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Metis

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Inuit

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Since time immemorial, Inuit have lived and thrived in Inuit Nunangat, our homeland encompassing 36 per cent of Canada's landmass and 50 per cent of its coastline. Inuit Nunangat as a geographic and political space is largely unknown to most Canadians. In this time of reconciliation, we as Inuit are forcefully reclaiming our proper place as an Indigenous people in Canada by asserting Inuit self- determination through our language, our place names and our history.

Our ancestors were ingenious and inventive, prospering in an environment that many outsiders have unfairly characterized as bleak and inhospitable. Today, Inuit culture and society remain dynamic and resilient: our language, Inuktut, is one of the strongest Indigenous languages in Canada by proportion of speakers, with the majority of our population reporting the ability to speak the language; our people have made lasting and deepening imprints nationally and internationally in the arts; and through political activity Inuit leaders have changed the map of Canada and influenced the manner in which the federal government works with Indigenous Peoples. We have also maintained our vital connection to the land, streams, lakes and seas and all things within them.

However, we also have challenges as a people and society. The colonization of Inuit Nunangat took many forms between the 18th and early 20th century and this colonization by way of traders, missionaries, whalers and government was the genesis for a range of social and economic challenges that too many Inuit are still struggling with today. Inuit are a largely patriotic people who are proudly Indigenous but are also proud Canadians, yet we are still fighting to enjoy the same human rights enjoyed by the majority of our fellow Canadians.

We have significant work to do. Inuit have helped shape Canada geographically and politically into a more pluralistic society. Our distinct language and culture must continue to thrive in our homeland and wherever Inuit live in this country. We have the right to continue to exist and self-determine the future of our people on our terms. Achieving this goal relies on a shared understanding among our fellow Canadians that the outcome has been and will continue to be a stronger and more vibrant Canada. We also have the right to describe ourselves and our homeland through our language and our world view. This project contributes to the achievement of this goal.

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Since time immemorial, Inuit have lived and thrived in Inuit Nunangat, our homeland encompassing 36 per cent of Canada's landmass and 50 per cent of its coastline. Inuit Nunangat as a geographic and political space is largely unknown to most Canadians.

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First Nations

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1. What Is Indigenous?

2. Residential Schools

3. Climate

4. Wildlife

5. Forced Population Movements

6. Seasonal Movement

7. Connection to the Land

8. Rivers, Lakes and Water Resources

9. Reconciliation

10. Natural Environment

11. Food

12. Justice

13. Arts and Culture

14. Traditional Land Use

15. Environmental Challenges

16. Protected Areas

17. Trade

18. Education

19. Traditional Ways

20. Sport

21. Ceremonial Spaces

22. Urban Indigenous Populations

23. Economy

24. Origins

25. Racism

26. Treaties

27. Language

28. Governance

29. Community

30. Frequently Asked Questions

Perry Bellegarde is national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He is from Little Black Bear First Nation, Treaty 4 territory, Saskatchewan. He served as chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and Saskatchewan Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. He has also served as the Tribal Chair of the Touchwood-File Hills-Qu'Appelle Tribal Council, Councillor for the Little Black Bear First Nation and chief of Little Black Bear First Nation.

First Nations culture is rooted in storytelling. Since time immemorial, we have passed on knowledge from generation to generation through our Oral Traditions to teach our beliefs, history, values, practices, customs, rituals, relationships, and ways of life. Our culture and the teachings of our ancestors are preserved and carried on through the words of Elders, leaders, community members and young ones. These teachings form an integral part of our identity as nations, communities, clans, families and individuals.

Welcome to the stories of our people, beautifully showcased in this incredible Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada. We are honoured to gift you with a remarkable and breathtaking array of our experiences and worldviews.

First Nations stories can vary from the historical to the sacred and are often entertaining and humorous. Many of our stories focus on social, political and cultural experiences. Canada's history has not been kind to our people. And yet, our resilience as a people is astonishing. Sit down by the storytelling fire and immerse yourself in our world.

Welcome to the stories of our people, beautifully showcased in this incredible Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada.

The stories of our people from coast to coast to coast across Turtle Island are represented within these pages. The richness and diversity that exists in our nations is reflected through the voices of our brothers and sisters who have shared their personal experiences, their stories about family and nation and their hopes and dreams.

Our stories are centred on the land because our identities are intrinsically connected to the land and our languages. This is beautifully described in one of the stories about traditional place-naming practices in Cree territory. Our sovereignty, our nationhood, our past and our future are imbedded in our traditional practices, from eel harvesting in Mi'kmaq territory, to cutting Łuk in Gwich'in territory, to salmon as a culinary marker of ceremony in Secwepemcúlecw territory.

Spirituality is not typically discussed as a matter of practice, yet it forms the core of First Nations worldviews. Within these stories, we introduce you to our ways of knowing and being that guide our approaches to resource development and governance from the experiences of the Anishinaabe and Tutchone-Athabaskan.

Culture is not static, and our challenge is to navigate our worlds in ways that respect and honour traditions but also make room for growth and evolution. The balance of blending modern and traditional worldviews is reflected in a variety of captivating stories that include Dene music and drumming and the traditional Haudenosaunee game of lacrosse. We also provide a glimpse into the challenges of maintaining our connections to the land and culture as part of the urban experience in Treaty 1 territory.

These stories capture the authenticity and integrity of our teachings and ceremonies. For us, our stories are not fiction, but rather an acknowledgment that human life is rooted in the stories we live by. They are medicine. First Nations healing generally centres on ceremonial practice, and all ceremony is rooted in teachings and stories. These stories uplift and inspire and provide healing for all of us.

It is important that the spirit of reconciliation flow through all areas of Turtle Island in order to set a positive course for the next Seven Generations. It is important we get to know each other, appreciate and celebrate our diversity, and build bridges of understanding.

I lift my hands up to the incredible First Nations writers that took the time to share their stories from across this land. I lift my hands up to the dedicated team that worked so hard to pull this project together. We look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Kinanāskomitin.

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What Is Indigenous? Residential Schools Climate Wildlife Forced Population Movements Seasonal Movement Connection to the Land Rivers, Lakes and Water Resources Reconciliation Natural Environment Food Justice Arts and Culture Traditional Land Use Environmental Challenges Protected Areas Trade Education Traditional Ways Sport Ceremonial Spaces Urban Indigenous Populations Economy Origins Racism Treaties Language Governance Community Frequently Asked Questions Perry Bellegarde is national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

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History of Residential Schools

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Truth and Reconciliation

Contents

1. History of Residential Schools

2. Still Standing

3. A Fight for Truth

4. Redress and Healing

5. Litigation and Courts

6. The Road to Reconciliation

7. Frequently Asked Questions

Other Sections

Ry Moran is the director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. On behalf of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, he helped gather nearly 7,000 statements of former residential school students and others affected by the residential school system. He is a proud member of the Métis Nation and is deeply honoured and thankful to have served Survivors, intergenerational Survivors and all Indigenous Peoples.

Ry Moran

There are two primary perspectives on the
country we call Canada - the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and the perspectives of the tens of millions of people from different backgrounds who have come to this country to find a new home. While there is great diversity among Indigenous perspectives, one fact remains central - the traditional lands, practices, values, cultures, languages, systems and understandings of Indigenous Peoples have been systematically attacked, dismantled and destroyed at the hands of the Canadian state.

In 2008, following mass litigation and the outcry of Survivors of the residential schools for justice and healing, Canada launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This Commission was intended not only to bring the voices of Survivors forward, but to fundamentally shift the national narrative away from a culture of domination and oppression and towards a culture of respect, reciprocity and understanding.

To be certain, Indigenous Peoples expected this relationship of equal partnership from the earliest days of encounter with newcomers. Treaties were signed in a spirit and intent of mutual respect and reciprocity. Ceremonies were held affirming this relationship. In areas where treaties were not signed, the expectation was for the self-determination and autonomy that had existed for millennia to continue.

It is through this resistance and the enhancement and rekindling of traditional practices, knowledges and Indigenous rights frameworks that Canada has the opportunity to become the nation that it has always been...

As the state encroached further and further into all aspects of Indigenous people's lives, resistance to the aggressive assimilation policies of Canada was a constant across Indigenous communities, nations and peoples. Elders took ceremonies underground, families fought desperately to retain their languages, and communities created formal political, social, and economic structures aimed at resisting ongoing attempts to eradicate Indigenous Peoples and perspectives from Canada.

As a nation, the opportunity for Canada now is to celebrate and acknowledge the critical role of ongoing resistance. It is through this resistance and the enhancement and rekindling of traditional practices, knowledges and Indigenous rights frameworks that Canada has the opportunity to become the nation that it has always been - a nation of many rich traditions, identities and systems coming together to find solutions to many of the deep-seated social tensions and challenges we face as a collective society.

Reconciliation in this regard means arresting the attacks on Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and working from this day forward in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding.

The section of this atlas focused on residential schools covers some of the most devastating elements of Canada's aggressive assimilation policies. Through these residential schools, Inuit, First Nations and Métis children were forcibly removed from their families and forced to adopt identities and practices not their own. When children resisted, they were punished and abused. All manner of physical, spiritual, emotional and sexual violence was rampant.

Similarly, through racist doctrines such as the Indian Act, parents were prevented from seeing their children, prevented from keeping their children at home with them, and barred from assembling and retaining legal counsel. The umbrella of oppression was expansive, complete and all-encompassing.

But this atlas is more than just a story of the residential schools; it also documents Canada's current state of reconciliation. Across this country, untold numbers of children wait in unmarked cemeteries to be remembered and honoured. As some former residential school sites crumble, the vast majority have already been destroyed or lost to the erosion of history.

Canada's journey towards equality, respect and justice is measured by the wide gaps that exist between the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and the protection of Indigenous rights, places, spaces and cultural memory.

The other volumes in this atlas series point us collectively in a new direction - a direction that portrays a much more honest and accurate telling of history, and an unfolding of the land, cultures, and identities that existed before western powers drew lines on maps and divided families and communities from one another.

The surfacing of these long-standing understandings of this land is an essential part of creating a new national narrative. It pulls us away from the narrow definition of what it means to be Canadian and points us towards a new framework of understanding - one that acknowledges territory and the long and rich histories of Indigenous Peoples. It pushes us towards a concept of a nation with multiple forms of sovereignty existing within its borders - a place of respect wherein the unique political and social aspirations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples come together with a sense of common vision and destiny for a healthier, just, and sustainable society.

These volumes will help educate young Canadians for generations to come on what it means to be Canadian - what it means to be accountable to the original promises of treaty and what it means to honour the concept of unceded land. Moreover, they will give all
Canadians an opportunity to reflect further on what it means to take responsibility for successive governments' persistent and omnipresent attempts to eradicate the meaning and context contained within Indigenous places and spaces from this country.

Canada's journey towards equality, respect and justice is measured by the wide gaps that exist between the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples...

