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This chapter explores the dual constructs of Winnicott’s notion of holding environment and Altvatar et al.’s notion of “stepping up and stepping back” into leadership roles. The merging of the two constructs provides a double lens through which to analyze the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process in post-apartheid South Africa in the mid-1990s. Reporting from that era provides first-hand recollections and transcripts of the process. In addition, the political moment of transition and healing via TRCs serves as an arena in which to consider the importance of a holding environment when undertaking social justice missions in which leadership and followership are ineluctably entwined. While the outcome of South Africa’s TRCs is considered imperfect, I suggest that the establishment of similar such holding environments would further dialogue and efforts toward peace and reconciliation in the United States around issues of race.

Sierra Leone established two post-conflict institutions to address the crimes committed during its decade long civil war which officially ended in 2002. The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) was established to promote justice by trying “persons who bear the greatest responsibility” (Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2002, Article 1) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, while the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) was mandated to offer a forum for victims and perpetrators alike to tell their wartime stories in an effort to promote reconciliation. How were women's expectations for justice and reconciliation met through the two transitional justice mechanisms? Although both institutions made notable attempts to include gender-specific crimes as an important component of their work, the all-important third ingredient in the “toolkit” of transitional justice – reparations and reforms – remained underutilized, and would have had a more positive impact on women's lives than the two institutions. This chapter highlights some of the achievements of the Court and Truth Commission, which were arguably superior to earlier transitional justice institutions, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) in addressing women's needs, but concludes that unless social, political, and economic improvements are made that empower women, women will remain vulnerable to sexual and other human rights abuses not only in times of war but in peace time as well.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the case for a truth and reconciliation (T&R) process in the context of mental health services.

The approach is a conceptual review of T&R approaches; a consideration of why they are important; and how they might be applied in the context of mental health services and psychiatry. First, the paper sets out a case for T&R in psychiatry, giving some recent examples of how this might work in practice. Then it outlines potential objections which complicate any simplistic adoption of T&R in this context.

In the absence of an officially sanctioned T&R process a grassroots reparative initiative in mental health services may be an innovative bottom-up approach to transitional justice. This would bring together service users, survivors and refusers of services, with staff who work/ed in them, to begin the work of healing the hurtful effects of experiences in the system.

This is the first paper in a peer-reviewed journal to explore the case for T&R in mental health services. The authors describe an innovative T&R process as an important transitional step towards accomplishing reparation and justice by acknowledging the breadth and depth of service user and survivor grievances. This may be a precondition for effective alliances between workers and service users/survivors. As a result, new forms of dialogic communication and horizontal democracy might emerge that could sustain future alliances and prefigure the social relations necessary for more humane mental health services.

This paper is an author’s reply to the article by Cresswell (2017) critiquing the original piece by Spandler and McKeown (2017) on truth and reconciliation (T&R) in psychiatry. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

It continues the dialogue about the nature of reconciliation in mental health services and reflects on distinctions between the nature of historical abuses within the asylum system and the need to understand and prevent further harm within contemporary services.

Whilst the authors acknowledge the tension between reconciliation and democratic debate they suggest that the process does not have to mean agreement or acquiescence. They reaffirm their optimistic belief that better mental health services are possible and appreciate that true reconciliation is a process that will require both debate and the building of constructive alliances.

A grassroots T&R process might be a form of transitional justice which does not negate the need for wider social and policy changes, but may actually help achieve it.

This paper aims to highlight blind spots in the discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stretch the boundaries of existent CSR frameworks within the particular context of resource extraction and with regard to the particular stakeholder group of Indigenous peoples in Canada. This context is important in light of the recommendations from the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as they relate to initiatives that businesses may take towards reconciliation with Indigenous people.

This paper brings together a disparate body of literature on CSR, Indigenous spiritual values and experiences of extractive practices on Indigenous ancestral lands. Suggestions are offered for empirical research and projects that may advance the project of reconciliation.

CSR may not be an appropriate framework for reconciliation without alteration to its managerial biases and ideological assumptions. The CSR discourse needs to accommodate the “free prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples and their spiritual values and knowledge vis-à-vis the land for resource extractive practices to edge towards being socially responsible when they occur on Canadian ancestral territories.

Canadian society exists in a post-TRC world, which demands that we reconcile with our past of denying Indigenous values and suppressing the cultures of Indigenous peoples from flourishing. This paper aspires to respond to the TRC’s recommendation for how businesses in the resource extractive industries may engage meaningfully and authentically with Indigenous people in Canada as a step towards reconciliation.

