of residential school survivors, now.
We urge our families, friends, and fellow community members to learn and support the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Actions. Particularly, we urge our families, friends, and fellow community members to bring the demands of Residential School survivors and their communities to their own networks and churches in any capacity they are able and can influence.
We join with Indigenous Peoples in saying that it is time for the Catholic Church to be accountable and take responsibility.
We join with Indigenous Peoples in calling on federal, provincial and local governments to fund investigations into finding and protecting burial sites.
We call for proper accountability for the genocide committed against Indigenous peoples that has been and continues to be revealed in this country.
Our signatures here show our commitment. We commit to listening and learning from this, from survivors and their families as we strengthen our relationships with Indigenous communities across this land.
You can sign the letter here
If you need someone to talk to during these difficult times, or to assist you in navigating your way to help, support is at the end of a phone line:
Indian Residential Schools Crisis line: 1-866-925-4419
Native Women’s Association of Canada support services
Mon-Fri 9-12 & 1-4:
1-833-652-1381 (Esther Ward)
1-833-652-1385 (Joanne Bartibogue)
1-833-652-1382 (Isabelle Meawasige)
1-833-652-1379 (Bethany Tremblay)
This is an open letter to Japanese Canadians and our allies to support Indian Residential School Survivors. While many of us have already begun the important and lifelong processes of unlearning and unsettling ourselves with respect to our relationships with Indigenous peoples and with Canada, many of us have yet to start this important journey.
On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation confirmed the remains of 215 children who were students of the Catholic-run Kamloops Indian Residential School. Today, June 24, 2021, we heard the announcement of 751 unmarked graves at the Marieval school in Saskatchewan. While this might come as a shock to Canadians, survivors have been calling for investigations into these graves for years and it is expected that many more sites and similar horrific announcements are to come. Their voices and truths cannot be ignored any longer. Five years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released a report as part of its final findings that called explicitly for investigations into these deaths, the missing children, and unmarked burial sites. Their requests were denied. As the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) emphasizes and reminds, “we have the evidence of first-hand witnesses of the torture and abuse. In Canada, we live under the rule of law. The law does not allow those who are responsible for the deaths of children to walk free with impunity.” As Japanese Canadians, we must stand together and call for accountability.
As Japanese Canadians, we span every province of Canada and have the incredible privilege of living, working and playing in different regions of this part of Turtle Island from the Yukon to Manitoba, to Quebec – From sacred Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories to Anishinaabe Algonquin territories and beyond, our community represents different regions, workplaces, professions, unions, beliefs, faiths, sexualities, genders, and generations.
Many of our community members are themselves Sansei and Yonsei or third and fourth generation Canadians whose parents and grandparents were subject to the Canadian government’s racist policies of dispossession, confinement and assimilation during the 1940s that targeted our mothers, our brothers, our grandmothers, our great-grandfathers. Several community members who went through what is commonly referred to as the internment are still alive today. In the Spirit of Redress, or that spirit of courage and tenacity in the face of horrible injustice, racism, ignorance and denial of the truth and of the past, let us stand together in support of residential school survivors, now.
We urge our families, friends, and fellow community members to learn and support the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Actions. Particularly, we urge our families, friends, and fellow community members to bring the demands of Residential School survivors and their communities to their own networks and churches in any capacity they are able and can influence.
We join with Indigenous Peoples in saying that it is time for the Catholic Church to be accountable and take responsibility.
We join with Indigenous Peoples in calling on federal, provincial and local governments to fund investigations into finding and protecting burial sites.
We call for proper accountability for the genocide committed against Indigenous peoples that has been and continues to be revealed in this country.
Our signatures here show our commitment. We commit to listening and learning from this, from survivors and their families as we strengthen our relationships with Indigenous communities across this land.
You can sign the letter here
If you have questions, would like to receive information about follow up actions or volunteer email japanesecanadians@gmail.com