Archival record · Document / PDF
The Survivors Speak
The Commission organized excerpts from residential school Survivor statements into themes including family separation, language, daily life and returning home. Read named accounts in their published context and recognize the diversity of experiences.
Opens on the publisher’s website. This record describes a source; it does not reproduce its contents.
- Publisher / custodian
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada; National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
- Source date
- 2015 report; NCTR-hosted edition
- Source type
- Archival record
- Format
- Document / PDF
- Regions
- Canada, Saskatchewan
- Peoples / communities
- First Nations, Inuit, Métis
Read with context
An edited collection of excerpts, not complete transcripts of all statements. Content includes abuse and violence; select age-appropriate passages with care and avoid reenactments.
Questions to investigate
- What can a Survivor's statement show that an administrative school record may not?
- How does the report preserve the speaker's identity and context?
Access and reuse
- Access
- link-only
- Rights / reuse
- The NCTR identifies its TRC reports as public domain and freely duplicable. This entry links to the report; preserve full authorship, context and credits when preparing any permitted reuse. Publisher rights information ↗
- Record checked
- 2026-09-30
Opened 260-page PDF; title, 2015 date, public-domain statement and thematic contents read.
Copy-ready citation
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada; National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The Survivors Speak. 2015 report; NCTR-hosted edition. https://nctr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IR4-5-2015-eng.pdf. Record checked 2026-09-30.
Saskatchewan curriculum
These are suggested teaching connections. They do not establish full outcome coverage or Ministry approval. Review the official outcome, indicators and learner task.
Suggested connection · teacher review
SI8
Assess the impact residential schools have on First Nations communities.
Use selected, teacher-reviewed Survivor accounts to examine residential-school experiences. Prepare the context and provide choice in participation; do not ask learners to disclose personal or family histories.
Candidate indicator: 1: Compare stories of First Nations people who attended residential schools to the experiences students have had in their own schools.
Explore this outcome · Open official curriculum ↗