TRC Calls to Action: #57

Reconciliation
Professional Development and Training for Public Servants

57. We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to provide education to public servants on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Public servants include police officers, judges, firefighters, border patrol, public health workers, public school principles, teachers, and administrators - all people who come in contact with Indigenous people, and often in contact with Indigenous people at risk. The importance of this Call is clear: the people whose job it is to keep us safe, healthy and educated should have an awareness of and sensitivity toward the Aboriginal population and their history in this country. Only then will they be able to fulfill their duties to their fullest extent; in understanding the trauma held by Indigenous people - and the lingering effects of that trauma - public servants will be better able to serve Indigenous people with respect and recognition.

According to Beyond 94, federal public servants are not currently required to take Indigenous cultural awareness training, but a curriculum is being created. Public servants in the Northwest Territories and in Ontario are required to receive such training, and those in Alberta are required to take a one-day course on Indigenous history and culture.