Community Events – January 2019

A Reading Circle for Reconciliation
Kelowna, BC
Starts January 8, 2019 

From 2010 to 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission listened to and documented the experiences of survivors, families, communities and anyone personally affected by the Indian Residential School Experience. In June 2015 they published their final report, which outlined 94 Calls to Actions for Canadians. Okanagan Regional Library will be hosting an opportunity for folks to continue the climb up Reconciliation Mountain. Please join us at a five session reading circle where we will read together the Executive Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future. Caroline MacKay, Debbie Hubbard and Nan Shearing will facilitate the Circle. The first session will be scheduled for Tuesday January 8. We will meet the second Tuesday of each month for a total of five months: February 12, March 12, April 9 and May 14. The sessions will run from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Pre-registration prior to January 8 is required.

Soup & Bannock: Lunch & Learn Series
Nanaimo, BC
January 8, 2019

This event is open to Everyone. Registration is optional – tickets are not needed for event. This speaker’s series is held by Services for Aboriginal Students at Vancouver Island University and sponsored by various VIU departments. These talks are Tuesday over the lunch hour once a month in Shq’apthut – A Gathering Place and provide the opportunity for students, staff, faculty and community to expand their experience and awareness in current Indigenous topics and various aspects of Aboriginal Ways of Being and Knowing. Click on the link above for more information.

Lunch & Learn Series: Indigenous Women’s Health
Edmonton, AB
January 9, 2019 (12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.)

The Indigenous Health Lunch & Learn Series hosted by the Local Officers of Indigenous Health (Medical Students Association) and the Indigenous Health Initiatives Program in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is pleased to announce the first of three engaging and informative sessions to help build awareness and understanding of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous Peoples’ health. The first session will focus on issues specific to Indigenous women’s health and will be led by Dr Cassandra Felske-Durksen.

Dance Allsorts: Iskwêwak Osihtâwak | The Women are Making It
Vancouver, BC
January 13, 2019 (2 p.m. to 4 p.m.)

Iskwêwak Osihtâwak (Cree) is a mixed program featuring Indigenous dance practices shared by Salia Joseph, Jeanette Kotowich and Jessica McMann, with excerpts from Spirit and Tradition by the Dancers of Damelahamid. The dance performance starts at 2:00 p.m. followed by a free dance workshop at 3:15 p.m. Pay-what-you-can at the door: First come, first seated.

Community Dialogue: Conservation through an Indigenous Human Rights Lens
Thunder Bay, ON
January 14, 2019 (5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)

Ontario Nature and the David Suzuki Foundation are hosting a Community Dialogue in Thunder Bay. Join environmental, Indigenous and grassroots activists to discuss how we can protect Mother Earth and its inhabitants in a way that respects Indigenous rights and responsibilities, and honours the interconnection of all life. Guest speakers include federal MP, Romeo Saganash (Critic for Reconciliation and Critic for Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency), and Grassy Narrows First Nations’ community elder and distinguished activist, Judy Da Silva. The event is free, but please register to help us plan for refreshments and seating.

Squamish Cultural Competency Training
Vancouver, BC
January 16, 2019 (9 a.m. to 12 p.m.)

Camp Fircom invites you to join us for a workshop on Squamish Cultural Competency led by Jackie Gonzales and Stewart Gonzales from the Ayas Men Men (Children & Family Services) of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation. This workshop is an opportunity to learn more about the Squamish people, their history, their lands, and their truth. We’re inviting the other camps who are on Squamish lands to join us as we seek to be in right relationship with Indigenous peoples.

RISE Blanket Exercise
Edmonton, AB
January 19, 2019 (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.)

The Blanket Exercise is an interactive learning experience that teaches the Indigenous rights history we’re rarely taught. Join us on Monday, January 21 from 6-8 PM for this interactive workshop, organized by RISE – Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton, to help further your understanding of Indigenous issues.This workshop is free; space is limited. Donations to support the ongoing work of RISE will gladly be accepted.

The Honourable Senator Murray Sinclair with Shelagh Rogers
Victoria, BC
January 22, 2019 (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.)

