Truth & Reconciliation in 2026: How can Filipinos in Canada aid in this process? by Sobey Wing

Sep 27

Filipino Canadians call for support of Indigenous Peoples over shared colonized history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWpdyT7oWSE

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/filipino-canadians-supporting-indigenous-people-1.6083378

To fellow Filipinos living in Canada, what follows is a call for support for the Indigenous People of Turtle Island, as it is known to them and what we call our country. The aim of this writing is to take stock of what is present in todays news stories surrounding the climate of misinformation and walking back the progress made to bring healing to the ongoing wounds of colonialism. It aims to also note what Filipino/a/x in diaspora have been doing that are seeds of change to contribute towards decolonization efforts and finding right relations with the Indigenous peoples.

Thirteen years ago Orange Shirt Day began and 5 years ago became a federal statutory holiday following the passage of Bill C-5. It is observed annually on September 30th to honor First Nations, Inuit and Mètis survivors of Residential Schools and their families. This was a direct response to the Call to Action 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which called for a national day of commemoration to ensure the history and legacy of residential schools remain a vital part of the reconciliation process.

The last federally run residential school in Canada, Gordon’s Indian Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. St. Mary’s Mission School in Mission, BC, closed in 1984, marking the end of residential schools in the province. Here is a link to all the residential schools that existed across Canada: https://geo.sac-isc.gc.ca/ACPI-IRSMA/index_en.html This is a visual depiction of colonization done with little military. Polite colonialism dressed in religion. So many of these places are haunted and need healing. Every living Indigenous person in Canada has family who have been to Residential Schools with many still alive today.

In Duncan BC on Vancouver Island, Koksilah Festival was one such effort to bring healing to a former day school done between settlers and Cowichan Nation members to work towards reconciliation and uplift survivors and their families. Using culture there was a space created for decolonization and healing under the guise of a festival. Filipinx artist Kimmortal performed at the festival in 2019.

Since 2020 Indigenous land defenders have had the slogan and political declaration that Reconciliation is dead particularly during the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protests. The Land Back slogan also gained prominence addressing true justice in the form of Indigenous sovereignty and land rights vs symbolic gestures needed for any meaningful reconciliation.

Genuine examples of Land Back notable to Vancouver include the returning of 2018 city-owned land in South Vancouver, near the Arthur Laing Bridge, part of an ancient Indigenous site containing remains of Musqueam ancestors and the so-called Marpole Midden which was also a burial site and a village known as C̓əsnaʔəm (pronounced "sets-NAHM").

Another recent example is Sen̓áḵw ("sin-AWKW") which opened in 2026. In 2003, a court decision returned 10.48 acres of the original Sen̓áḵw reserve to the Squamish Nation. This legal victory allowed the Nation to proceed with an ambitious, Indigenous-led development on their own land in the heart of Vancouver. The result is Sen̓áḵw, now recognized as the largest Indigenous-led real estate and housing development in Canadian history, featuring over 6,000 purpose-built rental homes on just over 10 acres.

The TRC in its 2015 final report stated that “without truth, justice, and healing, there can be no genuine reconciliation” emphasizing that reconciliation is not about closing a chapter but forging new pathways based on factual accountability.

But in 2026 directly contradicting this principle have been an orchestrated movement of denialism involving downplaying, misrepresentation, or minimization of basic facts regarding the systemic harms and abuses inflicted on Indigenous children.

According to research from institutions like the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and independent historians, denialist claims generally center around the following arguments:

1. The "Well-Intentioned" Narrative

Denialists often claim that the school system was a benevolent or "well-intentioned" civilizing mission. They argue that the architects and staff of the schools had the best interests of the children at heart and that the primary goal was to provide an education and help Indigenous people assimilate into Canadian society.

2. Emphasizing "Positive" Experiences

A common tactic is demanding a "false balance" by arguing that the history taught in schools focuses too heavily on negative experiences. Denialists frequently claim that many children had positive experiences, received valuable skills, or benefited from the system, arguing these stories are being suppressed.

3. Questioning and Minimizing Harm

Exaggeration Claims: They claim that survivor testimonies of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are exaggerated or isolated rather than systemic.
Justifying Deaths: While not denying that children died, denialists often claim the deaths were unavoidable consequences of the eras' pandemics (such as tuberculosis) rather than a result of systemic neglect, overcrowding, or poor conditions.

