Message to the McMaster community regarding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Every year on September 30, we mark a solemn and important day on the calendar: the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

It’s a day to pause and reflect and to consider the actions we have taken and that we plan to take to foster reconciliation with Indigenous communities.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report of 10 years ago was the result of a painful process that put before the public detailed evidence of the shameful residential school program which for more than a century had aimed to assimilate Indigenous peoples across Canada.

The governmentally-sanctioned system had subjected children to horrors including forced separation from their families and communities, physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition, disease, uninformed and non-consensual scientific experimentation, forced sterilization and death.

The report was not the end of the process of reconciliation. It was, in fact, the beginning.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a time for non-Indigenous Canadians, including me, to recall our responsibilities and refresh our commitment to learn, acknowledge, remember and take action to reconcile the multi-generational hardship that Indigenous people endure, directly and indirectly.

I am grateful to our Indigenous partners, including current and retired members of our Indigenous Studies Department, the Indigenous Education Council, Six Nations Polytechnic and others for their goodwill in helping me to learn more, as I plan to continue to do, and for helping the McMaster community to understand and meet its responsibilities.

On July 3, my third day as President, I was honored to visit Six Nations of the Grand River with Dean of Engineering Heather Sheardown to participate in the annual water festival, which gives thanks for the precious resource of water and recognizes everyone’s shared responsibility to care for water in all contexts.

Dean Sheardown and I had the opportunity to meet with Six Nations elders and the president of Six Nations Polytechnic. We were also able to speak with students and faculty and learn about their research and McMaster’s relationship with Six Nations.

I’m grateful to Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill and Karen Knott, the Indigenous Education Council’s Administrator of Indigenous Initiatives, for their support in organizing our visit.

I’m also grateful to the Mastercard Foundation for its remarkable $5-million gift to elevate innovation in academic programs, supports and services for Indigenous students at McMaster. The gift recognizes McMaster’s commitment to Indigenous education.

The McMaster gift is part of a broader $245-million strategic investment by the Mastercard Foundation to recognize more than 30 organizations across Canada that are advancing education for Indigenous young people.

While September 30 is an important day, we at McMaster must remain cognizant every day of our ongoing responsibility to respect, understand and include Indigenous knowledge and culture, to build on our foundation of Indigenous education and to dedicate ourselves sincerely to reconciliation.

Susan Tighe, President and Vice-Chancellor, McMaster University