This book offers a detailed account of the origins of Canada's residential school system, its impact on First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, and the devastating findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's extensive inquiry. There are extensive illustrations, including visuals that document the lives of Indigenous families prior to the residential school system as well as photographs documenting conditions in the schools. Works of art by leading First Nations and Métis artists reinforce first-person accounts of the abuse and deprivation experienced by children in the schools. The official Canadian government apology delivered in 2008 is documented in full. The work and the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are described, along with key passages from their report. Action spurred by the commission’s work includes then-Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin's 2015 eloquent public address when she termed the schools "cultural genocide." This book documents how the embedded systemic racism of the schools was confronted and finally acknowledged. Ongoing efforts of Indigenous communities to seek acknowledgement and redress for the colonial practices of the Canadian state and the churches which operated the residential schools are described. The many deaths of children from preventable diseases, abuse and starvation followed by silence and burial in unmarked graves haunt both Indigenous communities and Canadian society to this day. Provided by publisher.