4. Contesting "Unmarked Graves" Evidence

Following the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) at former school sites starting in 2021, denialists have increasingly focused on undermining these findings. They claim that reports of unmarked burials are a "hoax" or exaggerated, demanding absolute forensic proof (such as full exhumations) before accepting survivor and historical accounts of missing children.

5. Denying Genocide

Denialists rigorously reject the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) that the residential school system constituted cultural genocide. They argue that the term "genocide" is inaccurate and misapplied to Canada’s history.

Last June, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak today denounced the move by the Senate of Canada to reject an amendment to Bill C-9, often referred to as the Hate Crimes Bill, that would have included Indian Residential School denialism as an offense. This movement of denialism is driven by a desire to protect the status quo, legitimize settler privilege, and fuel anti-indigenous racism, with significant traction among right-wing political actors and far-right media circles. It acts in concert with a rise in white supremacy in Canada that utilizes a multitude of methods to recruit people to join its ranks.

The David Suzuki Foundation wrote “In May 2026, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Graves in Canada delivered its preliminary statement explicitly acknowledging that the history of the residential school system, inequities lived by Indigenous children and the destruction of family, language and culture at the hands of the state, continue to shape the lives of Indigenous communities today.This Tribunal was called for by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal and was mandated to assess whether Canada’s residential school system amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity.

Following four days of hearings in Montreal, the Tribunal concluded that the close to one thousand pages of evidence presented before it demonstrated genocide under international law.

Following four days of hearings in Montreal, the Tribunal concluded that the close to one thousand pages of evidence presented before it demonstrated genocide under international law. The Tribunal characterized Canada’s responsibility as “not only historic but also contemporary and continuing.” It identified the forced transfer of children, serious bodily and mental harm, and continuing violations affecting Indigenous children, families, lands and communities.”

But in a disturbing report by the Narwal, the Canadian government intends to destroy 38,000 testimonies of residential school survivors, the largest body of evidence about their experiences. They were collected between 2007 to 2012. Journalist Connie Walker and lawyer Kimberly Murray say losing them would be losing history.

“They contain first-hand experiences recounted by some of the estimated 150,000 children who attended residential schools operated by the Canadian government. The schools operated for two centuries; the last to close was Kivalliq Hall, in Rankin Inlet, Nvt., in 1997. Many children experienced physical and sexual abuse, disease, neglect and despair. Over 3,200 deaths at residential schools have been confirmed, a far higher mortality rate than that of non-Indigenous children at the time — and the true number of deaths is likely greater. Those who died in institutions were usually buried there.

These testimonies are the largest body of residential school records in Canada — an irreplaceable body of evidence, containing more than six times as many testimonies as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And in September 2027, it is set to be destroyed. The testimonies weren’t collected in an effort to document and preserve the history of residential schools. The process was a response to a tidal wave of lawsuits thousands of Survivors launched against the federal government and churches starting in the 1990s.”

2026 has shown push back as well on land acknowledgement practices in schools and municipal governance. While land acknowledgements are often tokenistic and ring hollow much of the time the denialist movement is concerning and furthers society from truth and reconciliation. It furthers anti-Indigenous hatred and deepens existing traumas.

As of this writing, 3 days before September 30th white nationalist organization Second Sons Canada gathered masked up in the morning at Tk’emlúps té Secwépemc land to intimidate Indigenous people and immigrants (of which they are too) in an act some consider domestic terrorism with known neo-Nazi’s in their midst. Three days before Truth & Reconciliation day, stationed across from the band office with banners reading “Got Bones?” Their rhetoric includes speaking of marching immigrants out of Canada by gunpoint.

Wade Grant, Liberal MP and member of the Musqueam Nation, told Global News that this act is an example of why more education is needed.

“It’s about communicating with our next generations, but also those that are here today,” he said.

“And I, we’ve done a great job of that. We have so many people that are now wanting to learn more about Indigenous peoples, Indigenous cultures, and how that is an important fabric in this country we call Canada.”

Grant added that residential school denialism is opening up wounds that people have tried to heal for generations.

“I have two young children myself,” he added. “I don’t want them to grow up in a country where Indigenous and non-Indigenous are separated. We need to bring them together. And that’s all about coming together and having these conversations right now.”

In 2026 we are also seeing efforts to scale back or reinterpret UNDRIP (United Rights of Indigenous Peoples) in Canada especially in BC, where political tensions have intensified following controversial court rulings. The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled in December 2025 that the provinces mineral claim registration was inconsistent with UNDRIP, prompting the Eby government to propose amendments that would suspend the requirement to “take all measures necessary” to align laws with the Declaration. Though Indigenous leadership and the NDP caucus opposed the amendments resulting in Eby committing against repealing the law it generated support from public and industry. At the federal level, while the UNDRIP Act remains law, recent legislative proposals like Bill C-39 (Building Canada Strong Act) have been criticized for prioritizing rapid resource development without integrating Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) or explicitly referencing the UNDRIP Act.

