Mutual Commitment

The Remembering Project is about collective action to acknowledge the responsibility that we bear as Canadians for the residential school system. These schools were established for the purpose of building the nation we have inherited. We benefit from the country we share, and so it is appropriate that we recognize the harm done in the name of our country as well.

The communities most affected by these schools were First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.  They are the ones who have led the effort to seek justice, and they are the ones who must provide oversight for any effort to contribute to the effort to bring justice.

We in the Remembering Project consider a solemn duty to contribute to this effort. To ensure the action taken is genuinely conducted in a spirit of atonement for the harm done in our name, we ask that volunteers join us in signing this statement of our mutual commitment.

The Remembering Project commits to:

• Operate in full consultation with Indigenous communities, and be transparent in the feedback we are receiving from them;

• Ensure we have the consent of the survivor committee for the relevant residential school for any archival research we carry out on the students that attended that school; and

• Conduct our work in a way that respects the ownership the relevant survivor committee has of the data and the control they have over the process.

By signing this commitment,

• I acknowledge that, as Canadians, we bear collective responsibility for the residential school system.

• I commit to following the procedures the Remembering Project has established for ensuring Indigenous data sovereignty.