Inuk Justice James Igloliorte on residential schools, Indigenous people in law and reconciliation
'We have a duty to advocate for people who did not fare so well,' says retired judge
Retired justice James Igloliorte was in rare company during his time as an Indigenous judge in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Hopedale man says he wouldn't be where he is without the impact of residential schools.
Since he retired from the bench in 2004, Igloliorte has been a key figure of the provincial legal system, serving as a commissioner on several notable provincial inquiries — including, recently, the inquiry into the province's ground search and rescue system and the inquiry into the treatment of Innu children in government care.
Ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Friday, Igloliorte sat down with On The Go host Anthony Germain to share his thoughts on the role residential school has played in his life and career, on being Indigenous in the justice system, and on how people can observe the day.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Recently we had Tomson Highway, who's a playwright and novelist, come to St. John's and he gave a talk. And in that talk he shared his experience [about] a residential school very, very far away.… He told the St. John's audience … and this is very controversial — if it hadn't been for residential school, he didn't think he would be the accomplished novelist, playwright, pianist that he was.
What's the relationship between your experience in residential school and your obvious career success?
A: If you look back at people I went to school with at the Yale dormitory in North West River, there are many stories like mine. I'm reading only last week in the latest edition of the Them Days magazine my first cousin, Albert Edmonds, talking about his experience of going to university, doing engineering. And he traveled all around the world on engineering projects. And not for one minute did he regret his time at the dormitory.… We got to know many people who made lots of friendships. We had people pushing for us.
We have had the benefit of people, good people, backing us and believing in who we were. And I think that has helped us a large measure towards resiliency. So I repeat exactly the same thing that that gentleman said. It's complicated, it's complex, but ultimately you have to have the freedom, as all people do, to decide which path they're taking.
To assert as you just have the complexity of residential schools, and to almost proudly say that you and other people did well in life because of it, aren't you the exception that proves the rule?… Across the country, experience largely seems to be negative. And so the positive cases, it's almost as though we can't talk about it. You can talk about it, you're Indigenous. But if a settler, say me, if I say it then I'm a racist.
Not at all. I think that ultimately all people want to be valued for their own abilities. All people want to recognize that you don't do it on your own. There's a whole host of people behind you and supporting you, so wherever they come from, they're good people.
It is a bit of a dichotomy to, you know, talk about those two issues in one breath. We recognize, though, that those of us who feel we're successful or we feel that we're resilient, that we have a duty to advocate. We have a duty to advocate for people who did not fare so well. And that message is more important than our own individual success. So from my perspective, I'll always be trying to educate somebody else to say that you've got to be able to appreciate that there's another lens behind this. It's another way of looking at this particular issue, not just one way and and dismissing the other.
What I hear you saying, essentially, is there is a matter of agency, and then there's a matter of the influences around you. In the course of your career and dealing with many Indigenous people who appeared before you, has anyone ever accused you of or suggested that you've been assimilated by this system? I think that in your early career, if I'm correct, people saying, "Well, yeah, Igloliorte, well what do you expect? He's now part of the system."
Well, I've heard non-Indigenous people say that. They say, "What the hell are you doing? You know, go back to where you came from." Never heard it from Indigenous people. And essentially it's because, as I said at the very beginning, you know, you don't go too big for your own shoes. You remain and appreciate where you came from and how you relate to people who are indigenous. The rest? Well, they got a different view on the world and they're welcome to it.
So here we are, the second National Day of Reconciliation.… If you were to advise people who are watching and listening to this interview, whether they're Indigenous people or non-Indigenous people, what's one aspect of reflection that you would like people to take seriously so that we can actually try to improve?
I think that I turn again to the young people. There are some people whose mind you're not going to change. There are some people who are set in their ways and you may as well allow them to continue as they are. But my hope is always for young people, [they keep] their sense of the fairness and honesty.
There's not one person in any Newfoundland community that does not have some kind of connection to the Labrador coast, or to Labrador or to Labrador people. There's been that much interaction, Innu and Inuit are forming personal relationships. So are Newfoundlanders and Inuit and Innu. So all of these things to me mean that there's already changes taking place by individuals who have a more flexible frame of mind.