Related to this locally in Richmond BC has been the tremendous pushback on a unprecedented ruling declared that about 3.25 square kilometres (part of 750 hectares in total) of mixed residential, agricultural and industrial land was Aboriginal title — despite also being privately owned. Prior to these privately owned properties it was Tl’uqtinus ("long beach" in the Hul’q’umi’num language), a Quw'utsun nation village pre-dating the establishment of both British Columbia and Canada. The push back comes with no actual threats of owners losing their properties.

Key Details of the Ruling and Impact

Status Quo Remains: Legal experts and counsel for the Cowichan Tribes confirm that private property and fee simple titles are unaffected, as the court remedies focus on Crown-held public lands, the city, and the province rather than displacing individual property owners.
Coexistence of Titles: The court ruling recognizes Aboriginal title over a historic village site (Tl'uqtinus) along the Fraser River, noting that negotiations between governments and the Nation must resolve overlapping jurisdictions without burdening third-party private landowners.
Ongoing Appeals: The City of Richmond, the B.C. provincial government, and other regional groups have appealed the decision, meaning the legal process and final resolutions will take considerable time to work through appellate courts.

We should know the history however behind all of this. In January 1853 James Douglas, the governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, promised the Quw'utsun the settlement would be set aside for them. Historical records presented to the court show that didn’t happen. They instead went to people including Richard Moody, the chief commissioner of land and works and the man tasked with creating a settlement for the Cowichan. He founded New Westminster (for which he has been described as 'the real father of New Westminster') and the Cariboo Road and Stanley Park; and named Burnaby Lake after his secretary Robert Burnaby, and Port Coquitlam's 400-foot 'Mary Hill' after his wife, Mary Susannah Hawks. Port Moody, and Moody Park and Moody Square in New Westminster, are named after him. Moody's responsibility as founder and first lieutenant governor of British Columbia (October 1858 – July 1863) was to transform the new Colony of British Columbia (1858–66) into the British Empire's 'bulwark in the farthest west' and to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific.

In regards to Sen̓áḵw mentioned previously that development has also garnered settler privileged outcries quick to criticize the rental costs of housing in the new development with little reflection or knowledge of the dark history of the displacement of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people who lived in the summer village of Sen̓áḵw. Few know of “Indians Moving Day” on April 9th, 1913 and the shady deal the City of Vancouver made with Napoleon Bowser“, an anti-Asian said to have strong-armed 20 “illiterate” men into accepting $11,250 each, described as a “direct violation” of Dominion law. “The community loaded its belongings onto barges and were displaced to nearby reserves. That night, all of the buildings of Sen̓áḵw were burned to the ground.” The settlers of that time were unsettled less by the violence of this displacement but by the spectacle of a burning village which might threaten their dwellings but also that did not reflect their polite manner of colonialism. In 2026 settlers push back on being identified as settlers and take issue with Indigenous people getting to charge what they choose for rent to people who have lived rent free for generations on their unsurrendered lands.

So where does this all land with the work of Kathara Society? It is a lot to address and we are few. The mission of the Kathara Society (officially known as the Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Collective Society) is to promote Pilipino Indigenous identity, cultural legacy, and arts while standing in solidarity with local Indigenous host nations.

Core Goals and Commitments

Promote Indigenous Identity: Honor the rights and cultural legacy of the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines, upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Stand in Solidarity: Follow the protocols of local Indigenous Host Nations (such as the Coast Salish Peoples on whose unceded lands the group operates) to inform their community practice.
Nurture Relations: Center elders and use an intergenerational approach to connect future generations through shared ancestral knowledge and continuous learning.
Decolonize Through Art: Use creativity, traditional music, dance, and martial arts for personal and collective transformation, discovering decolonial joy and systemic change through re-indigenization.

In 2016 Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Society Canada cohosted the 3rd Center for Babaylan Studies Conference on the Unceded Coast Salish Territories where diasporic Filipinos engaged with the local Squamish Nation with canoe culture protocols. The core theme of the conference was Makasaysayang Pagtatagpo (Historical Encounter), which focused on Filipinos and Indigenous Turtle Islanders revitalizing ancestral traditions together. It emphasized re-indigenization and the recognition of Filipinos in the diaspora as settlers. Key objectives included building bridges with native communities, addressing settler colonialism, and exploring the collective resilience and healing potential of shared indigenous experiences between colonized societies in the Philippines and North America.

