Stop Residential School Denialism

A repost from Karl Dockstader of One Dish One Mic

Dec 19, 2025

This is a repost, with permission, of a Facebook post by Karl Dockstader.

I opened up on air — really opened up — asking listeners to honour Survivors and help confront residential school denialism. And then a local listener emailed me personally to tell our people our trauma isn’t real.

This is why denialism is dangerous.

Residential school denialism isn’t harmless skepticism. It’s a tactic that erases children, minimizes abuse, and demands that Indigenous people “prove” our families’ trauma again and again, even though the truth has been documented for generations. These false claims hurt Survivors, and yes — they hurt those of us who speak out, too.

I’m not sharing this for sympathy. I’m sharing it because we all need to understand the harm and push back with knowledge, not misinformation.

If you want to learn more in a way that honours Survivors, listen to Indigenous voices. On One Dish, One Mic, our conversations come from a grounded, community‑rooted First Nations perspective, shaped by lived experience and guided by Survivors’ teachings. We talk about the facts, the context, and our shared responsibility to get this right.

We honour Survivors by refusing to let denialism take root.