The seventh annual Truth and Reconciliation and Community Engagement Week featured daily opportunities to learn and engage in Truth and Reconciliation education and over 200 members of the RRC Polytech community participated across all campuses. 

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Phyllis Webstad for sharing her story as part of our keynote to launch Truth and Reconciliation and Community Engagement Week. Her personal story became the foundation to Orange Shirt Day (now the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation). She also founded the Orange Shirt Society, which since 2013 has brought national awareness to the lasting impacts of Residential Schools and the ongoing healing work of Survivors and their families. 

Special thanks to our presenters Allen Sutherland, Heather Endall, Zeann Manernaluk, Joanna White, Ray Coco Stevenson, Ivana Yellowback, and the Knowledge Keepers Council for offering various sessions that helped create deeper connections and understanding for the Polytech as a community. 

A huge thank you to all the members of the RRC Polytech community that organized and carried out sessions – together, we continue to walk the path of Truth and Reconciliation. 

And of course, thank you to all who volunteered and participated – your continued support in Truth and Reconciliation is an incredible reflection of our institutional values and an important reminder that we are all on this journey together. 

Students at Portage Campus participated in a session featuring Annie Beach, where together they beaded, painted Portage Rocks, and created a mural focused on active transportation that incorporated Indigenous themes. Portage Community Revitalization Corporation mascot Ajidimoo Aki – Dakota for ground squirrel – also joined in the activity. 

On Sept. 29, Culinary Skills (Indigenous) students joined N’Dinawemak and made bison stew and bannock for 450 community members as part of the Buffalo Ceremony, which honoured Residential School Survivors and their families. 

While the intent of the sessions and workshops is to provide learning opportunities and chances to engage with different perspectives, we understand that people have different responses to and interpretations of the content. Some sessions may have elicited strong emotions and we encourage everyone to continue to take good care of yourselves, check in with each other, and reach out for support if needed. 

Resources are always available, and we encourage accessing them whenever the need may arise. Students may access Counselling Services through the online intake, and employees may access Homewood Health counselling as part of the employee benefit package and free of charge. 

As we know, Truth and Reconciliation is a year-round commitment, so we invite members of the RRC Polytech community to keep an eye on Staff News for upcoming opportunities and Student News for workshop sessions to bring into the classroom.