The authors describe an original unit plan that draws from local and national concerns for truthful history education about the history of racial violence in the United States. The unit plan contextualizes one impetus for truth and reconciliation in a community with a history of anti-Black violence.

The participants partnered with the Equal Justice Initiative to pilot the unit in their district’s new African American History course. The unit drew on historical research and cultural memory to situate local history within a broader context of racism and violence.

The teachers identified eight goals for the unit so that students could understand racialized violence, acknowledge racism as the lived experience of many of their students, and participate in a collaborative learning environment with productive discussions. Speaking from their own experiences with racism, and creating opportunities for students to do the same, the teachers aided the community in voicing long-silenced memories.

Besides bridging some of the gaps between local, regional, and national histories, more research is needed to further examine historical trauma and its implications for both the past and present, in order to amplify and humanize experiences of racism. Additional research is a critical step in developing more thoughtful, empathic and holistic discussions of history and racism at the local level.

In the wake of the recent past, the authors have learned that teaching about the history of racial violence can be enhanced and empowered by reference to relevant current events. The resurgence of racially charged language and violence over the past few years makes this goal more urgent than ever. This unit gives practical guidance to teachers who face this challenge.

The sociopolitical reality of historical trauma and racism must be confronted, and proximity to key events is important in conveying the urgency of racial violence and the need for history education that addresses it. Teachers are making difficult decisions about their options for teaching about race, and they are understandably concerned about any perceived missteps. Nonetheless, inclusive, truthful history education is an appropriate and essential response to narratives of exclusion and silence as the authors help students to develop deliberative skills concerning difficult topics such as racial violence. Teachers and students, together, can do the crucial work of remembering.

The stripping away of narrative agency, identity and history can cover up stories about the stripping away of life and dignity. In the unit plan, the authors recognize truth and reconciliation—especially in the education of people who have relatively little exposure to topics of race and racism—as elemental to a restorative stance against racism.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study of the transformation of First Nations’ health governance, describing the development of partnerships between First Nations and provincial and federal governments for co-creating solutions to address First Nations’ health inequities in British Columbia (BC). The paper frames this transformation in the context of a Canada-wide reconciliation initiative stimulated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This qualitative case study was a joint initiative between Simon Fraser University and the BC First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), involving interviews with senior leaders within the BC health system, FNHA and First Nations communities. In addition, a policy roundtable was held in February 2015 which gathered 60 participants for further dialogue on the process.

Key themes included: partnership and relationships, governance and reciprocal accountability, First Nations perspectives on health and wellness, and quality and cultural safety. Findings indicate that significant transformational changes have happened in the relationship between First Nations and the mainstream health system. The creation of the FNHA has led to more representation for First Nations people at all levels of governance and health service planning, which will ultimately lead to more culturally safe health services that incorporate a First Nations perspective of wellness.

The transformation of First Nations health governance in BC can serve as an example in other indigenous health settings both within Canada and internationally.

This paper describes a transformative health governance process in First Nations communities that is an historical first in Canada.

In this paper, I apply the discourse of transitional justice to the case study of survivor docents at the Japanese American National Museum, a site that has come to represent and serve as a form of reparation for the traumatic memory of Japanese American internment during World War II. As a longer term supplement to trials or Truth and Reconciliation Commissions or an alternative in cases where no such structures exist, I illustrate how the museum tour becomes an empowering platform for survivors of the American Internment camps to work through and instrumentalize traumatic memories within the dialogic museum sphere, even as this alternative space forms its own new silences. Thus, by applying the very theories and criticisms through which scholars of memory politics evaluate official platforms of transitional justice, I aim to complicate and evaluate this alternative form of testimony, and in so doing explore areas of growth in the fields of both transitional justice and museum practice. Bridging the gap between testimony, oral history, and museum interpretation, survivor docents represent a sustained dialogic approach to history that perpetuates, preserves, and activates – rather than resolves – discourse around contentious memories.

The purpose of this paper is to critique Spandler and McKeown’s recent advocacy of a truth and reconciliation (T&R) process in psychiatry.

A critique of a recent paper in Mental Health Review Journal.

That Spandler and McKeown’s advocacy of a T&R process in psychiatry can be criticised from a number of inter-related practical, political and ethical perspectives.

The present critique contributes to the ongoing debate about the desirability of a T&R process in psychiatry.