Truth and Reconciliation Week 2021
Red River College Polytechnic’s third annual Truth and Reconciliation Week, September 27 – October 1, 2021, is dedicated to deepening our understanding of Canada’s history, Indigenous cultures, and sparking a conversation around Truth and Reconciliation.
During the week, you will hear from Indigenous voices, engage in the conversation, as well as participate in some interactive activities. Some of the themes we will be touching on this year include anti-racism, Every Child Matters, the Canadian Residential School System, intergenerational trauma, healing, and strength.
All are welcome to participate in special events and join the conversation. As you participate in this week’s events strong emotions may arise. Be sure to take breaks and practice good self-care. Remember to be kind and do check-ins with yourself, and you can always access RRC Polytech Mental Health supports and resources at rrc.ca/wellness
Notes: All live virtual events will hosted via Microsoft Teams and no registration will is required. Direct links will be added to each event, or join the Teams Site below.
Connect on Teams!
Join the TRC Week Microsoft Teams site to easily access events and resources, receive notifications on and join the conversation! Live events will be hosted via Microsoft Teams for ease of use.
There will be a few different channels for you to explore, including channels hosted by the Student’s Association, the Academic Success Centre, and the Library.
To join, use code: z3znhh2
(Select all Teams in the side bar of Microsoft Teams, click join team in the top right corner, enter the code.)
Every Child Matters Orange Handprint Project
September 30, 2021 is the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a day known as Orange Shirt Day where we honour the Indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to Residential Schools in Canada and remember those who never made it home.
To bring awareness to these horrific events and support a journey of healing, the RRC PolytechSA and Indigenous Education are partnering up to invite RRC Polytech staff and students to share their thoughts, prayers, hopes and messages of support by offering orange paper hands to be signed from September 20-October 1. These cut-outs will be available at both NDC and EDC Students’ Association offices. All hands will hang on the walls on campus, honouring the victims and survivors of Residential Schools. This is the Every Child Matters Hand Print Project.
Monday, September 27
Live: Academic Success Centre launches new Anti-Racism Training for Students
As part of Truth and Reconciliation Week, the Academic Success Centre is proud to launch our newly developed Anti-Racism Training for Students.
When we think and talk about racism, most people reference examples of interactions between people. However, racism is also maintained by institutions and society through the implementation of policies, practices, and programs. This training is an introduction on how racism functions as an interconnected system, and it reviews historical instances of racism and current examples of racism.
It is our goal that the Anti-Racism Training will support our students and contribute to the College’s educational efforts in enhancing our knowledge and understanding about racism, acknowledging how racism has shaped our thinking and actions, and speaking out against racism and systemic barriers.
The Anti-Racism Training for Students includes key concepts and frameworks, as well as activities for reflection and discussion. The training also presents a curated suite of relevant videos to amplify the voices and lived experiences of racialized people and Indigenous people. At the end of each training module, students receive a set of key strategies and resources to map out a personal Action Plan and foster an ongoing student learning and action experience.
Join us online on Monday, September 27 at 12noon to learn more about the structure and content of the Anti-Racism Training for Students, and how you can book in-class workshops for your students.
For more information, please connect with Nora Sobel (Academic Success Centre) at nsobel@rrc.ca.
Self-Guided: Message from Elder Paul Guimond
SELF-GUIDED
Elder Paul Guimond opens Truth and Reconciliation Week with an Honour Song.
Self-Guided: Residential School Stories from Sagkeeng First Nation
As we head into the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, it’s important to reflect on the grassroots origins of Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters, a movement that has sought to draw attention, educate, and initiate conversations on the Residential School System.
Just north of Winnipeg, the Fort Alexander Residential School operated on what is now known as Sagkeeng First Nation. The former site is currently under a search process. Listen to survivors and community members from Sagkeeng First Nation on Residential Schools below.
Tuesday, September 28
Live: Paint with Gayle Sinclair
Take some time to heal your spirit with a painting demonstration with artist Gayle Sinclair. All you need is a canvas, a few paint brushes, and a few paint colours (black, white, red, blue, yellow)*, and Gayle will take us through a completed work of art!
From Norway House Cree Nation, artist Gayle Sinclaire has pursued the use of colour through oils and acrylics on canvas and paper for the last 37 years. Her work is in the collections of the Manitoba Assembly of Chiefs, the community offices in Norway House and Cross Lake, and the homes and offices of numerous private patrons.
*Supplies can be purchased at most dollar or craft stores. A limited number of paint supplies packages are available for students. Please contact Rhonda Monkman at rmonkman90@rrc.ca to arrange pickup.
Self-Guided: Holy Angels
Holy Angels in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada
In 1963, Lena Wandering Spirit became one of the more than 150,000 Indigenous children who were removed from their families and sent to residential school. Jay Cardinal Villeneuve’s short documentary Holy Angels powerfully recaptures Canada’s colonialist history through impressionistic images and the fragmented language of a child. Villeneuve met Lena through his work as a videographer with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Filmed with a fierce determination to not only uncover history but move past it, Holy Angels speaks of the resilience of a people who have found ways of healing—and of coming home again.
Wednesday, September 29
As RRC Polytech will be closed on Orange Shirt Day, September 30, we encourage all staff and students to wear an orange shirt on Wednesday, Sept 29.