Island Health is pleased to present the Honourable Senator Murray Sinclair for a speaking event on cultural safety, truth, and reconciliation in health care. A national leader in truth and reconciliation, Senator Sinclair will advise, inspire, and share his wisdom to help us understand what Truth and Reconciliation truly is, and to deepen our cultural safety and humility learning journey. Journalist and radio host Shelagh Rogers will join the Senator for this conversation, as will invited guests from the First Nations Health Authority, Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, and Island Health. This event will be held in the He’Was Hall at the Songhees Wellness Centre. This is a free event but you must secure a free ticket as space is limited.

Indigenous Knowledges Wikimedia Workshop 
Toronto, ON
January 28-29, 2019

This workshop is being convened to engage the professional community in discussions and practice-based initiatives to work on the ways that Wikimedia platforms will be used to support the work related to Indigenous knowledges and languages in Canada. The Wikimedia project platforms such as Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons are increasingly being used to enable grassroots initiatives to support language and cultural reclaimation around the world. The platforms are also being used to increase the visibility of marginalized communities and languages. The platforms are also being used to document traditional practices. Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website in the world. The platforms taken together impact the internet, playing a major role in Google search results. Increasing the visibility and accessibility of information about Indigenous peoples and culture show the world know we are here.

Indigenous Storyteller in Residence: Launch Event
Vancouver, BC
January 30, 2o19 (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.)

Celebrate and get to know the 2019 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence! Discover how the residency will support cross-cultural communication and honour storytelling in its many forms through exciting events, workshops and more. Additional details to be announced in January.

Pathways to Truth and Reconciliation: Creating Space for New Success with Jean Teillet
Morely, AB
January 31, 2019 (7 p.m.)

In our second season of the Truth and Reconciliation Speaker Series we will be exploring the “Pathways to Truth and Reconciliation”, asking speakers to share what they have learned about the Action of Reconciliation through their own journey, case studies and successes and barriers encountered along the way. We believe that the path to reconciliation must always be grounded in the truth before we advance to reconciliation and along the path, intent and implementation may differ. These are the stories we have invited our speakers to share with us this season.

Digging for Reconciliation

By Patrick Lucas, MCIPP RPP, Registered Professional Planner

You know you’re doing something right when you arrive in a small community early on a cold, wet, rainy Saturday in June and there are fifteen young boys and girls waiting for you, impatiently.

“Where have you been? We’ve been waiting. Let’s go!” We’re actually ten minutes early. The kids swarm our car grabbing tools: Pick axes. Shovels. A chainsaw. Chaos. Someone is going to get hurt.

For the next several days some friends and I attempt to guide this frenzy of energy and enthusiasm through the forest, building a single track nature trail that will provide a space for the kids to ride their bikes, their very own jump track. This trail is happening because they went to their parents, their elders, their leaders and clearly stated what they wanted, what they needed. The community listened.

The big question for so many of us, particularly among non-Indigenous Canadians is what does reconciliation mean for us? What can we do?

For me, it started with a smaller, simpler question: what do you know about mountain biking? An elder asks me during a community planning workshop. “Our kids are doing it,” he explains. “Can’t leave a pile of dirt for five minutes without them building some scary looking jump. We don’t want them to stop. Keeps them away from drugs and alcohol. Be good if we could help them build a real trail. Can you help us?”

Of course I said yes. We built the trail: a smooth swooping descent that cuts down through the trees with carefully built features like jumps and berms that allows the kids to test their skills and courage. We watch the kids flying down, hooping and hollering, with huge smiles. I stand back and watch the faces of their parents beaming with pride. For years I have been seeking technical answers to community planning and here I am, covered in mud, and cheering. I know I am on to something special.

This is the birth of the Aboriginal Youth Mountain Bike Program, a provincial initiative that works with First Nations, training kids to build trails, ride, and get outdoors and connecting with nature. We have built dozens of trails and bike parks in communities all over the province. In each community we dig, throw dirt, and carve paths while listening to our new friends and elders tell us the stories of their people and their relationship to the land. We learn that, for them, these trails are not just for fun, but their means for reconnecting and rebuilding the relationships that had been torn asunder by hundreds of years of genocide. These trails will take their kids back out on to the land, not only to attain greater health, but to regain their identity, culture, their language. We are helping them dig their way out from under colonization to their rightful place on this land.

