Indian truth and reconcialition commisson making headway

Indian Country Today - In the spring of 2011 the chiefs of the Wabanaki nations and the governor of Maine signed a Declaration of Intent to Create a Maine/Wabanaki Truth & Reconciliation Process to investigate and document a child welfare system that once saw Indian children forcibly removed from their families and placed mostly with white foster parents that were often negligent and sometimes brutally abusive. By the end of this year, the Maine Tribal-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission – the first of its kind established in the country – will begin hearing people’s stories to help heal the wounds from that traumatic past.

Truth and reconciliation commissions have been established in various places around the world, most notably in South Africa, to deal with the violence and human rights abuses that occurred under the apartheid system. The idea is to work through acknowledgment of the wrong doings toward healing and reconciliation, institutional reform, and sometimes reparations. In Maine the idea is to create a common understanding between the Wabanaki and the state of Maine about what happened to Indian children in the welfare system; to use the information from the TRC process to improve the system; and to promote healing both among Wabanaki children and their families and the people who administered the abusive system.

[ Heather Martin, the TRC’s executive director,] said one of the challenges is getting everyone on the same page – or in some cases getting people to realize there’s a page to get on. Everyone knew what the issue was in South Africa and what needed to be discussed, but “here where we’re talking about a violation of human rights of indigenous people especially in relation to child care one half of the conversation is unaware that a conversation needs to happen – and that’s the white community. They don’t know that this is an issue and a lot of time when it’s brought to their attention it’s met with incredulity.” Martin said. “On the other hand is the Wabanaki community that’s very aware that what went on is not okay so the conversation there is how do we talk about this and what do we need to keep ourselves safe emotionally as we go forward and what happens when we take the lid off and start telling?”

Martin, whose background includes human ecology, political science and community organizing, has been seeking allies in the communities in churches and other groups and has garnered the support of the Maine Humanities Council and the Abbe Museum. ”I can tell you that since April I’ve put 12,000 miles on my car,” she said.