8 Principles for Living with Hard Histories
Living truthfully with the past is easier said than done.
The New York Times published on 14 November a moving obituary of Murray Sinclair. Sinclair, whose Anishinaabe name was Mazina Giizhik, was the first Indigenous judge in Canada’s Manitoba province and a member of Canada’s Senate.
But Sinclair was best known for his work as the Commissioner of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission examined the horrific injustice Indigenous children experienced in the residential schools. The commission’s estimate was that at least 3,200 Indigenous children had died as result of abuse, malnutrition and unsafe living conditions. The death toll is believed to be far higher due to missing and incomplete records.
I learned about the work when I visited Calgary Public Library and Edmonton Public Library in 2023. I have understood the impact of the commission’s work in greater detail through my work with Edmonton Public Library and when I interviewed Kelli Morning Bull about Indigenous placemaking for this newsletter (read here). As I wrote then: what impresses me the most in Canada is not that they have it all figured out but that there are public institutions that are committed to learning, truth and reconciliation and where the leaders of these institutions speak about their responsibility so eloquently and with ease.
The obituary highlighted some of the principles that guided the commission’s approach.
The commission heard the testimonies of more than 6,500 former residential school students. Rather than asking people to travel to Winnipeg where the commission was based, the commission traveled to people. Meeting people where they are is a good practice when building trust (as I mentioned in my previous piece on youth engagement).
The commission shared stories of people using social media rather to publish them in a report. In this way, the commission was able to build the momentum and trust for its work.
The commission’s work was framed as targeting the entire society and not just the government. The commission’s 94 calls to action for the Canadian society were targeted to people and institutions and led to Prime Minister’s official apology on behalf of Canada.
My work on convivencia has to do with friction in different forms. Dealing with the past is very much a question of friction and conflict. Addressing past injustice evokes feelings of guilt, anger, sorrow and loss. It raises questions on how we can be proud of our country or institution while also acknowledging its missteps, mistakes or violations of basic decency. In many ways, it is about acknowledging that good and bad can act side by side.
During the last year, I have heard several moving talks on how to deal with past injustice and suffering beyond Canada. In September, Assistant Professor Karwan Fatah-Black gave a powerful talk to an American delegation in Amsterdam on how the Netherlands is dealing with its history in slave trade. In the 17th and 19th century, the Netherlands was the largest slave trader in the world transporting over 600,000 Africans to the Americas. Last year, the King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander apologized for the the first time on behalf of the government and the royal family. Fatah-Black shared how slavery, resistance and liberation are now incorporated into the Dutch historical canon. As a demonstration of its commitment to justice and equity, the Netherlands is developing a National Museum of Slavery scheduled to open in the next few years.
In 2022, I heard an incredibly powerful talk by Professor Martha S. Jones on the Hard Histories project of Johns Hopkins University. Professor Jones leads a multi-disciplinary effort funded by the university’s President Ronald J. Daniels to explore how racism “has been produced and permitted to persist as part of our [Johns Hopkins University] structure and out practice”. In her talk, Professor Jones shared how the team is exploring ways to tell the stories of the university’s founder as an owner of at least 40 enslaved people and of the girls of the boarding school founded by Johns Hopkins. She said that their practice of combining archival research with community engagement and publishing results as they go is challenging many ways historical research is traditionally done while being a critical way to build trust.
As a gay man, I have been moved by the many talks, advocacy, artistic contributions and social media channels uncovering the injustice done to the gay community as a result of a delayed response of the Reagan administration to the AIDS crisis. Over 700,000 people - disproportionately gay men - died of HIV/AIDS in the United States between 1981 and 2020.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, D.C., is a powerful tribute to the lives lost to HIV/AIDS, symbolizing love, loss, and activism through its thousands of handcrafted panels. Created in 1987 by the NAMES Project Foundation in San Francisco, the quilt began as a grassroots effort to honor those who had died of AIDS and quickly grew into a global symbol of remembrance and advocacy. Displayed periodically in the city, the quilt fosters awareness, remembrance, and the fight against stigma surrounding the disease.
One of the most powerful social media accounts I follow is the one by The Aids Memorial. Its posts highlight individuals lost to HIV/AIDS, with their life stories told by their loved ones. What’s striking in the posts that they celebrate the lives of these people in all their joy, sexuality, glory and wonder without ignoring the pain.
8 Principles for Reckoning with Hard Histories
There is not a society, city, public institution or country that would not have work to do in dealing with its history. To do this truthfully, it is going to be emotional. Looking at the examples above, there are a number of lessons we can take from how we can understand our past, the people affected and build a shared way forward.
Invest in research your past with a lens of equity. Share your process to build and restore trust.
As a leader, recognize and apologize for the past of your institution.
Create room for a range of emotions. Understand and accept feelings of hurt, mistrust, anger and sorrow.
Create educational resources and opportunities, especially for schools. Incorporate the stories of injustice into institutionalized histories.
Frame the past as a story about us, not about them. Amplify the voices of loves ones.
Tell stories of people as their full selves, in all their joy, imperfection, talent and pain.
Share power and invite to the table. Create designated spaces, recognize diversity in public addresses, ensure representation.
Resource with a lens of equity.
Living with the past is an ultimate test for convivencia. It is accepting that good people can do terrible things, that we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves and committing to building a shared path forward while acknowledging that some of us still have doubts, hurt and mistrust.