The harm inflicted upon Indigenous Peoples is not only a problem for Indigenous Peoples. It is a Canadian problem that requires all Canadians to take responsibility and action to repair the damage done. Former TRC commissioner Wilton Littlechild recently talked about the opportunity presented to us as a whole, stating: "If two people are trying to walk down a railroad track, each balancing on a rail independently, they will not get very far. But if they join hands and walk together they will make it much further down the road."

This is our opportunity - to walk side by side - Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples walking together towards the destination of a fair, equitable and just country. Gone must be the days where Indigenous Peoples are led down the track by those who know "what's best for them." These atlases equip all Canadians with an important set of tools to realize this goal. I hope you learn much from the materials contained within. Together, if we are willing, we can transform this country into something that we are all proud to call home.

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Truth and Reconciliation History of Residential Schools Still Standing A Fight for Truth Redress and Healing Litigation and Courts The Road to Reconciliation Frequently Asked Questions Other Sections Ry Moran is the director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

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So long as the sun shines,
the rivers flow
and the grass grows
these words must never be broken.
Treaty 8 signed in 1899

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500 years in 2 minutes

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8th Fire Wab Kinew 500 Years in 2 Minutes

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Resource for Meaningful Reconciliation

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Notes from Walter MacDonald White Bear session

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Medicine Man In The Shaking Tent by Daphne Odjig | Image Source: McMicheal Canadian Art Collection
Jackson Beardy (Cree), Eddy Cobiness (Ojibway), Alex Janvier (Dene, Saulteaux), Norval Morrisseau (Ojibway), Daphne Odjig (Potawatomi, Odawa), Carl Ray (Cree) and Joseph Sanchez (Pueblo, Spanish, German). These are the Indigenous visual artists that make up the historical Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNIAI) and who are now recognized as The Indigenous Group of Seven.

Michelle Lavallee (Ojibway) has curated 7: Professional Native Indian Artists Inc to honor the work that this trailblazing group has accomplished, which is currently on display at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, ON until September 7, 2015. The exhibit then will be displayed at the Art Gallery of Windsor from October 2, 2015 to January 17, 2016; and the Art Gallery of Alberta from March 4, 2016 to June 5, 2016. The focus of the exhibit is to exemplify the diversity and range of each artist's work produced in the 70's. Although some members of the group were part of the "Woodland" style movement, Lavallee points out that, "the artists who did adhere to the style were still very unique in what they did."

The Group informally got together in the early 1970's, meeting in Beardy's or Odjig's studio where they often shared their frustrations with the prejudice they faced within the Canadian art establishment while also discussing art and critiquing each other's works. In 1974 they formally incorporated as a group to fight for the inclusion of Aboriginal artists in Canadian mainstream galleries and museums.

It took seven years for Lavallee to research, collect and develop the exhibition that features 100 pieces at McMichael alone. Lavallee was inspired to curate this exhibit as an artist concerned about what was being taught in relation to the history of First Nations and First Nation artistic production. "The exhibit is an extremely important part of Canadian history," she says, "it's bringing long over due attention back to this group and the important and significant impact they had on the history of Indigenous art in Canada." MUSKRAT Magazine presents The Indigenous Group of Seven:
1. Jackson Beardy (1944-1984)
Born on the Garden Hill Reserve (Island Lake, Manitoba) he was a residential school survivor and also studied at the Winnipeg Vocational School and the University of Manitoba. Beardy's art can be described as "flat areas of warm colors and curving ribbons of paint." His illustrations were published in John Morgan's book, When the Morning Stars Sang Together and also designed the cover art for Leonard Peterson's, Almighty Voice and Basil Johnston's, Ojibway Heritage.
2. Eddy Cobiness (1933-1996)
Cobiness was born in Warroad, Minnesota and raised on Buffalo Point Reserve, Manitoba. He served in the United States Army where he developed his artistic skills during his leisure time. His work evolved from realistic scenes to more abstract. Cobiness' use of "gentle flowing lines helped define contemporary Native Canadian art," which were inspired by fellow artist Benjamin Chee Chee. His art has been collected by prominent figures such as former Prime Minister, Jean Chretién and Queen Elizabeth II. Cobiness also published his illustrations in two books: Alphonse Has an Accident and Tuktoyaktuk 2-3.
3. Alex Janvier (b. 1935)
Born in Cold Lake First Nations, Alberta, Janvier was sent to Blue Quills Residential School at the age of eight where he was encouraged by the principal to pursue his artistic side. Later, he received his Fine Arts Diploma with Honours from the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. His masterpieces are described as an, "eloquent blend of both abstract and representational images with bright, often symbolic colours." Janvier considers, Morning Star, an abstract mural on the dome of the Museum of History in Hull QC, as his major career highlight.
4. Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007)
Raised on the Sand Point Reserve near Lake Nipigon, Morrisseau is a self-taught artist who founded the Woodland School of Art. His first solo exhibition at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto, 1962 was met with huge success and the sell out of his paintings. Morrisseau's artistic career is described as an unstoppable "progression from simple graphic narrative to rich harmonic structures within structures [which] has given the world a breathtaking libretto of Ojibwa legends and sacred imagery, within unsurpassed orchestrations of colour." He wrote and illustrated Legends of My People, The Great Ojibway and co-authored Norval Morrisseau: Travels to the House of Invention.
5. Daphne Odjig (b. 1919)
Odjig was born on Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island. She was admitted to the British Columbia Federation of Artists in 1963 and in 1970 she established Odjig Indian Prints of Canada Limited in Winnipeg. Odjig has been the recipient of several awards and honours, including an Eagle Feather on behalf of the Wikwemikong Reserve in recognition of her artistic accomplishment, an honour previously reserved for men in 1978.
6. Carl Ray (1943-1978)
Ray was born on the Sandy Lake Reserve in Ontario. He was mostly self taught, but apprenticed under Norval Morrisseau. "His work stands out in the flat 2-dimensional Anishnaabe school for the implied third dimension he gave each creature and for the graceful curves and original compositions." Ray completed commissioned work alongside Norval Morrisseau for the Indians of Canada pavilion at Expo 67. He illustrated James Stevens' book, Sacred Legends of the Sandy Lake Cree, and the cover of Tom Marshall's book, The White City.
7. Joseph Sanchez (b. 1948)
Born in Trinidad, Colorado, Sanchez is an artist and a curator. He is the only non-Canadian artist of the PNIA. Sanchez served in the United States Marine Corps, before he moved to Canada and now resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2010, Sanchez retired as Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (formerly the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum), where he had worked since 2002. In 2011, Sanchez was the Contemporary Curator of the exhibition Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Curator Bio
Michelle LaVallee (Ojibway, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, Neyaashiinigmiing / Cape Croker) is a curator, artist, and educator. Since 2007, her curatorial work at the MacKenzie Art Gallery has explored the colonial relations that have shaped historical and contemporary culture through exhibitions including: 13 Coyotes: Edward Poitras (2012); To Be Reckoned With... (2010); Blow Your House In: Vernon Ah Kee(2009); Captured: Portraiture and the Permanent Collection; and Miss Chief: Shadow Catcher - Kent Monkman(2008). She is a recent participant in the Canadian Aboriginal Curators delegations sent to the 2011 Venice Biennale and the 2010 and 2008 Biennale of Sydney, and a recipient of the 2006 Canada Council for the Arts Assistance to Aboriginal Curators Grant for Residencies in the Visual Arts.

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THE INDIGENOUS GROUP OF SEVEN - MUSKRAT Magazine

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Medicine Man In The Shaking Tent by Daphne Odjig | Image Source: McMicheal Canadian Art Collection Jackson Beardy (Cree), Eddy Cobiness (Ojibway), Alex Janvier (Dene, Saulteaux), Norval Morrisseau (Ojibway), Daphne Odjig (Potawatomi, Odawa), Carl Ray (Cree) and Joseph Sanchez (Pueblo, Spanish, German). These are the Indigenous visual artists that make up the historical Professional Native ...

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Learning Math through Indigenous Ways of Knowing

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Learning Math through Indigenous Ways of Knowing

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http://mathcatcher.irmacs.sfu.ca/stories

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ATA document- Memorandum of Understanding for First Nations Education in Alberta

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  Educational resources to support reconciliation

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  Educational resources to support reconciliation

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Educational Resource to Support Reconciliation

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Resources from the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities

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94 Calls to Action from the TRC

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​The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made public on Tuesday its final report into the history and legacy of Canada's residential school system.

The final report, obtained by CBC News a day before its official release, is a detailed account of what happened to indigenous children who were physically and sexually abused in government boarding schools, where an estimated 3,200 children died from tuberculosis, malnutrition and other diseases resulting from poor living conditions.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the commission, estimates the death toll to be much higher because burial records were "so poor."

In a summary report released earlier this year, the commission published 94 "calls to action" urging all levels of government - federal, provincial, territorial and aboriginal - to work together to change policies and programs in a concerted effort to repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation.

The "calls to action" are divided into two parts: legacy (1 to 42) and reconciliation (43 to 94.)

Read the full 94 "calls to action" or read on for an abbreviated list provided by the commission:

LEGACY

Child welfare

1. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care by ...

2. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, to prepare and publish annual reports on the number of Aboriginal children who are in care, compared with non-Aboriginal children, as well as the reasons for apprehension, the total spending on preventive and care services by child-welfare agencies, and the effectiveness of various interventions.

3. We call upon all levels of government to fully implement Jordan's Principle.

4. We call upon the federal government to enact Aboriginal child-welfare legislation that establishes national standards for Aboriginal child apprehension and custody cases and includes principles that ...

5. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate parenting programs for Aboriginal families.

Education

6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

7. We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

8. We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.

9. We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people.

10. We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles ...

11. We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.

12. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.

Language and culture

13. We call upon the federal government to acknowledge that Aboriginal rights include Aboriginal language rights.

14. We call upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that incorporates the following principles ...

15. We call upon the federal government to appoint, in consultation with Aboriginal groups, an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner.

16. We call upon post-secondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in Aboriginal languages.

17. We call upon all levels of government to enable residential school survivors and their families to reclaim names changed by the residential school system by waiving administrative costs for a period of five years for the name-change process and the revision of official identity documents, such as birth certificates, passports, driver's licenses, health cards, status cards, and social insurance numbers.

Health

18. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties.

19. We call upon the federal government, in consultation with Aboriginal peoples, to establish measurable goals to identify and close the gaps in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, and to publish annual progress reports and assess long-term trends.

20. In order to address the jurisdictional disputes concerning Aboriginal people who do not reside on reserves, we call upon the federal government to recognize, respect, and address the distinct health needs of the Métis, Inuit, and off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.

21. We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.

22. We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.

23. We call upon all levels of government to: increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field, ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities and provide cultural competency training for all health-care professionals ...

24. We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices.

Justice

25. We call upon the federal government to establish a written policy that reaffirms the independence of the RCMP to investigate crimes in which the government has its own interest as a potential or real party in civil litigation.

26. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to review and amend their respective statutes of limitations to ensure that they conform with the principle that governments and other entities cannot rely on limitation defences to defend legal actions of historical abuse brought by Aboriginal people.

27. We call upon the Federation of Law Societies of Canada to ensure that lawyers receive appropriate cultural competency training, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.

28) We call upon law schools in Canada to require all law students to take a course in Aboriginal people and the law, which includes the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.

29. We call upon the parties and, in particular, the federal government, to work collaboratively with plaintiffs not included in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to have disputed legal issues determined expeditiously on an agreed set of facts.

30. We call upon federal, provincial, and territorial governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody over the next decade, and to issue detailed annual reports that monitor and evaluate progress in doing so.

31. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to provide sufficient and stable funding to implement and evaluate community sanctions that will provide realistic alternatives to imprisonment for Aboriginal offenders and respond to the underlying causes of offending.

32. We call upon the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to allow trial judges, upon giving reasons, to depart from mandatory minimum sentences and restrictions on the use of conditional sentences.

33. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to recognize as a high priority the need to address and prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and to develop, in collaboration with Aboriginal people, FASD preventive programs that can be delivered in a culturally appropriate manner.

34. We call upon the governments of Canada, the provinces, and territories to undertake reforms to the criminal justice system to better address the needs of offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, including ...

35. We call upon the federal government to eliminate barriers to the creation of additional Aboriginal healing lodges within the federal correctional system.

36. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to work with Aboriginal communities to provide culturally relevant services to inmates on issues such as substance abuse, family and domestic violence, and overcoming the experience of having been sexually abused.

37. We call upon the federal government to provide more supports for Aboriginal programming in halfway houses and parole services.

38. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal youth in custody over the next decade.

39. We call upon the federal government to develop a national plan to collect and publish data on the criminal victimization of Aboriginal people, including data related to homicide and family violence victimization.

40. We call on all levels of government, in collaboration with Aboriginal people, to create adequately funded and accessible Aboriginal-specific victim programs and services with appropriate evaluation mechanisms.

41. We call upon the federal government, in consultation with Aboriginal organizations, to appoint a public inquiry into the causes of, and remedies for, the disproportionate victimization of Aboriginal women and girls. The inquiry's mandate would include an investigation into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and links to the intergenerational legacy of residential schools.

42. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to commit to the recognition and implementation of Aboriginal justice systems in a manner consistent with the Treaty and Aboriginal rights of Aboriginal peoples, the Constitution Act, 1982, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, endorsed by Canada in November 2012.

RECONCILIATION

Canadian governments, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

43. We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation.

44. We call upon the Government of Canada to develop a national action plan, strategies, and other concrete measures to achieve the goals of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation

45. We call upon the Government of Canada, on behalf of all Canadians, to jointly develop with Aboriginal peoples a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation to be issued by the Crown. The proclamation would build on the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764, and reaffirm the nation-to-nation relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown. The proclamation would include, but not be limited to, the following commitments ...

46. We call upon the parties to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to develop and sign a Covenant of Reconciliation that would identify principles for working collaboratively to advance reconciliation in Canadian society, , and that would include, but not be limited to ...

47. We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and lands, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius, and to reform those laws, government policies, and litigation strategies that continue to rely on such concepts.

Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
48. We call upon the church parties to the Settlement Agreement, and all other faith groups and interfaith social justice groups in Canada who have not already done so, to formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for reconciliation. This would include, but not be limited to, the following commitments ...

49. We call upon all religious denominations and faith groups who have not already done so to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius.

Equity for Aboriginal People in the Legal System

50. In keeping with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal organizations, to fund the establishment of Indigenous law institutes for the development, use, and understanding of Indigenous laws and access to justice in accordance with the unique cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

51. We call upon the Government of Canada, as an obligation of its fiduciary responsibility, to develop a policy of transparency by publishing legal opinions it develops and upon which it acts or intends to act, in regard to the scope and extent of Aboriginal and Treaty rights.

52. We call upon the Government of Canada, provincial and territorial governments, and the courts to adopt the following legal principles ...

National Council for Reconciliation

53. We call upon the Parliament of Canada, in consultation and collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, to enact legislation to establish a National Council for Reconciliation. The legislation would establish the council as an independent, national, oversight body with membership jointly appointed by the Government of Canada and national Aboriginal organizations, and consisting of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members. Its mandate would include, but not be limited to, the following ...

54. We call upon the Government of Canada to provide multi-year funding for the National Council for Reconciliation to ensure that it has the financial, human, and technical resources required to conduct its work, including the endowment of a National Reconciliation Trust to advance the cause of reconciliation.

55. We call upon all levels of government to provide annual reports or any current data requested by the National Council for Reconciliation so that it can report on the progress towards reconciliation. The reports or data would include, but not be limited to ...

56. We call upon the prime minister of Canada to formally respond to the report of the National Council for Reconciliation by issuing an annual "State of Aboriginal Peoples" report, which would outline the government's plans for advancing the cause of reconciliation.

Professional Development and Training for Public Servants

57. We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to provide education to public servants on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Church Apologies and Reconciliation

58. We call upon the Pope to issue an apology to survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church's role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools.

59. We call upon church parties to the settlement agreement to develop ongoing education strategies to ensure that their respective congregations learn about their church's role in colonization, the history and legacy of residential schools, and why apologies to former residential school students, their families, and communities were necessary.

60. We call upon leaders of the church parties to the settlement agreement and all other faiths, in collaboration with Indigenous spiritual leaders, survivors, schools of theology, seminaries, and other religious training centres, to develop and teach curriculum for all student clergy, and all clergy and staff who work in Aboriginal communities, on the need to respect Indigenous spirituality in its own right, the history and legacy of residential schools and the roles of the church parties in that system, the history and legacy of religious conflict in Aboriginal families and communities, and the responsibility that churches have to mitigate such conflicts and prevent spiritual violence.

61. We call upon church parties to the settlement agreement, in collaboration with survivors and representatives of Aboriginal organizations, to establish permanent funding to Aboriginal people for ...

Education for reconciliation

62. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators, to ...

63. We call upon the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada to maintain an annual commitment to Aboriginal education issues, including ...

64. We call upon all levels of government that provide public funds to denominational schools to require such schools to provide an education on comparative religious studies, which must include a segment on Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and practices developed in collaboration with Aboriginal elders.

65. We call upon the federal government, through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, post-secondary institutions and educators, and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and its partner institutions, to establish a national research program with multi-year funding to advance understanding of reconciliation.

Youth Programs

66. We call upon the federal government to establish multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation, and establish a national network to share information and best practices.

Museums and Archives

67. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations.

68. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, and the Canadian Museums Association to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017 by establishing a dedicated national funding program for commemoration projects on the theme of reconciliation.

69. We call upon Library and Archives Canada to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples' inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools, and ...

70) We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to ...

Missing Children and Burial Information

71. We call upon all chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada their records on the deaths of Aboriginal children in the care of residential school authorities to make these documents available to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

72. We call upon the federal government to allocate sufficient resources to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to allow it to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

73. We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.

74. We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child's burial location, and to respond to families' wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.

75. We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried.

76) We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles ...

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

77. We call upon provincial, territorial, municipal, and community archives to work collaboratively with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to identify and collect copies of all records relevant to the history and legacy of the residential school system, and to provide these to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

78. We call upon the Government of Canada to commit to making a funding contribution of $10 million over seven years to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, plus an additional amount to assist communities to research and produce histories of their own residential school experience and their involvement in truth, healing, and reconciliation.

Commemoration

79. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with survivors, Aboriginal organizations, and the arts community, to develop a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration.

80. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, to establish, as a statutory holiday, a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.

81. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with survivors and their organizations, and other parties to the Settlement Agreement, to commission and install a publicly accessible, highly visible, Residential Schools National Monument in the city of Ottawa to honour Survivors and all the children who were lost to their families and communities.

82. We call upon provincial and territorial governments, in collaboration with Survivors and their organizations, and other parties to the Settlement Agreement, to commission and install a publicly accessible, highly visible, Residential Schools Monument in each capital city to honour Survivors and all the children who were lost to their families and communities.

83. We call upon the Canada Council for the Arts to establish, as a funding priority, a strategy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.

Media and Reconciliation

84. We call upon the federal government to restore and increase funding to the CBC/ Radio-Canada, to enable Canada's national public broadcaster to support reconciliation, and be properly reflective of the diverse cultures, languages, and perspectives of Aboriginal peoples, including, but not limited to ...

85. We call upon the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, as an independent non-profit broadcaster with programming by, for, and about Aboriginal peoples, to support reconciliation, including but not limited to ...

86. We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.

Sports and Reconciliation

87. We call upon all levels of government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, sports halls of fame, and other relevant organizations, to provide public education that tells the national story of Aboriginal athletes in history.

88. We call upon all levels of government to take action to ensure long-term Aboriginal athlete development and growth, and continued support for the North American Indigenous Games, including funding to host the games and for provincial and territorial team preparation and travel.

89. We call upon the federal government to amend the Physical Activity and Sport Act to support reconciliation by ensuring that policies to promote physical activity as a fundamental element of health and well-being, reduce barriers to sports participation, increase the pursuit of excellence in sport, and build capacity in the Canadian sport system, are inclusive of Aboriginal peoples.

90. We call upon the federal government to ensure that national sports policies, programs, and initiatives are inclusive of Aboriginal peoples, including, but not limited to ...

91. We call upon the officials and host countries of international sporting events such as the Olympics, Pan Am, and Commonwealth games to ensure that Indigenous peoples' territorial protocols are respected, and local Indigenous communities are engaged in all aspects of planning and participating in such events.

Business and Reconciliation

92. We call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources.

Newcomers to Canada

93. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the national Aboriginal organizations, to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.

94. We call upon the government of Canada to replace the oath of citizenship with the following: "I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including Treaties with Indigenous Peoples, and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen."

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94 ways to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance reconciliation | CBC News

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​The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has published 94 'calls to action' for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians to come together in a concerted effort to help repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation.

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documentary film

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I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta...

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"The land is like our mother. It is the source of life."

Narcisse Blood

"The treaty we broke was the unwritten one based on trust and a commitment to help."

Chris Hsiung

"I started questioning my last name, Smith. What the heck was up with that? That's not a Blackfoot name."

Cowboy Smithx

I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta...

I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta...

I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta...

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Elder in the Making | A Treaty 7 roadtrip documentary of reconciliation

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I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta...

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Recognized at Ambrose University on September 27, 2018

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Creating awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of Indian Residential Schools. Get Started Here Creating awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of Indian Residential Schools. Get Started Here About Us Established in 2013, The Orange Shirt Society (Society) is a non-profit

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Great website for stories about Indigenous cultures around the world

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The Ways is a collection of language and culture stories from Native communities around the central Great Lakes that explores traditional ways and those of today. The series supports educators in meeting the requirements of Wisconsin Act 31.