Live: Treaty History with Allen Sutherland, Waabishki Mazinazoot Mishtaatim
Treaty No. 1 just turned 150 years old! Let’s dive into the history of the numbered Treaties with Allen Sutherland, Waabishki Mazinazoot Mishtaatim (White Spotted Horse), Anishinaabe, of the Bizhiw Doodem (Lynx Clan), Skownan First Nation, Treaty 2 Territory.
Allen Sutherland is currently the Life Long Learning Lodge Keeper, Government of First Nations Treaty 2 Territory. Allen is also an independent consultant and provides facilitation and training under his own company, WHITE SPOTTED HORSE. In 2014, he was the recipient of the Aboriginal Circle of Educators ‘Researcher and/or Curriculum Development’ award for developing the Canadian Indigenous Historical Timeline poster that is now currently being utilized in the Treaty Kits of Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba. Allen is an Anishinaabek Traditional Knowledge Keeper, providing traditional ceremonies, teachings, spiritual advice, and healing.
Live: The Residential School System with Edwin Jebb and Jennie Wastesicoot
Edwin Jebb, Chancellor University College of the North, and Jennie Wastesicoot, Assistant Professor at University College of the North have hosted presentations on the Residential School System, and we are so grateful they will host a conversation for us.
Edwin Jebb
A member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN), Edwin Jebb was one of the first Aboriginal graduates of the University of Manitoba. Edwin is retired from the Opaskwayak Education Authority where he spent 19 years heading OCN’s school system, developing education programs and promoting healthy lifestyles for Manitoba’s First Nations people. An active volunteer in his community, Edwin was a member of the implementation team tasked with developing the University College of the North. Edwin has received numerous awards throughout his career including the Brandon University’s Teacher Education Program Meritorious Service Award, the Frontier School Division Award and was named to the Order of Manitoba in 2000. Edwin was installed as the University College of the North’s second Chancellor in June 2011.
Dr. Jennie Wastesicoot, PhD
Jennie Wastesicoot received her PhD from the University of Manitoba in 2015. Her study focus is spirituality and law as they relate to First Nations governance. Jennie completed her Master of Arts Degree at the University of Manitoba in 2004 with a focus on a cultural framework for Cree self-government and obtained her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Brandon University in 1985 with a major in Native Studies and minors in Anthropology and Religion.
Jennie has taught at the University College of the North on the topics of community healing, restorative justice and conflict resolution, philosophy and culture, colonial encounters and Aboriginal and Northern studies 1000 and 1002.
Jennie is a member of the York Factory First Nation. She is originally from the Chemawawin Cree Nation. Jennie is a mother of two children and grandmother of 13 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. She has resided in Thompson, Manitoba since 1985
Thursday, September 30
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30 has been declared as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. As a day of observation, the College will be closed.
This day creates an opportunity to reflect and honour the victims and survivors of Canada’s Residential School system, ensuring they are never forgotten. You can spend time with pre-recorded events and resources within this space, or explore Library and Academic Services’ National Day for Truth and Reconciliation book and video guide. You find out if there events or activities happening in your community. You can also reflect on your own reconciliation journey by reading, journaling, or phone a friend.
Friday, October 1
Live: Intergenerational Trauma Discussion
Within the context of truth and reconciliation and the Residential School System, you may have heard the term “intergenerational trauma.” Join Nolin Turenne, RRC Polytech Counsellor, for a live presentation on what intergenerational trauma is.
KEYNOTE: Human & Organizational Transformational Reconciliation with Sandra DeLaronde
October 4 is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Honouring and Awareness Day. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians. The Calls for Justice are aimed at ending genocide, tackling root causes of violence, and improving the quality of life of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
Sandra DeLaronde, Grandmother, Mother, Sister, Leader, Coach, Consultant
A passionate community builder, DeLaronde has made it her life’s work to end violence and support the families of Missing and Murdered Women, Girls, and 2-Spirited persons (MMIWG2S). As co-chair of Manitoba’s MMIWG2S Coalition, she is a powerful voice for Manitoba families in the Commission of a National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and 2-Spirited Persons, ensuring the hearts of families and survivors are honoured and protected.
Sandra seeks to integrate traditional wisdom and knowledge with designing and implementing systems that acknowledge the complexity of challenges in our lives. She is dedicated to working with people and communities in developing our highest capacity and consciousness as people while preserving and protecting our mother earth and all her resources of which we are one.
Her work emphasizes the relationships between personal and social transformation to ensure that vision and intention result in transformational change.
She holds her Master of Arts degree in Leadership and Training and was awarded a Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Winnipeg in June 2021 for her work on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Girls and gender-diverse individuals and on behalf of Indigenous women and girls in general.
In addition to her formal education she has worked within the Indigenous peoples governments, women’s and political movements across Canada.
Sandra has also worked with a wide variety of teachers across different faith traditions. She brings together traditional spiritual wisdom with contemporary insight to co-create transformation in our inner and outer selves.
Library and Academic Services Resources
Explore National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Book & Video Guide
Library and Academic Services staff are honoured and eager to show our continued support for Truth and Reconciliation. Our library contains many resources about Truth and Reconciliation, Residential Schools, and Indigenous Experiences throughout its’ collections. These resources are helpful starting points towards building understanding of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. We invite you to look at some of these resources to acquaint yourself with Truth and Reconciliation.