In 2021 the Society on CBC News called upon Filipino diaspora to show support for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada recognizing our shared histories of colonization.

As Filipinos (itself a term that denotes coloniality being identified nationalistically after a king of Spain who never set foot in the archipelago) we might consider that our assimilation into a hispanizied culture pre-dates the British assimilation of First Nations children by roughly 318 years. The start of Spanish colonization in the islands in 1560 is widely analyzed as where historical trauma began for Filipinos. According to Dana R. Herrera this period introduced a social structure based on Biblical perspectives, punished indigenous pagan rituals, and resulted in the destruction of local histories and cultural artifacts, fundamentally redefining the worldview of the local population.

A major difference between the two assimilation histories is that the Canadian residential schools forcibly removed children from their families at the hands of Indian agents and the RCMP. Parents could and did get sent to jail if they refused to send their children. Children who tried to escape and return to their families were brutally punished and many committed suicide to escape the abuses of those running the residential schools. Indios or Indigenous Filipinos also were allowed to keep their language but it became blended with Spanish words to the degree that today much of the language has lost significant amounts of vocabulary in the mother tongue of its roughly 180 languages.

On September 18th there was a hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ workshop at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Center at UBC led by Musqueam elder Larry Grant during the 5th annual Come to the Fire Festival, Day of Knowledge. Grant explained that implications of Indigenous children being forbidden to speak their language. The punishment for speaking could be having ones tongue cut or lye soap could be used to “wash out the devil’s tongue”. Much of the language was lost. Children would cease listening to their parents. This affected genealogy as without language there was no more oral history which was the main way to know ones relations. Oral inheritance passed through bloodlines thus it became impossible to determine who received songs and knowledge. Today people may know they are related but not how.

For Filipinos and Indigenous people there was the loss of family histories. In the Philippines this was done with primarily with the Claveria Decree of 1849, a colonial administrative reform mandated by Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldúa to streamline census-taking, tax collection and legal documentation and is the reason Filipinos bear Spanish surnames. This caused the systemic erasure of indigenous identity which was often based on naming traditions reflecting physical traits, occupations or local geography.

Also similar between Canada and the Philippines is the ongoing Indigenous struggles against resource extraction whether in Treatied or Unceded territories of First Nations or Ancestral Domains of IP (Indigenous Peoples) in the archipelago. Canadian based mining corporations work in collusion with the Philippine government to do mining projects in the Philippines ignoring IP rights in the process. This also ties in with US-Philippines so-called partnership in Pax Silica for expansive resource extraction and displacement of Indigenous People (IP).

Given the cultural and historical similarities between Filipinos and First Nations peoples especially around our oceanic heritage, canoe cultures, fishing, planting and harvesting practices, artistic traditions and anti-colonial solidarity it would benefit those of us in diaspora who honor our indigenous heritage to consider what we can about contributing to helping fulfill the aims of truth and reconciliation. It’s also similar our shared love and honoring of our children and elders. The work of Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Society Collective is committed to this albeit living in the contradiction of operating as a non-profit society under the Society Act and living as uninvited guests on stolen lands. It is painfully understandable how and why a large number of Filipino diaspora choose not to identify with their Indigenous roots and continue the inherited and Spanish and American education influenced practice found in the Philippines of lowlanders looking down on highlanders such as Igorots and Lumads, often characterized by negative stereotypes and subtle dehumanization. These attitudes are quite often migrated over to Canada placed upon Indigenous peoples to the degree that few Filipino Canadians have much inclination to learn more about the history and culture of First Nations. Yet there are examples of Indipinos of mixed Indigenous and Ilocano heritage that like the early Chinese migrants in Canada formed relations with each other particularly through farming. Learning the sad stories of the Indipinos of Bainbridge is something BC based Filipino diaspora would benefit to examine including the short film Strawberry Fields Forever. Some of the facets of this history is of Indipinos concealing their Indigenous identity from their children to protect them from further discrimination. Also Indigenous women who married Filipino men lost their Indian status and enrollment under the Indian Act and even after Bill C-31 in 1985 the pathway back was challenging and most remained outsiders to their own peoples reserves.

