CAGS Stands in Support of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Friday, 30 September 2022

The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) stands in solidarity with all those who are marking September 30th as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

On this important and solemn day of contemplation, we urge our members to reflect on the lost children and survivors of residential schools, and the communities and families that have been harmed by these institutions for generations. We acknowledge the scores of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and encourage our members to explore the unequal historical relationships that have existed between Indigenous peoples and settlers for more than four centuries. Finally, we invite our members to reflect on their own roles and responsibilities in this long collective journey to reconciliation, and to imagine, develop, and support new ways of decolonizing and indigenizing graduate studies.

We believe that the transformative power of graduate education is an essential component of our shared efforts to fight all forms of anti-Indigenous racism in Canada and beyond. CAGS will continue to provide a platform for our members to learn about and take action on these issues, including the work of the Task Force on Reconciliation, our hosting of anti-racism response training workshops, and our upcoming annual conference focused on the future of Graduate Studies in Canada and beyond.

CAGS honours the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as an opportunity to learn about the past, to listen to Indigenous peoples and their stories, and to push back against anti-Indigenous racism in our society, on our campuses, and in our classrooms. In the resources provided below, we offer a starting point in this journey.

Resources for Further Learning

Learn more about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its 94 calls to action.

Learn more about the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Explore a variety of Indigenous content in this curated collection of multimedia resources.

In addition to your learning and engagement in truth and reconciliation, on 30 September we encourage you to wear orange in support of Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-organized movement to raise awareness of the residential school system. Be sure to purchase your shirt from an Indigenous-owned business.

Read the preliminary report of the CAGS Task Force on Reconciliation, Reconciliation in Canadian Indigenous Graduate Education (Reimer & Archibald, 2020).