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PDF of 94 Calls to Action

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Video link to "The Secret Path

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Article from MacLeans magazine

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How would you feel, if this happened in your kid's class? Last fall, a grade 6 social studies class outside of Edmonton was learning about residential schools. A student put up her hand and said, "I don't have anything against Indigenous people, but my grandpa told me we had to put the Indians in residential schools because they were killing each other and we had to civilize them."

Her words hung in the air for a moment. And then her teacher responded, "Well, I don't have anything against your grandpa, but people who are your grandpa's age and your parents' age and even my age didn't have the opportunity to learn the truth. So, we have a responsibility, because we're learning the truth now."

For generations, the full history of Canada's residential schools, which existed for more than a century and housed 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit kids with the flat-out mission of assimilation into white society, was suppressed and ignored. If you're non-Indigenous, you may have had some hazy idea of "Indian schools," but the kind of nightmarish abuse, bullying, deprivation and death that went on? It was rarely acknowledged and never discussed. I can remember first hearing about the schools only about 10 years ago in one of those free-ranging discussions that go on at noisy book club meetings, and thinking, "I have a history degree...how is it even possible I've never heard of residential schools?"

RELATED: 11 books to teach kids about residential schools

Today, however, Canadians-kids, adults, everybody-have that opportunity to learn that really difficult truth. And we have a responsibility to acknowledge the truth and fight untruths, just like that teacher told her class.

Two years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued 94 calls to action to address the legacy of residential schools and move toward reconciliation. I still can't quite figure out what reconciliation could or should look like in everyday life; it's one of those slippery words that can mean a thousand different things to a thousand different people. Maybe, then, we should pay attention to the truth part first. As Pamala Agawa, a curriculum coordinator for First Nation, Métis and Inuit education (FNMI) at York Region District School Board in Ontario, told me, we need to figure out the truth for ourselves: "What biases do we carry; what learning do we need to do to better understand the true history of the country?"

Chances are, your own kids are learning about residential schools in class this year. In the TRC's calls to action, points 62 and 63 specifically call on schools to deliver age-appropriate curriculum about residential schools, as well as Indigenous culture and treaty education, to students in kindergarten to grade 12. It's not a quick and easy item on a to-do list. How do we talk about Canada's cultural genocide with our kids? How do we tell them about what our country did to families? Our world still has racist grandpas and internet trolls and prejudices that have built up over decades. We owe it to our kids to learn more and do better.

Growing up with the truth

As parents, we worry about our kids learning scary information. Sexual and physical abuse went on at some residential schools-what age should kids learn about that? We may ask, is my kid going to feel guilty now? Or, how could our church have been involved in that? I know I stuttered out a garbled explanation when my seven-year-old asked why kids had to go away to school when it made them and their families so sad. Still, I'm glad she asked me, even if I didn't have a polished answer. Talking honestly about hard things in a way kids can understand helps open a door to the empathy that's part of being a decent human being.

For some Indigenous parents, there may be added worry about classroom lessons. Will their child feel singled out? Will they be anxious they'll be taken away, too? For others, the lessons are welcome. Julie Mallon of Port Dover, Ont., who is Anishinaabe and the daughter of a residential school survivor, says she didn't have any concerns. "I absolutely think it's important for kids to learn it in school. It's been a hidden part of our history," she says. "For this to be taught is just another layer of becoming more emotionally aware and learning how to deal with their feelings." While Mallon's mom rarely talked about her experiences when Mallon was a kid, she didn't want it to be a taboo subject with her own kids.

Charlene Bearhead, the former education lead for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, has thought about those parent-kid conversations a lot. "Our children are going to grow up with this truth, whether we're ready or not," she says. "The best thing we can do as parents is find the courage, and know that it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be things that we want to hear. But it's things that we need to hear, and we can learn with our children."

Our kids are going to be paying attention to how we talk about this, too. "There's nothing in the calls to action that calls on parents, and yet parents are among the most important people in a child's life. They are their children's first teachers," she says. "When a child goes home from school and talks to a parent, their response is really going to have a major influence on how that child moves forward with what they've learned."

Teaching the teachers

That can feel daunting as parents, but we're all in this learning curve together-teachers, board trustees and superintendents are learning this along with the kids. "Educators have to relearn what they think they know about Canada," says Melissa Wilson, coordinator of Indigenous education at the Peel District School Board in Ontario. "For instance, we talk about what it means to be Canadian: We're multicultural, everyone is welcome to this country, we believe in spreading human rights around the world. It's not that that story is incorrect; the problem is that story is very incomplete. It doesn't speak to the story of how Indigenous peoples have been treated in Canada." At the Peel board, Wilson and her colleagues offer teachers two years of Indigenous education training. They learn from Indigenous educators, elders and knowledge keepers, tour a former residential school and meet with school survivors. Teachers then pass on what they've learned to teachers and students in their own schools.

There's no national standard for curriculum, and quality and content vary a great deal. It's vital that Indigenous educators take a lead role in both developing curriculum and visiting schools. One Indigenous educator who's deeply involved in creating curriculum is Rachel Mishenene, who is Ojibway from Eabametoong First Nation, and works as an executive at the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. She's excited about the possibilities of expanding FNMI curriculum. "I want to make sure we highlight the positive and innovative contributions Indigenous peoples have made or continue to make in arts, music, sports, science, anthropology, media, and as storytellers," she says. "Residential schools made their mark, and teaching that history is important. We also need to share stories of strength, resilience and excellence." Parents can play a key role here, too-Bearhead encourages parents to talk to teachers and principals about the curriculum and what else can be added.

Helping kids get it

Talking about resilience is really powerful-and it's something that kids can identify with. Janet Porter, a reconciliation education consultant in the Nova Scotia department of education, which works with the education group Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey, says Mi'kmaw community members were very clear they wanted any representation of residential schools to be combined with the idea of resilience. In one of the school programs, for example, kids make their own dolls after learning how Magit Poulette, now an elder, secretly created a doll with rags and sticks after her baby doll was taken from her when she arrived at Shubenacadie Residential School as a four-year-old.

It's essential, too, to deal with the tough stuff in age-appropriate ways. "If a child's primary reaction to a book or video or illustration is one of upset or fear, then those emotions may become a barrier to learning," explains Porter. To that end, in the younger grades, teachers introduce the topic through books and stories, and then ask kids about something special to them and how they'd feel if it was taken from them, using phrases that kids can understand, like "not right" and "not fair." (In older grades, students talk more in depth about the devastating ripple effect that the abuse and loss of culture has on Indigenous communities.)

By making stories about residential schools relatable, kids can understand in their hearts, as well as their brains. "It's overwhelming when you hear that 150,000 kids were taken from their families, so it was really important to us to connect the students with one child," says Gail Stromquist, assistant director of Aboriginal education at the British Columbia Teachers' Federation. Along with her sister, Janet Stromquist, who's also a teacher, Gail created the e-book and teaching module about the life of their aunt Gladys Chapman, who fell ill with tuberculosis while at residential school and died in 1931 at the age of 12. Jean Moir, a grade 4/5 teacher in Langley, BC, who helped develop the lessons and piloted the project with her class two years ago, says that learning about a child who lived fairly close by made Gladys real to her students. "They cared what happened to her and absolutely 'got' how horribly she and so many others were treated."

'We learned about those really mean schools they used to have, mom'

On a cool fall day, her grade 4/5 class got on a school bus and went on a field trip to Spuzzum, B.C. to visit the territory of the Nlaka'pamux Nation, where Gladys grew up and was buried. Danny Ferguson went with his son Joe on the field trip and saw how the kids reacted after they decorated the mossy headstone with handmade hearts and flowers. "It's not just about the information; there's definitely a teaching to the heart there," he says. "Even today, Joe really connects with Gladys' story. He still talks about it and gets a bit emotional. Gladys is basically a hero to those kids.

Another personal story that resonates with kids is about Phyllis Webstad-and it sparked the national movement of Orange Shirt Day, held annually on September 30. In 1973, six-year-old Phyllis was excited about going away to school and she picked out a new orange shirt. When she arrived at school, all her clothes, including her orange shirt, were taken from her. "The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn't matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing," explains Webstad. Orange Shirt Day's message is that every child matters.

My daughter Jane, who's in grade 2, is fully on board with theme days of any sort and picked out orange hair elastics to go with her shirt when the note about Orange Shirt Day at her school here in Thunder Bay, Ont., came home in her backpack this past fall. I don't remember her telling us about her day at dinner-I'm pretty sure she was in a hurry to go trampolining at the neighbours. But more than two months later, we were at her school for an event and I spotted the mini-essays she and her classmates had written on Orange Shirt Day, still taped up in the foyer. As we walked over to the display, she matter-of-factly told me all about it. "We learned about those really mean schools they used to have, mom," she said. "It was real, you know, not just in a book. And there was this girl who had an orange shirt she really liked and they took it away and she never got it back, so that's why we wear orange shirts, to remember those kids who had to go away to school."

When Bearhead told me about that grade 6 student repeating her grandpa's comment, I flinched, thinking my daughter could hear something that casually cruel in her classroom, too. The legacy of residential schools-those strained and broken threads of relationships and culture and identity-is like a widening tear in a piece of fabric. If we have any hope of patching it, we've got to listen, really listen, to Indigenous stories and experiences, and then talk to our kids. "The biggest measure of success for me is about how families are talking about reconciliation at the dinner table, when no one else is listening," says Bearhead. "When we see that shift happening there, that's when I believe we'll be on the road to reconciliation as a country."

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Why our kids need to learn about residential schools

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How would you feel, if this happened in your kid's class? Last fall, a grade 6 social studies class outside of Edmonton was learning about residential schools. A student put up her hand and said, "I don't have anything against Indigenous people, but my grandpa told me we had to put the Indians in residential schools because they were killing each other and we had to civilize them."

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Speaks His Mind

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The first time Wab Kinew was strangled in public came while he was in elementary school in Winnipeg. Young Wabanakwut back-talked a substitute teacher who grabbed him by the throat and began choking him. As the Anishinaabe boy struggled, the teacher leaned in and quietly whispered a racial slur in his ear. When she eventually let him go, Kinew promised her his dad would "kick her ass." That night, his father assured him that he wouldn't be fighting his teacher - or anyone else - for him.

The second time Kinew was strangled in public came after he shouted a joke through the open doors of a community bingo hall. The bingo caller grabbed him by the throat and began choking him. As Kinew - still just a scrawny child - struggled, the man swore at him and issued a racial slur. This time, Kinew broke free of the chokehold on his own, pushing the man away.

"I was never raised to be somebody who would keep my mouth shut," Kinew says. "I was raised to speak my mind. I hope that I'm starting to do that in a way that's productive and not harmful."

