TRC findings on residential schools to be used in Yukon classrooms

Students in Yukon will be learning more about residential schools this year.

Yukon schools will be using material prepared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Commissioner Marie Wilson saidthe recordings made by the TRC belong to all Canadians, which is whythe TRC is putting its material online and in the public domain.

"This is Canadian public history and is really essential," she said.

Anyone can reproduce the material,make physical copies of booksor create publications with survivors' stories.

Different publishing houses are already adapting the TRC's material

"I think the point of it all is that there's no onepublication that tells thewhole story," Wilson said.

Making the material available for free also saves money, Wilson said. "In Ottawa we had 500 copies of things that we prioritizedin sharing out with survivors who were there," she said.

"We can't say that we've provided enough copies for the 70,000 survivors that are alive today, not for all the schools."

In Yukon, the department of education has already worked with the Tr'ondk Hwch'in First Nation to produce a hard copy book called Finding Our Way Home.

The Department of Education says it will use TRCmaterials in classrooms this year. The department established aGrade 10 Social Studies unit on residential schoolslast year.

The book Survivors Speakand other titles can be downloaded for free from the TRC website.