All that time I had spent digging through theoretical models of community development and empowerment, desperately seeking the right questions that would lead to the right answers. When all I had to do was grab a shovel, and do exactly what the Boothroyd people did for their kids. Listen.

Our Facebook page
Our newest program focusing on trails: Turtle Island Trails

You can also learn about our project with the Simpcw Nation
Or the current work we’re doing with the Lil’wat Nation

You can also follow our adventures on our blog: Riding Turtle Island

Promotional Videos

AYMBP Program Promotional video

Aboriginal Rider Profile: Finding Courage & Decolonization through Mountain Biking

All Trails are Indigenous: Trail building & Reconciliation in the Simpcw Nation

Patrick Lucas, MCIP RPP

An award winning registered professional planner, a settler and aspiring ally to Indigenous communities, Patrick is passionately committed to fostering and supporting authentic reconciliation and the unsettling of Turtle Island. Over the past fifteen years Patrick has had the honour of working along side Indigenous mentors and teachers learning the pathways to build relationships between First Nations and non-First Nations based on trust and respect. As the Founder and Director of the Aboriginal Youth Mountain Bike Program, Patrick has assisted numerous communities to develop trails, recreation, and tourism plans leading to enduring social and economic development.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and may not reflect the views and opinions of Reconciliation Canada.

šxʷʔamət (home): What does Reconciliation Look and Feel Like?

By David Ng, Outreach Coordinator, Theatre for Living

I am very excited that Theatre for Living’s Mainstage production early next year, šxʷʔamət (home), intends to look at issues related to our struggle and journey’s towards Reconciliation. Why?

The book, My Name is Seepeetza, was my first introduction to the legacy of residential schools in Canada. I remember reading it in 1998, when I was 12 years old – and horrified to hear that this is how Indigenous children my age were treated in the Residential School system … but I didn’t really fully understand my own relationship (as a child of Chinese immigrants) to the colonial system in Canada that enforced this violent system of assimilation.

Racist attitudes towards First Nations communities are rampant in my own community that I grew up in. This attitude of “well, we escaped war and poverty, and now made our lives better – why can’t they?” is very pervasive. I’ve learned that for me, part of my own struggle and journey towards reconciliation is recognizing that these deeply entrenched attitudes within my own immigrant community are a part of the systemic issues that reinforce the violence that is directed to Indigenous people in Canada.

After all the proclamations, apologies, and policies from the government to address reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada … what does reconciliation look and feel like on the ground? Is it just another form of assimilation? How do we ensure it is honourable?

The project will be created and performed by Indigenous and non-indigenous people living the issues, and will be directed by David Diamond, and Associate Director Renae Morriseau. All participants and cast are paid a living wage – no acting experience is required.  The only requirement is lived experiences in the journey towards Reconciliation.

Are you interested in contributing to the process by sharing your own journey towards Reconciliation?

Apply now to be a part of šxʷʔamət (home)!

 
Workshop dates: Jan 30th – Feb 4th, 2017
Rehearsals: Feb 7th – 26th, 2017
Play: 11 performances, March 3 – 11th, 2017 (with a preview on March 2nd) at the Firehall Arts Centre.
 
To apply, email me, Theatre for Living’s Outreach Coordinator, David Ng ([email protected]), your application, which consists of the two questions below. The deadline for applications is Oct 21st.

• We want real diversity in the room, so tell us who you are, and anything else you want us to know about you!
• What is your journey towards reconciliation? What are the blockages that you think exist? Share with us your story, your lived experiences with Reconciliation, and what it means to you?

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions – we are looking for your own personal lived experiences and expertise.

Please share this post with any one you think might be interested in participating in šxʷʔamət (home).