He is. In his teens, Kinew became a rapper in a group called Dead Indians and travelled North America performing. He then became a reporter, first for CBC Winnipeg and later for Al Jazeera America. He hosted the CBC documentary series 8th Fire, guest-hosted CBC Radio's cultural program Q, became an honorary witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and is now associate vice-president of indigenous affairs at the University of Winnipeg.

Last year, the man who has grown from a back-talker into a passionate and eloquent speaker commanded national attention championing Joseph Boyden's novel, , on CBC's Canada Reads. (This year, he hosted the competition.) The precise way Kinew spoke his mind, positioning The Orenda at the centre of a wider debate about aboriginal issues in this country, drew the attention of Penguin Random House Canada.

"He was a revelation on Canada Reads," says Diane Turbide, Penguin Canada's publishing director and Kinew's editor. "His intensity, his articulateness, his presence, were very impressive. We all wanted to know more about this person."

The Reason You Walk - the 33-year-old author's new memoir, forthcoming in September from Penguin Canada - tells more. The book is Kinew's attempt to add his voice to a conversation about truth and reconciliation, but not in the capital-lettered sense. It's a deeply personal account of his father's terrifying years in residential schools and the cascading trauma through Wab's own life.

While tracing his family history, Kinew faces issues - a distant, emotionally battered parent; a struggle with alcoholism; a tendency toward confronting differences with violence - that can only be dealt with through self-analysis and self-clemency. His story has no filters. It pursues forgiveness, but not by running away from the ugliness that makes forgiveness necessary.

"This thing called reconciliation, whether it's on a national level or on a really personal level between two people, it's a messy thing," Kinew says. "No one is perfect and we all have dark aspects of our personalities and challenges that we're trying to work through."

The search for reconciliation doesn't always make for comfortable reading. Penguin Canada publisher Nicole Winstanley says this is part of what attracted Penguin to Kinew. Winstanley watched him in person on Canada Reads and worked hard to sign his memoir and his forthcoming children's book, which is still a couple of years away.

"What's exciting about this book is what was exciting about him [on Canada Reads]: the confidence and directness of his voice, the strength of his passion, and his pure, unadulterated honesty," Winstanley says. "Wab makes you feel uncomfortable. Some books make you feel uncomfortable and you put them down. Some books make you feel uncomfortable and you realize you should have been uncomfortable with this all along."

Kinew didn't set out to write the definitive text about residential schools or reconciliation, or to become a figurehead - but he has. Boyden calls Kinew a bridge between native and non-native cultures.

"I don't think it's accidental that he's become a spokesperson," Boyden says. "I think it's exactly what the country needs: they need to see strong, young aboriginal voices that are direct, that are unwavering in what they have to say, that do speak about reconciliation."

Turbide agrees: "He's an inspiring example of a modern, educated aboriginal, determined to hang on to the best of his culture, determined to see justice done."

Kinew wants to show that the lines between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures don't reflect what most Canadians imagine. He worries about being a good father, about respecting his partner, about relating to his parents, and about trying to find meaningful work. These are struggles that transcend any single community, though Kinew offers lessons from within his own to overcome them.

"The life that we lead is such that things are always being pushed apart and conflict is often being sown," Kinew says. "So one of the primary skills we have to learn if we want to be good people is the ability to take things that have been broken apart and put them back together, the ability to take relationships that have been harmed and try to fix them."

That, he teaches us, is the reason you walk. The reason you walk and, maybe, also the reason you speak.

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Wab Kinew speaks his mind | Quill and Quire

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The first time Wab Kinew was strangled in public came while he was in elementary school in Winnipeg. Young Wabanakwut back-talked a substitute teacher who grabbed him by the throat and began choking him. As the Anishinaabe boy struggled, the teacher leaned in and quietly whispered a racial slur in his ear.

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Sunrise Ceremony

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Canada's First Nations observe the start of National Aboriginal Day On June 21 st with a sunrise ceremony, one of the most ancient and revered rituals practiced today.

It is a deeply spiritual and personal ceremony performed to mark and welcome the beginning of a new day, as well as express appreciation and thanks for life and nature.

Sunrise ceremonies often include participants expressing what they are grateful for and why, and smudging themselves and their ceremonial instruments with burnt herbs as a way to purify oneself of negativity.

The ceremony is of great importance to Aboriginals, but many Canadians are unaware of its true meaning. Elder Raymond Ballantyne of the Cree and his helper Madonna O'Nabigon spoke to CBC News about how they perform their own ceremony. Here are excerpts from the discussion:

What is the significance of the sunrise ceremony?

Elder Raymond Ballantyne: That's when everything's strong; that's the time when you ask for things. You pray for things, you pray for life... you're dealing with life and death, that's why we do the Sunrise ceremonies. It's a communication with the Creator.

That's important ... all nations are different, but that's how we do ours.

Madonna O'Nabigon: A Sunrise ceremony is to watch the sun come up, to see if that sun will acknowledge us, to give us energy we need for the day. If a person is true and honest to himself or herself, if their prayers are strong that morning, they can see the sun dance. Sometimes the sun will pounce; I've seen it happen twice.

Could you describe the sunrise ceremony?

O'Nabigon: First, understand that we're from Saskatchewan and this is the way we were taught to do our sunrise ceremonies.

We can only speak for our own people. Raymond is Cree and we can only speak for our northern area where we do our ceremonies. It would be disrespectful to say all should be doing this. Everyone does his or hers differently. This is the way we do our ceremonies.

Ballantyne: For us in the northern site ... I can't speak for the rest, [but] in our sunrise ceremonies, we do them as soon as the sun comes up. We just wait for it, and as soon as it starts peeking that's when we do our ceremony.

We always say that when we do our ceremony you have a chance to see the sun dance. That's why we do these ceremonies in the morning; by the time the sun is full, everything is over.

What are the steps you take in your ceremony?

O'Nabigon: Everyone sits in a circle around a fire. A lot of people smudge their instruments, meaning their pipes, before they smoke them.

Smudging is part of the sunrise ceremony. A lot of the pipe carriers smudge when they bring their pipes.

Ballantyne: We use sweet grass. Not everyone uses sweet grass, they can use sage - that smudges - and they can use cedar.

O'Nabigon: We sit down on the ground in a circle in front of a fire and bring out our smudge bowls. We smudge our instruments and then usually someone will go around with another smudge bowl and smudge people if they want, if they don't have their own.

Ballantyne: We smoke our pipe - that's all we do for our ceremonies - we just smoke our pipe. We turn it around in all directions. We start in the east, then we go around as it [the sun] is coming up, then we go south.

You've got to see how it comes up... we go south, then we go west, then we go north. By that time we've finished those four directions, the sun is up from where it peeks [over the horizon]. By then we've finished smoking our pipes and it's over.

How often is it performed?

O'Nabigon: As a pipe carrier, I could do a ceremony every day, if I wanted to. Another example is if we're fasting, and we fast for four nights, we're allowed to have our pipes with us. All fasters who carry a pipe can fast with their pipes. Our tobacco is very important to us. It's one of our No. 1 medicines.

When we do workshops, four-day workshops, we'll get up and do a sunrise ceremony regardless what kind of workshop it is. It could be physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sexual, it could be on suicide - it could be anything.

Who can participate in a sunrise ceremony?

O'Nabigon: Anyone can participate - men, women, babies - everybody is at the sunrise ceremony at 4 a.m., 4:30, 5:30, depending on when it's daybreak. All are welcome. If someone gets up from their tents and wanders over, the more the merrier.

It's for all races, not just one. This is what we were taught. The Creator put all four races of people here, you know, all the Orientals, all the black people, different nationalities of white, of aboriginal. He put us all here for a reason: to work together, to be able to work together to understand each other. That's why our ceremonies are open. Why do just our people?

How ancient is the ceremony?

O'Nabigon: The ceremony [has gone] on since the beginning of time.... It is the oldest ceremony that aboriginal people have.

In the majority of our sunrise ceremonies there's always children participating in there; we always want our children and youth to learn right.

This is how they learn, by participating in the ceremonies. We never shut them out. They're always there first. Children come first, because they're the ones who are going to lead our people later on when we're not around.

They're our next generation of hope for aboriginal people.

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Sunrise ceremony marks National Aboriginal Day | CBC News

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Canada's First Nations observe the start of National Aboriginal Day On June 21 st with a sunrise ceremony, one of the most ancient and revered rituals practiced today. It is a deeply spiritual and personal ceremony performed to mark and welcome the beginning of a new day, as well as express appreciation and thanks for life and nature.

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Dispelling the myths

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The Indian Act defines who is and who is not recognized as an "Indian," but that doesn't mean all aboriginal people in Canada have Indian status or get free education.

Filmmaker Howard Adler explores what it means to have Indian status in a new film called Status, airing tonight on CBC Television in Ottawa.

Here are five things he thinks Canadians should know about Indian status:

1. Not all indigenous people have status

Created in 1876, the Indian Act is wide-ranging, covering governance, land use, health care and education, as well as defining eligibility for Indian status.

The Indian Act applies only to status Indians, and despite Métis and Inuit peoples being indigenous to Canada, it has not historically recognized them. There are also many non-status Indians who are, for a multitude of reasons, not entitled to be registered as Indians under the act.

2. Rooted in assimilation

When the legal category of "Indian status" was created, it was under federal policies of "assimilation" and "civilization" - the same policies that created and implemented residential schools.

In a practical sense, it determined which individuals were entitled to rights, guaranteed through treaties, but from the very start, it also had, as an underlying goal, the eventual erasure of the classification "Indian."

The idea was that as individual First Nations people became "civilized," they would lose their status and become "enfranchised" into Canadian society. In the past, a woman with status who married a non-status man would lose her status, and if someone with Indian status served in the Armed Forces, obtained a university degree or became a professional, such as a doctor or lawyer, they would automatically lose their status.

3. Status is a race- and gender-based classification system

Basically, prior to 1985, the way that an individual's status was passed on to the next generation was dependent on their gender and the status of their partner. If a woman with Indian status married a non-status person, she would lose her status. However, if a man with status married a woman without status, she would gain status.

In 1985, the Indian Act was amended with Bill C-31 because the legislation was in breach of the gender equality provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Even under the amended Indian Act, the status system can be thought of as inter-generational surveillance that tracks racial purity. Although the legislation doesn't specifically refer to blood quantum, this is essentially what it amounts to.

For example, there are two types of "status Indians" that determine whether the children of a status Indian will have status or not. A 6 (1) Indian can pass their status on to their children, but a 6(2) Indian cannot unless the other parent also has status. This is often refereed to as the "second generation" cut-off.

4. Having status doesn't automatically mean 'free' university, no taxes

These are both pervasive and annoying myths that perpetuate misconceptions about indigenous people.

Education is a stipulation in post-Confederation treaties, and these treaty rights to education are constitutionally recognized in Canada, under Section 35 (1). However, post-secondary funding is limited to status Indians and does not include non-Status, Inuit or Métis peoples.

