Indigenous Resources - Background, Policy, Analysis: Reconciliation Initiatives

"From Apology to Reconciliation: Residential School Survivors—A Guide for Grades 9 and 11 Social Studies Teachers in Manitoba
Wednesday, June 11, 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada made a formal apology for the treatment of Aboriginal people in the residential schools system. The Manitoba government saw this apology as an opportunity to further the dialogue about residential schools and expand citizens' awareness of what happened. This project is intended to encourage discussion and make progress on the path toward healing and reconciliation by providing Manitoba teachers and students with culturally appropriate resources regarding the treatment of Aboriginal people in the residential schools system."

"Our mission is to educate towards creating just and equal relationships of reconciliation and healing for all Canadians, to expand awareness of and access to the rich legacy of the contributions of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the world, and to make known the histories of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, including the histories of injustice."

"In October 2016, Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire formally launched the Secret Path, a book and CD which chronicles the story of Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old boy who died after running away from Residential school in the 1960s.
As part of our ongoing commitment to engage teachers in reconciliation work, the Manitoba Teachers’ Society recently assembled a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers from across the province to discuss and explore the Secret Path and to create lesson and unit plans to support the use of this resource for the teaching about Residential schools in Manitoba classrooms."

Dr. Shirley Thompson, a professor at the Natural Resources Institute at University of Manitoba "... has recruited and formed an effective, committed and world-renowned team to succeed in the implementation of community-led programming on housing, food, education and other community needs. This community-led program have strong commitment from the employment and training directors to engage and support students at the community level. The employment and training directors, Elsie Monias at Garden Hill First Nation (GHFN) and Ernie Harper at Wasagamack First Nation (WFN), have worked in this capacity for many years and will promote the program and recruit students that match the academic requirements and support them to apply for these student placements."

"RECOGNIZING that Manitoba is situated on the traditional lands and territories of Indigenous peoples;
FURTHER RECOGNIZING that Manitoba benefited and continues to benefit from the historical relationships and treaties with Indigenous peoples and nations;
FURTHER RECOGNIZING that Indigenous people within Canada have been subject to a wide variety of human rights abuses since European contact and that those abuses have caused great harm;
FURTHER RECOGNIZING that reconciliation is founded on respect for Indigenous nations and Indigenous peoples and their history, languages and cultures, and reconciliation is necessary to address colonization;
FURTHER RECOGNIZING that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established as part of a response to the abuses of colonization, and that the Commission has provided a path forward to reconciliation;
FURTHER RECOGNIZING that the Government of Canada also has a significant role in advancing reconciliation;
AND AFFIRMING that the Government of Manitoba is committed to reconciliation and will be guided by the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the principles set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
THEREFORE HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, enacts as follows:...".

From the report: "In concrete terms, the mandate consisted of assessing whether the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the delivery of public services was marked by violence or discriminatory practices. The underlying question was to determine whether Indigenous peoples were treated differently by public services due to their distinctive characteristics, and whether this generated injustices, particularly with respect to the services provided, and hindered them in exercising their rights. It was also important to establish whether such observations stemmed from isolated acts or were the result of systemic ways of acting and of thinking, i.e. rooted in the organizations and fuelled by their operating logic...."

"Born from the vision of Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, Gwawaenuk Elder, Reconciliation Canada is leading the way in engaging Canadians in dialogue and transformative experiences that revitalize the relationships among Indigenous peoples and all Canadians. Our model for reconciliation engages people in open and honest conversation to understand our diverse histories and experiences. We actively engage multi-faith and multi-cultural communities to explore the meaning of reconciliation. Together, we are charting a New Way Forward.
Through the development of meaningful partnerships and community outreach programs, Reconciliation Canada has delivered a series of Reconciliation Dialogue Workshops across Canada, hosted events during Reconciliation Week in September 2013, including the Walk for Reconciliation engaging 70,000 people in Downtown Vancouver, and co-hosted events in Ottawa and Vancouver to coincide with the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Each person has an important role to play in reconciliation. Reconciliation begins with oneself and then extends into our families, relationships, workplaces and eventually into our communities."

"Resilience rebukes the historical erasure of Indigenous women's bodies and the exclusion of their art. Images by 50 First Nations, Inuit and Métis women artists embody the multitude of connections and contradictions that constitute contemporary Indigenous identities. In inner cities and on highways, sites from which too many women have disappeared, the presence of Indigenous women is made highly visible, individualized (beyond statistics), celebrated. This project is a physicalized reminder of buried histories and diverse contemporary perspectives. Indigenous women artists present their ideas, their visions, themselves.
Racism and exclusion have long been entwined in the historical development of Canada. Within Indigenous populations across the country, the long-term effects of racist and genocidal strategies include high rates of suicide, alcohol and drug addictions, the horrific atrocities of residential schools, mental disorders, poverty, contaminated land and water, internalized violence and imprisonment. As we look beyond Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations of 2017, this project is pivotal at this moment in this country's history.
For far too long, Indigenous women have been misunderstood (their powerful status misinterpreted to conform to early Settler gender models), disenfranchised (Indigenous women, as well as men, did not have the right to vote federally until 1960), rendered invisible (Indigenous women lost their status and rights when they married outside of their communities until 1985) and, in horrifying numbers, murdered (Canada’s Minister for the Status of Women estimates there could be as many as 4,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in this country). Furthermore, the experiences of Indigenous women in urban centres have largely been misrepresented or entirely ignored."

"Table of Contents
1 Reconciliation Lives Here
Niigaan Sinclair
5 A Marathon Not a Sprint: Reconciliation and Organizations in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Tamara Margaret Dicks
21 Bringing Our Community Back: Grassroots and Reconciliation in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Timothy Maton
33 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
43 The 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

"The City of Thompson worked in Collaboration with the Thompson Urban Aboriginal Strategy to create the Thompson Indigenous Accord through community involvement and consultation. This collaboration continues through ongoing support and engagement of partners."