For more information, please visit this link, or email our Outreach Coordinator, David Ng, at [email protected] or phone the office 604-871-0508
 

Please keep in mind that the work is physical work – meaning it uses the physical language of the theatre to engage with the issues we are investigating. It does not involve verbal storytelling/testimonials, or flipcharts.

David Ng

David Ng is a queer, feminist, social justice advocate who has been actively involved in grassroots campaigning since he was 14 years old. He has since worked on numerous campaigns and projects including youth sexual health initiatives, feminist anti-violence campaigns, anti racist projects, and other forms of fun, radical, anti-oppression work. Some of the projects he has worked on has included co-creating marketing and media for the book Picturing Transformation: Nexw-áyantsut – a book about a solidarity movement between First Nations and non-First Nations communities, as well as film editing for the Circles of Understanding residential school story project. He is the co-founder of the feminist and anti-racist solidarity blog LoveIntersections.com.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and may not reflect the views and opinions of Reconciliation Canada.

Entrepreneur Support Program Participant Celebrates Journey and Opening of Salon

Natasha Pittman and Stephenie Thompson in the recently opened Hair by Natasha Pittman salon in Alert Bay, BC.

 

 

Reconciliation Canada Loves Attawapiskat

To learn more about the I Love Attawapiskat campaign, click here.

June 2016 – Round-up

Partners:
 

 
 

 

 
 

The Language of Reconciliation

By Myrna Hewitt, Executive Vice-President, Marketing & Community, Affinity Credit Union

Many of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our language disappearing, especially if we speak English. But, it does happen.

One of the enduring effects of the residential school system in Canada is that it severed the language ties connecting First Nations peoples to their culture and history. The natural passage of language from generation to generation was interrupted by the residential school system, and as a result we’re left with an urgent need to protect and preserve First Nations languages all across the country, or we could lose them.

The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre (SICC) works to fan the flame of First Nations languages in this province, preserving a fundamental part of the province’s history and culture.

We’re excited at Affinity Credit Union to provide funding to help the SICC continue on this important mission. They work with eight different languages spoken in the province: Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Woodland Cree, Dene, Nahkawē, Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. For us, it’s an honour to embark on this partnership with the SICC, and a privilege to have a role to play in preserving these languages for future generations.

On March 21, 2016, we officially celebrated this partnership with a traditional sweat attended by Affinity executives and SICC representatives, followed by a pipe ceremony and a feast at Affinity’s Saskatoon head office.

One part of our agreement with the SICC involves translating the Affinity story and our co-operative values into First Nations languages, starting with Dakota and Plains Cree. By telling our story in First Nations languages, we want to show our support for the preservation of Indigenous languages and highlight the similarities between First Nations and co-operative values. This partnership with SICC is one way, that as an organization, we’re developing a better understanding of the history and culture of First Nations people in Saskatchewan.

The trick to protecting a language is having people learn it, speak it, read it and write it. The SICC does this every day, and through our funding partnership and the soon-to-be-translated Affinity story, we’re honoured to do our part to help in that effort!

At a National Reconciliation Gathering in Winnipeg on March 11, 2016, Affinity Credit Union made a commitment alongside Vancity Credit Union from BC and Assiniboine Credit Union from Manitoba to work toward meaningful reconciliation. This commitment grew out of a call from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the business community in this country to participate in the reconciliation process. We consider it an important responsibility to play our part in reconciliation.

Our partnership with the SICC is made with an eye toward advancing this cause, and we invite all individuals, credit unions and organizations to join in this journey of healing and reconciliation. Co-operatively, we can build a better Canada.

Myrna Hewitt

Myrna joined the Affinity Credit Union executive team in 2012. She has provided marketing communications, community relations and corporate responsibility leadership for numerous Canadian co-operatives, as well as Sasktel, Saskatchewan’s provincial telecommunications company. Myrna lives and breathes co-operative values. They guide her in her work with Affinity and serve as a foundation for the credit union’s commitment to reconciliation.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and may not reflect the views and opinions of Reconciliation Canada.