Federally provided education funds are distributed through First Nations bands, which often don't receive amounts that actually match up with the numbers of applicants requesting funding, resulting in long wait lists and restricted access.

As for taxes, if you're a status Indian and you live and work off your reserve (which is more than half of all status Indians), then you are certainly paying both federal and provincial taxes.

Tax exemptions only apply in very specific, limited situations, and for the most part, this means goods and services and income are only tax-free on the reserve.

5. The status system is problematic, but it doesn't have to be

Bill C-31 included revisions that separated Indian status from band membership, granting bands responsibility for developing and managing their own membership, meaning someone without status can now be a member of a First Nation.

But there's a catch: despite the fact that bands can determine their own membership, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (formerly known as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada ) provides funding to bands only for status Indians, not for band members.

at 7 p.m. ET on CBC-TV in Ottawa as a part of an Status will air on Saturday, Aug. 23 Absolutely Ottawa series called Ottawa Docs.

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Dispelling the myths about who is and isn't a status Indian | CBC News

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The Indian Act defines who is and is not recognized as an "Indian" in Canada, but that doesn't mean all aboriginal people have Indian status or get perks like free education and tax breaks. Filmmaker Howard Adler explores some common myths about this almost 140-year-old classification.

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Apology by Prime Minister Steven Harper on behalf of the Government of Canada

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Link to the feature length movie

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APTN full length feature- The Untold Story of the Americas Before Christopher Columbus

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1491: The Untold Story of the Americas before Columbus is based on the book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" by Charles C. Mann (Knopf, 2005). It brings to life the complexity, diversity and interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Presented from an Indigenous-perspective the series is a journey along a timeline that dates from 20,000 years ago to 1491. The origins and history of ancient Indigenous societies in North, Central and South America are interpreted by leading Indigenous scholars and cultural leaders in the fields of archaeology, art history, ethnology, genetics, geology, and linguistics.

"The Western Hemisphere before 1492... was a thriving, stunningly diverse place, a tumult of languages, trade, and culture, a region where tens of millions of people loved and hated and worshipped as people do everywhere." Charles C. Mann

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1491: The Untold Story of the Americas before Columbus is based on the book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" by Charles C. Mann (Knopf, 2005). It brings to life the complexity, diversity and interconnectedness of Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.

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Blood Quantum

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If you're Native American, there's a good chance that you've thought a lot about blood quantum - a highly controversial measurement of the amount of "Indian blood" you have. It can affect your identity, your relationships and whether or not you - or your children - may become a citizen of your tribe.

Blood quantum was initially a system that the federal government placed onto tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship. Many Native nations, including the Navajo Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, still use it as part of their citizenship requirements.

And how tribes use blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe. The Navajo Nation requires a minimum of 25 percent "Navajo blood," and Turtle Mountain requires a minimum of 25 percent of any Indian blood, as long as its in combination with some Turtle Mountain.

Blood quantum minimums really restrict who can be a citizen of a tribe. If you've got 25 percent of Navajo blood - according to that tribe's blood quantum standards - and you have children with someone who has a lower blood quantum, those kids won't be able to enroll.

So why keep a system that's decreasing your tribe's rolls and could lead to its demise?

"I use the term 'Colonial Catch 22' to say that there is no clear answer, and that one way or another, people are hurt," says Elizabeth Rule. She's a doctoral candidate at Brown University who specializes in Native American studies, and also a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

"The systems are so complicated," she explains, "but it's all part of tribes deciding on their own terms, in their own ways, utilizing their own sovereignty [to decide] what approach is best for them."

As we explored blood quantum in this week's episode, we thought a primer of what, exactly, this system is and how it works - or doesn't - might be useful. Here's my interview with Elizabeth Rule, edited and condensed for clarity.
First of all, what's blood quantum?
Blood quantum simply is the amount of "Indian blood" that an individual possesses. The federal government, and specifically the Department of the Interior, issues what is called a "Certified Degree of Indian Blood," and that is a card similar to an ID card. So the way that blood quantum is calculated is by using tribal documents, and usually it's a tribal official or a government official that calculates it.

But really it's a mathematical equation. So the quantum is a fraction of blood that is derived going back to the original enrollees of a tribe who were counted on Census rolls, and then their blood quantum was documented, and usually those original enrollees had a full blood quantum. Typically.
How did people know that those original enrollees had "full blood quantum"?
Well, they didn't. And that's that's one of the major problems with blood quantum today is that a lot of times, the people taking the rolls were federal government officials who were unfamiliar with Native ways of establishing and defining their own communities.

And so, for example, these officials would mark someone potentially as "full blood" when potentially that person was not. And that assumption was based on their appearance, on their level of cultural involvement with their community.

But a great example for how to understand this problem in real life is that there is a history of freedmen who are black individuals who were living as fully incorporated members of Indian tribes. And when these original roles were taken, oftentimes these freedmen were not included, even though those individuals may be of mixed heritage: black and Indian. Because of their black appearance, they were listed on a separate roll. And today, the ramification is that they do not have that original enrollee [in their past]. They do not have enough blood quantum, and therefore oftentimes cannot be extended tribal membership.
Can you talk to me about how the concept of blood quantum came to be used for Native tribes?
Certainly, American Indians have been racialized. But our primary identity continues to be a political one. Blood quantum really emerges as a way to trace race between generations of Native people starting at the turn of the 20th century. And again, I think it's helpful to understand the way that blood quantum works through another example that people may be more familiar with - and that's the "one drop rule."

Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure "Indian-ness" through a construct of race. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations.

The one drop rule measured the amount of "black blood" that black people had in society. And that ensured that every person who had at least one drop would be considered black and would be covered under these discriminatory laws and, even in the earlier days, enslaved.

Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure "Indian-ness" through a construct of race. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations.
One of the questions that kept coming up is: OK, so why don't tribes just ditch these blood quantum requirements and switch to an enrollment requirement that uses lineal descent? (Lineal descent basically means that, if your ancestors were enrolled in a tribe, you can be, too.)
That is the question of the century. And first, I want to be clear that I don't intend to speak on behalf of any specific tribes or even on behalf of my own, but I'm happy to walk you through some of those arguments that exist in support of maintaining blood quantum requirements for tribal membership. ...

The thing that I've found to be most interesting about both arguments - in support and against blood quantum requirements - is the language of survival. So, lineal descendant supporters think about high memberships through the lens of existence as a resistance right. And so there's a desire to build up tribes' numbers and capacity in order to survive and perpetuate the tribe.

On the other side, those who defend blood quantum requirements also evoke this language of survival, and they look upon those blood quantum minimums as a way to preserve an already existing closed community that's very close and ... usually very culturally connected.
Even though they're using what a lot of people say is a "Colonialist construct"?
Yes. And I don't think that anyone would argue that it isn't that. That history is very clear. But, tribes today of course have to adapt, and blood quantum for some tribes in their view has been a way to preserve their community.

I also want to emphasize that it is the tribe's sovereign right to determine their own membership and whether that involves a blood quantum minimum or lineal descent system.

Ultimately their decision has to be respected in order to uphold tribal sovereignty.
You've used the phrase "personal gains" before to refer to some people who might've claimed Indian heritage. Can you walk me through what specifically those personal gains look like?
You hear every time a tribe changes over to lineal descent, or that there is a newly recognized tribe, for example, that usually there's a mass group that's interested in joining. And potentially, some of those incentives would be financial gain if the tribe, for example, has gaming revenue or other industries. Of course, there is a desire on some individuals' part to claim an identity for affirmative-action purposes. But again, I would say that is certainly the minority of this side of the cases. But it does happen and I just want to point it out again to show that there are difficulties on both sides and that there's not a clear-cut answer yet.
If each tribe is able to determine their own their own enrollment requirements, are there any tribes out there that you've heard of that are deciding to forego lineal descent and blood quantum - and deciding to use another completely different method?
I have heard of one example in Canada, where a First Nation has decided to open enrollment to people who have no Indian ancestry at all. Meaning that those individuals don't meet the federal Canadian requirements of being a "status Indian," and they also don't have that blood quantum or descendancy from an original enrollee. It's an extremely progressive and interesting move, and they're really changing the game.
Listen to our episode on blood quantum from earlier this week, and check out this essay from Savannah Maher, a former NPR producer, about her own struggle with blood quantum.

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If you're Native American, there's a good chance that you've thought a lot about blood quantum - a highly controversial measurement of the amount of "Indian blood" you have. It can affect your identity, your relationships and whether or not you - or your children - may become a citizen of your tribe.

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Soap Box

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Canadian Government and the Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

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Indigenous Top Ten

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Indigenous educators are volunteering their time to help educate students online as schools close down in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. "I wanted to offer these online Facebook, social media classes for parents who are at home with their kids, just so they can connect with their learning," said Chris Scribe, director of the University of Saskatchewan's Indian Teacher Education Program and founder of Think Indigenous. Educators took turns going "live" on their Facebook pages earlier this month in order to provide lessons and storytelling related to Indigenous knowledge, such as the Indigenous perspective of bacteria and what it means in today's context. "My lesson was 20 minutes ...I wanted to share some lessons and teachings that I've had on stress management," said Curtis Vinish, who targeted middle school students with his lessons. "We have never faced a situation like this before in modern society. I think it's important to talk about mental health issues in our communities, especially with self isolation being recommended." Vinish stated that the plan is to try and keep virtual classrooms operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. CBC | Facebook Page ()

While Indigenous issues and their impact on the business world are of increasing interest to business schools across the country, writes Dene Moore, institutions are facing delivery challenges. The article highlights schools such as Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business, which offers an executive MBA in Indigenous business leadership, and Dalhousie University's Rowe School of Business, which includes Indigenous relations in the school's ethics, leadership, and management courses. However, SFU Beedie Associate Dean of Graduate Programs Andrew Gemino notes that there is a significant lack of people and resources crucial to the successful creation and delivery of such programs. Indigenous Corporate Training President Bob Joseph says he believes not just business schools, but all graduate and undergraduate educations should include a mandatory Indigenous curriculum. "Mining. Forestry. Political science. Health care. It's hard to think of something that isn't impacted by Indigenous relations," he explains. "And I have seen people with a little bit of knowledge and ideas make unbelievable inroads." Globe and Mail (National)

The University of the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Community College, and the Stó:lō Nation are partnering to deliver the Stó:lō Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training (SASET) Culinary Arts program. The initiative, funded by the Government of British Columbia, is a 12-week pre-trades training program delivered at VCC and UFV. The program will provide students with first aid training, FoodSafe and SuperHost certificates, and a work practicum placement. "A career in the culinary arts is a lifelong endeavour where learning never stops and job satisfaction happens every day," said UFV Instructor Chris Monkman. "We're thankful the Province recognizes the need for partnerships like this, as well as the need for state-of-the-art training equipment and spaces. This partnership really is a win-win." NationTalk (BC)

Indigenous friendship and support centres in Ottawa are scrambling to find ways to serve their clients as they cancel all non-essential services and programs. Odawa Native Friendship Centre's drop-in centre and childcare services have been closed, Tungasuvvingat Inuit has closed all programming except for its foodbank and Mamisarvik Healing Centre, and the Minwaashin Lodge women's support centre has suspended all programming until April 5th. "Ottawa has a very large urban Indigenous community. We have a lot of clients that come through our centre accessing services," said Odawa President Amy Nahwegahbow. " We're still at the early stages and we're trying to brainstorm and think outside the box." (ON)

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Indigenous educators are volunteering their time to help educate students online as schools close down in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. "I wanted to offer these online Facebook, social media classes for parents who are at home with their kids, just so they can connect with their learning," said Chris Scribe, director of the University of Saskatchewan's Indian Teacher Education Program and founder of Think Indigenous.

