{"product_id":"truth-before-reconciliation","title":"Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation\"--The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe TRC's Final Report, released in 2015, is the outcome of many years of research and rigorous scholarship by hundreds of academics across Canada. More than 5 million documents from governments, churches, and schools, hundreds of secondary sources, and the testimonies of over 7,000 residential school Survivors informed the Commission's work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite six volumes evincing the genocide, some Canadians choose to deny, downplay, and disparage these findings in a battle for public memory waged in popular media and across social media platforms. Denialists do not refute the existence of the schools or that abuse happened. Rather, they cherry-pick and distort facts to minimize the harms done to Indigenous communities as they seek to turn reconciliation into a partisan issue and preserve national myths of benevolence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCountering soundbites with substance, Sean Carleton and Niigaan Sinclair, along with a team of expert historians, educators, Survivors, archivists, and archeologists, analyze the genesis, methods, and consequences of denialism; push back on denialist claims; and highlight some of the primary sources and peer-reviewed scholarship that denialists ignore or misrepresent. Importantly, they also document the harms denialists have inflicted on Survivors and communities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmbedded in the lived experiences of Survivors and supported by the evidentiary record, \u003cem\u003eTruth Before Reconciliation\u003c\/em\u003e is a valuable tool to help develop the historical and information literacy needed to identify and combat denialism and anti-Indigenous racism as we collectively build a more honourable future for all. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sean Carleton \u0026 Niigaan Sinclair","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49711695626467,"sku":"9781772841626","price":31.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0584\/7390\/6371\/files\/truth-before-reconciliation.jpg?v=1788972703","url":"https:\/\/birchbarkbooks.com\/products\/truth-before-reconciliation","provider":"Birchbark Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}