Despite the colonial mentality described in Brown Skin, White Minds by E J R David that Filipino Americans and Canadians adopt there is a small but growing movement in the diaspora and within the Philippines to indigenize and decolonize and to be accountable settlers. The work of Ethnoautobiography has emerged through the guidance of Center for Babaylan Studies founders and sisters Leny Strobel and Lily Mendoza to unlearn whiteness, decolonize and uncover ethnicities. Inter-racial partnerships also are leading to white settlers engaging in these processes. Together with other People of the Global Majority as well as white allies working towards being better settlers, (in some cases even giving land back) we can hold each other accountable and allow ourselves to be held accountable to the Indigenous peoples whose homelands we now occupy.

We can strive to support the reclamation of Indigenous languages as we work on recovering our own if we have lost them. We can build our relations slowly and conscientiously, sharing our thankfulness for living on these lands and giving back, not participating in the taking culture that informs settler colonialism. We can decolonize our holidays, our organizations, our programming, our collaborations, our way of speaking of place, our food choices, our dominance over the natural world in every facet of living. We can consider who and who isn’t at the table of our decision making, celebrations, and ceremonies. We can consider the future generations of inhabitants of the lands we live upon with emphasis on the First Nations who were in the city before the city. We can stand up for Indigenous rights and work against misinformation by educating ourselves and others.

Our measuring stick of any true progress towards reconciliation should include the well-being of the Downtown Eastside Community, Oppenheimer Park, and a lessened need to have massive marches and memorials for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, 2 Spirits, and Men. Until that time, we have our culture, storytelling, our ceremony, decolonizing therapy, our tambal/medicine, our arts, music, fashion, our martial arts, our bangka/barote/canoe, kapwa, our connection to our Ninunos/katigulangan/ ancestors. We bring this to how we work towards making change and make it through each araw/day with the slow strength of bundok/ mountains rising from the dagat/sea. Before we can ask for reconciliation we as Filipino/a/x/ need to forgive ourselves for inheriting historical trauma, harming others and ourselves, and having lingering colonial mentality. Let’s practice our ability to communicate more respectfully, with protocol in mind and heart. To bear conflicts with protocols and agreements that make for safer spaces to heal from conflicts that arise when we are living in wounds we share in common. To celebrate survival of our cultures and our love for the lands and waters.

Rest in Power to our departed loved ones who include Survivors and their families. Kat Norris, her son Sky, a former board member of our Society and also Perry Jack, Sky’s father. Kat may be connected to the Bainbridge Indipinos I am not certain but we believe she was part Ilocano in addition to Hawaiian and Coast Salish. A member of the Lyackson First Nation on Vancouver Island, Norris was heavily involved in the Idle No More movement — helping plan and speak at B.C. rallies starting in late 2012 — but had spent decades fighting for Indigenous people's rights.
Rest in Power also to our first Indigenous advisor residential school survivor, Lilian Howard.

We give honor to and uplift residential school survivor Jenny Donna Leech who attended St.Mary’s, mother of Norm Leech, an advisor to Kathara Society.

We recognize Ta’ah of the Tsleil-waututh Nation and all her Warrior Up spirit standing up as a Survivor in the face of Kinder Morgan Pipeline along with her family. Now their family and the Nation face the new threat from dredging of the Burrard Inlet in their traditional territory.

The 2026 census does not provide a specific count for the Lower Mainland, but Vancouver CMA (which includes the Lower Mainland) has 14.8% of Canada's 950,000+ Filipino population, roughly 140,600 Filipinos. How many of them could be more engaged in building relations through culture and supporting the local host nations in protecting the land and waters here? Would this be more towards truth and reconciliation?

Tayo Na / Let’s Go (Together) Our language contains Kapwa.

Sources:

https://nctr.ca/about/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada/

https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

Residential School Denialism: Residential School Denialism Today

https://libguides.uvic.ca/residentialschooldenialism/today

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2026/05/06/White-Supremacist-Ideas-Canadian-Media-Politics/

https://afn.ca/all-news/press-releases/afn-national-chief-calls-senates-rejection-of-indian-residential-schools-denialism-in-hate-speech-bill-regressive-disappointing-and-a-setback-for-reconciliation/

https://globalnews.ca/news/12076278/masked-group-bc-first-nation-land-cowards-kamloops-white-nationalists/

https://thenarwhal.ca/trc-residential-school-records-connie-walker-2026/

Land Back

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/musqueam-marpole-midden-1.4865990

https://senakw.com/the-village/

https://censc.info/settlers-seized-kitsilano-reserve/