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An excerpt from the book "Unsettling the Settler Within"

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TRC

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Support Indigenous Peoples

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Native Canadian Art | Canada's Indigeneous Artists | Colouring It Forward

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Native Canadian Art including books, cards and calendars to tell the other side of the story of Indigenous people - of hope and of a different future.

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Indigenous Artist Sonny Assu

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Holly Fortier facilitated an Indigenous Awareness Training course in August with many Ambrose University Faculty

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Using historical accounts and personal narrative, Holly draws upon the wisdom and experiences of family, Elders, Indigenous academics, artists, and community members to introduce powerful themes. Holly uses a highly structured approach which provides ample opportunity for discussion, and for reflection upon information that is often completely new for participants.

This approach is complemented by an engaging, thoughtful, sensitive and interactive facilitation style which makes Holly's sessions thought-provoking and enjoyable. It is Holly's hope that through a better understanding of Aboriginal Peoples and their traditional territories, participants will be encouraged to adopt a respectful understanding of the territory in which they work, and the Indigenous communities with which they may engage.

Custom workshops are available on request. We are happy to work within your needs to facilitate our workshops.

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Using historical accounts and personal narrative, Holly draws upon the wisdom and experiences of family, Elders, Indigenous academics, artists, and community members to introduce powerful themes. Holly uses a highly structured approach which provides ample opportunity for discussion, and for reflection upon information that is often completely new for participants.

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Installation at Vancouver Art Gallery inspired by residential school lived experience.

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Leila's Desk, 2013 - Sonny Assu | Interdisciplinary Artist | sonnyassu.com

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Leila's Desk, 2013. Vintage 1930s school desk (wood, metal), vintage Lifebuoy soap, copper leaf 33x22x26" Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Purchased with proceeds from the Audain Emerging Artists Acquisition Fund Photo: Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

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Gord Downie's work on "The Secret Path

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STATEMENT BY GORD DOWNIE Ogoki Post, Ontario

September 9, 2016

Mike Downie introduced me to Chanie Wenjack; he gave me the story from Ian Adam's Maclean's magazine story dating back to February 6, 1967, "The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack."

Chanie was a young boy who died on October 22, 1966, walking the railroad tracks, trying to escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School to walk home. Chanie's home was 400 miles away. He didn't know that. He didn't know where it was, nor know how to find it, but, like so many kids - more than anyone will be able to imagine - he tried. I never knew Chanie, the child his teachers misnamed Charlie, but I will always love him.

Chanie haunts me. His story is Canada's story. This is about Canada. We are not the country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all accountable, but this begins in the late 1800s and goes to 1996. "White" Canada knew - on somebody's purpose - nothing about this. We weren't taught it; it was hardly ever mentioned.

All of those Governments, and all of those Churches, for all of those years, misused themselves. They hurt many children. They broke up many families. They erased entire communities. It will take seven generations to fix this. Seven. Seven is not arbitrary. This is far from over. Things up north have never been harder. Canada is not Canada. We are not the country we think we are.

I am trying in this small way to help spread what Murray Sinclair said, "This is not an aboriginal problem. This is a Canadian problem. Because at the same time that aboriginal people were being demeaned in the schools and their culture and language were being taken away from them and they were being told that they were inferior, they were pagans, that they were heathens and savages and that they were unworthy of being respected - that very same message was being given to the non-aboriginal children in the public schools as well...They need to know that history includes them." (Murray Sinclair, Ottawa Citizen, May 24, 2015)

I have always wondered why, even as a kid, I never thought of Canada as a country - It's not a popular thought; you keep it to yourself - I never wrote of it as so. The next hundred years are going to be painful as we come to know Chanie Wenjack and thousands like him - as we find out about ourselves, about all of us - but only when we do can we truly call ourselves, "Canada."

"Do we want to live in a haunted house the rest of our lives?" - Joseph Boyden

Proceeds from the sale of Secret Path will go to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation via The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at The University of Manitoba.

Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died fifty years ago on October 22, 1966, in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, walking home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away. Gord was introduced to Chanie Wenjack (miscalled "Charlie" by his teachers) by Mike Downie, his brother, who shared with him Ian Adams' Maclean 's story from February 6, 1967, "The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack."

The stories Gord's poems tell were fleshed into the ten songs of Secret Path with producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin. Recording took place over two sessions at the Bathouse in Bath, Ontario, November and December 2013. The music features Downie on vocals and guitars, with Drew and Hamelin playing all other instruments, except guest contributions by Charles Spearin (bass), Ohad Benchetrit (lap steel/guitar), Kevin Hearn (piano), and Dave "Billy Ray" Koster (drums).

In winter 2014, Gord and Mike brought the recently finished music to comic artist Jeff Lemire for his help illustrating Chanie's story, bringing him and the many children like him to life.

Secret Path acknowledges a dark part of Canada's history - the long-supressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system - with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation.

The ten song album will be released by Arts & Crafts accompanied by Lemire's eighty-eight page graphic novel published by Simon & Schuster Canada. Secret Path will arrive on October 18, 2016, in a deluxe vinyl and book edition, and as a book with album download.

Downie's music and Lemire's illustrations inspired The Secret Path, an animated film broadcast by CBC in an hour-long commercial-free television special in Sunday, October 23. The Secret Path and Road to Reconciliation panel discussion can be watched at cbc.ca/secretpath.

1. The Stranger
2. Swing Set
3. Seven Matches
4. I Will Not Be Struck
5. Son
6. Secret Path
7. Don't Let This Touch You
8. Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them
9. The Only Place To Be
10. Here, Here and Here

STATEMENT BY JEFF LEMIRE
I first met Gord Downie and his brother Mike back in the winter of 2014. They wanted to discuss a potential project and, over coffee, they told me the story of Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack. Gord was then in the final stages of recording his incredible songs based on Chanie's life and he shared the rough mixes with me in the hopes that I would be interested in creating a graphic novel to accompany his album. Before we left the coffee shop I knew I was going to do it. I had to. Chanie's story is one that will not let you go once you hear it. It's a story that can't be ignored. And yet, somehow, it has been ignored. By nearly all of us.

Growing up white in Southern Ontario, I never learned about Chanie Wenjack or about any of the tens of thousands of other indigenous children like him who were part of Canada's residential school system. This is such a massive part of our country's history, yet our schools didn't teach us about it. Why? Maybe because it's easier to live with ourselves if we pretend stories like Chanie's never happened. But they did happen, and still happen. Chanie Wenjack lived and died, and no one knows his story.

I've spent the last three years living with Chanie's story and living inside Gord's music. Gord's haunting songs introduced me to Chanie Wenjack. Music is universal. It crosses languages and cultures and speaks to everyone, and I've always felt the medium of comics could do the same. It's our hope that one day Secret Path will be taught in schools and that it will help to shed a light on this all too often ignored part of Canada's past. I think, above all else, that's what Gord and I wanted to create: something that can't be ignored. Every Canadian should know Chanie Wenjack's name and I hope Secret Path helps to make that a reality.

The Secret Path is an animated film adaptation of Gord Downie's album and Jeff Lemire's graphic novel. Working with Downie's poetry and music, Lemire has created a powerful visual representation of the life of Chanie Wenjack. The film is divided into ten chapters, each a song from Downie's musical retelling of Chanie's story - from his escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, to his subsequent and heartbreaking death from hunger and exposure to the harsh weather. The final product is a uniquely immersive emotional experience - an insight into the life of a little boy who, as Gord has said, he never knew, "but will always love."

The Secret Path was created, written, and directed by Gord Downie, composed by Gord Downie with Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin, and illustrated by author Jeff Lemire. The film is executive produced by Mike Downie, Patrick Downie, Gord Downie, and Sarah Polley. The Secret Path is produced by Entertainment One (eOne) and Antica Productions Ltd. in association with CBC, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Jocelyn Hamilton is executive producer for eOne Television and Stuart Coxe is executive producer for Antica Productions. Animation is directed by Justin Stephenson, produced at Solis Animation Inc. and composited by Even Steven Inc.

The Secret Path was broadcast by CBC in an hour-long commercial-free television special in Sunday, October 23. The Secret Path and Road to Reconciliation panel discussion can be watched at cbc.ca/secretpath.

Proceeds from the sale of Secret Path go to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund and have supported initiatives such as The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation via The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at The University of Manitoba.

The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF) is a registered national charity that aims to build cultural understanding and create a path towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. With two national programs, Legacy Schools and Legacy Spaces, DWF aims to improve the lives of Indigenous people by building awareness, education, and connections between all peoples in Canada.

DWF's ability to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples is sustained by the generosity of our supporters. Every dollar raised directly supports the development of resources for DWF programming such as Legacy Schools, Legacy Spaces, and events that will improve awareness, and increase education and connections throughout Canada. Please visit www.downiewenjack.ca for information on how you can #DoSomething to further reconciliation.

For Willo, Clare, Louis, Clemens

For the place called 'Canada' - past, present, future

All of us.

Words by
GORD DOWNIE

Graphic Novel & Illustrations by
JEFF LEMIRE

Songs by GORD DOWNIE
with KEVIN DREW & DAVE HAMELIN

Produced and Mixed by
KEVIN DREW & DAVE HAMELIN

Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars by GORD DOWNIE
All other instrumentation by KEVIN DREW & DAVE HAMELIN

Guest Musicians:
CHARLES SPEARIN - Bass
OHAD BENCHETRIT - Lap Steel & Additional Guitar
KEVIN HEARN - Additional Keys
DAVE "BILLY RAY" KOSTER - Drums

Engineered by NYLES SPENCER

Recorded and Mixed at The Bathouse Recording Studios, Bath, ON, Canada
November 3 - November 10, 2013
November 27 - December 2, 2013

Mastered by ERIC BOULANGER, The Bakery, Culver City, CA, USA

Art Direction by JONATHAN SHEDLETZKY
Design & Layout by ISIS ESSERY
Website Design by IAN PORTER

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Secret Path is a ten song album by Gord Downie with a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire that tells the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died fifty years ago on October 22, 1966, in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, trying to walk over 400 miles home to the family he was taken from.