Impact Story: Kevin McCort

Kevin McCort is President and CEO of Vancouver Foundation. McCort’s past work in international development often engaged Indigenous communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. When he moved to Vancouver in September 2013, one of the first events he participated in with Vancouver Foundation was the Walk for Reconciliation. He says, “that was where I really began to understand and appreciate the reconciliation narrative and to see how Vancouver Foundation was a part of that story.” From then on, he has been actively supporting Vancouver Foundation’s role as a donor and ally in supporting First Nations achievement and aspirations.

This year, Vancouver Foundation has embarked upon a series of Pilot Dialogues in collaboration with Reconciliation Canada. This work is a co-creation of a new tool for engagement within the organization, and for interactions with community and in personal settings. The Foundation’s staff attended Reconciliation Dialogues both to understand the critical role that they play as a Community Foundation, and to explore actions that could be taken at personal and organizational levels to continue this important work of reconciliation.

For McCort, the future of the Foundation’s journey involves doing more as an organization by being deliberate in supporting the reconciliation movement. He notes that working with a vision of reconciliation will improve various aspects of their work and even change the nature and fabric of their leadership.

McCort believes that reconciliation it is a collective and long journey that cannot be accomplished alone, for “reconciliation belongs to everyone”.

 To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.

Impact Story: Emily Singer

Emily Singer became involved with Reconciliation Canada shortly after moving to Vancouver. After completing her Bachelor’s degree, Singer was looking for an opportunity where she could make a real, substantive difference. She stumbled upon a volunteer posting for a Social Media Coordinator with Reconciliation Canada, and although she admits she did not know a lot about Indigenous issues in Canada, she submitted an application and has been volunteering for Reconciliation for the last three years.

Over the last three years, Singer helped Reconciliation Canada grow from a small organization with less than 100 Twitter followers to a nationally significant charity. During this time, she credits the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver and the TRC Closing Events as defining moments in her reconciliation journey.

“When I saw the crowds of people crossing the viaducts in Vancouver in the rain it was hard to believe that a few months earlier I’d been at a meeting in a crowded coffee shop worrying about how to get people out on the day,” she reflects. “I absolutely could not believe the number of people who came out on that day.”

Singer will be taking a break from volunteering with Reconciliation Canada as she finishes her Masters degree, but this does not mean that she will be taking a break from reconciliation.

“Reconciliation is a lens that you apply to your life, it is a way of looking at things and I think once you start looking at the world through your reconciliation lens you can’t stop. I will still be promoting reconciliation on a smaller scale in my life through understanding, education and the way I interact with the world.”

 To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.

Impact Story – Lance Scout

For Lance Scout, reconciliation means, “The choice to take back the child we’ve left behind and honouring the human spirit and our gift, the land.”

The Reconciliation Canada team first met Lance at a Reconciliation Dialogue Workshop in May 2015.

As an intergenerational survivor of the Indian Residential School system, Scout has faced a number of challenges within his family and community. However, his involvement in reconciliation has given him the opportunity to reflect on his traditional values, and feel liberated to take the steps needed to achieve his goals.

“Denial and violence has impacted me so much and now understanding my parents’ journey within their childhoods relieves me of so much animosity within my life,” says Scout.

Scout became involved in reconciliation through his work as a Resolution Health Support Worker with the Blood Tribe Department of Health Inc. He provided emotional support during the Alberta Regional Hearing tours and worked as a team lead for the Blood Tribe’s Cultural Support Providers at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) National Event in Edmonton.

Scout’s commitment to reconciliation led him to become a project coordinator for seven major commemoration projects on the Blood Tribe. These projects received an endorsement from TRC Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild, who saw this undertaking as invaluable in reviving language, culture and ceremony within the Blood Tribe.
Ceremony is now thriving within his home community.

“Honestly, it’s made me the man I am today: sober and able to help my people through the traditional channels of language, art and song,” reflects Scout.

Scout plans to continue advocating healing and reconciliation. In 2016 he will continue to promote reconciliation throughout his community by hosting the second annual Reconciliation Week in Medicine Hat, AB.

 To read more Impact Stories and for our full Impact Report 2015, click here.