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From the podcast Code Switch

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"It's a question that people have asked me, and that I sometimes wonder about myself," my friend says. "Are you only with him because he's Native?"

She's sitting outside at a picnic table. I can smell the desert and the cigarette smoke through the phone.

"And I guess the answer is that it's not not because he's Native. You know?"

I do know.

She and I were raised by different tribes on reservations 3,000 miles apart. As children, though, we internalized the same directive: Find yourself a Native man. Good blood for your babies.

I know how messed up it sounds. But it's about survival.

It's called blood quantum. Lots of Native nations, including my friend's, use it to determine who can and can't enroll as a citizen. But even in tribes like my own that use different enrollment policies, the notion that Indigeneity can be quantified - that it's our "blood" that makes us Native or not - is impossible to avoid.

Here's how it works: Track down a tribal census document from the 1800s. Assume every person listed was a certified, "full-blooded" Indian and do the math from there. Choose an arbitrary fraction to serve as your citizenship cut-off. And if anyone's personal fraction happens to fall below that standard, they're out of luck. Traditional or not, blood quantum is the law of the land. You either buy in or you die out. Just another colonial reality we have little choice but to participate in.

For me, the hierarchy has always been clear-if not Mashpee Wampanoag then Aquinnah or Herring Pond. If not Wampanoag then Narragansett. Then Pequot. And if you find yourself too far from home to lock down an Eastern Woodlands man to father your children, he damn well better be Indigenous to somewhere on this continent.

Find yourself a Native man. Good blood for your babies. I know how messed up it sounds. But it's about survival.

Incidentally, the man I love now looks uncannily like John Smith from the Disney Pocahontas movie. He is German. Maybe English. He's not sure how much of either, and no one ever asks. Sometimes he'll ask me, "Is there any part of you that wants me to be different?" What he means is, do I ever find myself wishing he were Native. Three years into our relationship, I'm still not sure how to answer.

It's odd to think about high school-aged me, on the lookout for an Indian baby daddy. Especially because, even now, I'm not sure if motherhood is something I want for myself. But at 14 and 15, I was meeting Native boys on the powwow circuit and running equations in my head. How much Indian "blood" did he have? What kind? Did his fraction plus mine equal legitimate tribal citizenship for our offspring? Would his brown skin and high cheekbones survive the wild labyrinth of our genes so that my babies might not have to fight to be seen as Indigenous?

On the phone, my friend tells me that her current beau checks most of these boxes. They've only been together for two months, but she's done the math. (1/4 + 5/8) ÷ 2 = 7/16 and just like that, their babies will be Indian enough. The hard part is over. All that's left to do is fall in love and stay there.

Here's the thing about blood quantum: it's not real. It has no basis in biology or genetics or any Indigenous tradition I'm aware of. It's a colonial invention designed to breed us out of existence. But it's got all these smart people-traditionalists, university students, Indigenous language revitalists-running around doing mental math, convinced it's our best shot at keeping our cultures alive.

I won't pretend that I'm above it. The prospect of having kids even more mixed than I am makes me anxious. If, in a century, the Wampanoag tribe no longer exists-if we lose our land, our traditions, our language-will it be my fault? If my babies end up looking like him, if they feel more white than Wampanoag, have I wasted my ancestors' sacrifices?

My mom's five-year-old foster sons are blonde-haired and blue-eyed and right now they're learning to count in Wôpanâak. Pâsaq, nees, nuhsh, yâw, the words sound at home in their voices. "Savannah," they asked me once, "How come you're Wampanoag?" And I said, "How come you are?" They considered the question for a moment, then one of them piped up, "We're Wampanoag because our mom made us that way." I knew just what he meant because mine did, too.

My boyfriend also wants to learn the language. When we visit my mom, he points to labels placed around the house to help the kids build vocabulary and reads them aloud. Ushqôt, kunakuneek, wunôk, I repeat each word with the correct pronunciation and he tries again.

I love him because he can gut a fish and make a friendship bracelet, because he's 6'3" and he sings in the bathtub, because he asks for one French braid when he wants to look fancy and two when he needs cheering up. Do I want him to be different? God, no. But when I think about the future-not just mine but my tribe's, all of Indian Country's-I start to doubt myself.

One thing I know now that I didn't three years ago: If we have kids together someday, it won't be their blood that makes them Wampanoag.

Most days I think I'm done doing mental math. No more worrying that I'm being selfish, that I'm letting colonialism do its job. But when the guilt and the self-suspicion creep up on me, he will be there. He'll tumble onto the couch, arms outstretched, waiting for me. And together we'll divide 100 by itself.

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The Difficult Math Of Being Native American

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast "It's a question that people have asked me, and that I sometimes wonder about myself," my friend says. "Are you only with him because he's Native?" She's sitting outside at a picnic table. I can smell the desert and the cigarette smoke through the phone.

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Videos of Monique Gray Smith, an award winning author and international speaker focusing on resilience.

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Orca Book website for resources

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Continue Your Journey

Continue your journey
What to Pack for Your Journey
For most trips you would pack a suitcase or backpack with clothes, deodorant and a toothbrush. You do pack a toothbrush, don't you? Because this journey is different, I'm asking you to pack simple things:

A willingness to listen to and have meaningful conversation with others

Curiosity

Openness

An ability to reflect on difficult things

Please take care of yourself on this journey. Listen and learn from your heart. I hope this book will inspire you. Some of it might hurt and make you angry. That's okay. Use it as fuel to help make change in a positive way. -Monique Gray Smith

TEACHER GUIDE

The Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide follows the book, chapter by chapter, making it easy for teachers and students to dig deeper into the text and make personal connections to the material.

Each chapter of the guide features a summary, essential questions, metaphors for learning, key components and vocabulary and detailed learning activites. There is bonus material about making art, keeping a journal and doing research. Activities are laid out clearly, with instructions for teachers and for students as they embark together on the journey of reconciliation.

The Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide is available in paperback and PDF formats. Please visit the Orca Book Publishers website to order.

Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide Paperback (Canada)
Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide PDF (Canada)

Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide Paperback (USA & International)
Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide PDF (USA & International)

DOWNLOADS

Maps

There is a myth in Canada that Residential School existed a long time ago. While most of the schools had closed by the mid-1970s, the last federally run Residential School, Gordon's School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. Over 130 schools operated over the years. These schools served over 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children.

The Residential Schools experience established for Canada's Indigenous population is one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation's history."

Justice Murray Sinclair, TRC Final Report, Vol 1

Map of Residential Schools of Canada, TRC

Reconciliation Begins With You Poster

Download a poster for your classroom, library or event. Learn what you can do to further your journey or reconciliation.

Umbrella of Indigenous Resiliency Poster

Resiliency: The ability to bounce back from challenging or difficult times in our lives. Download a poster for your classroom or library or event.

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Continue Your Journey What to Pack for Your Journey For most trips you would pack a suitcase or backpack with clothes, deodorant and a toothbrush. You do pack a toothbrush, don't you?

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Interview with Monica Gray Smith- 3 minutes

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by John Ralston Saul

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LE GRAND RETOUR - French edition translated by Daniel Poliquin published by Les Éditions Boréal

Published in English in 2014 by Penguin Random House
Published in French in 2015 by Les Éditions Boréal

Summary

WHEN IT COMES TO ABORIGINAL PEOPLES, SYMPATHY FROM OUTSIDERS IS THE NEW FORM OF RACISM. It allows many of us to feel good about discounting their importance and the richness of their civilizations.

Sympathy is a way to deny our shared reality. Our shared responsibility. Sympathy obscures the central importance of rights.

If not sympathy, then what? In September 2013, in the Columbia River Basin, I listened to Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation Council, explain that the first step is "recognition and acknowledgment." Then we can work at our relationship "one step at a time - and gradually - find things we can do together." In other words, "reconciliation" is not an event. It is not an apology, although an apology was necessary. And it is certainly not something so lacking in respect and dignity as sympathy. In any case, no solid relationship is possible so long as the Canadian government continues to rise in courtrooms and begin cases against the rights of Aboriginal nations by first arguing before the law that they do not exist as a people. This is our government. What could sympathy possibly mean if it is preceded by a denial of existence.... On the prairies there is an important piece of formal rhetoric: a question and an answer widely used in public meetings in order to remind everyone present of the reality in which they live.

"Who are the treaty people?"

"We are the treaty people."

-from The Comeback

Reviews

Daniel Francis - Geist Magazine

"In Greek mythology, Cassandra is blessed with the gift of prophecy, then cursed by never having her predictions believed. I thought of Cassandra as I read John Ralston Saul's latest book of prophecy, The Comeback: How Aboriginals Are Reclaiming Power and Influence (Penguin Group Canada)"Geist Magazine. June 19th, 2015.

Interviews

Articles

Michael Shulman - CTV National News

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Published in English in 2014 by Penguin Random House Published in French in 2015 by Les Éditions Boréal WHEN IT COMES TO ABORIGINAL PEOPLES, SYMPATHY FROM OUTSIDERS IS THE NEW FORM OF RACISM. It allows many of us to feel good about discounting their importance and the richness of their civilizations.

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I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed. It was a curiosity that would take me all across Alberta through different seasons and landscapes into Cree, Dene, Metis, Nakoda, Blackfoot communities who were willing to educate me about their experiences and stories. I met inspiring individuals who fight for what is right. I also learned devastating truths about our collective past. But as a result, I am both appreciative of home and see how much further we must go.

When I first looked into what Treaty 7 was, I read the written document, a clearly colonial legal land transfer document devoid of much meaning. It took a residency with Making Treaty 7 to uncover the meaning of the treaty from the Blackfoot, Nakoda, and Tsuu T'ina perspective. Instead of a legal document, I was instead invited to think of the treaty as a long-term relationship like a marriage that included not only people, but the land as well.

I applaud you. As educators you're helping to build understanding in a new generation of youth. It take courage and tenacity. It isn't easy to teach when all of us are still learning. But perhaps it is in learning that we show students how they too can challenge the mainstream history of Alberta.

Here are some ways I have come across to help explore this rich subject area:

Read The True Spirit and Intent of Treaty 7. This is the only book I've been able to find which tries as best as it can to capture the oral history of Treaty 7, a key missing part of the treaty story. If you want to go really deep, then you'll want to read the Royal Commission Report of 1996. It's many thousands of pages but it's a great summary of just about everything up until that point.

Visit the exhibit at Blackfoot Crossing. First this right by where the treaty was actually signed and second you may get lucky and get a personal tour from an Elder. If you can't get your class that far, then the Blackfoot Exhibit at the Glenbow Museum is pretty awesome.

Build relationships with Indigenous people. Of course it's much easier to learn about another culture if you have a friend in that culture.

May your learning journey be bold and rich! And don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions.

Chris Hsiung
Producer / Director
Elder in the Making

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I've been asked many times how the journey of Elder in the Making got started. The simple answer is curiosity. Curiosity about an acknowledgement and a date: September 22, the day that Treaty 7 was signed.