Timmins nonprofit ‘Quilts for Survivors’ reaches new milestone with 8,000th quilt shipped

 ‘We’re more than reconciliation, we’re reconcili-action,’ says founder Vanessa Genier

By Nicole Stoffman |  Oct 24, 2025 

Kendrick Jeremiah, studio assistant with Quilts for Survivors, holds up the nonprofit's 8,000th quilt on Thursday, to be shipped to an Indian residential school survivor named Angeline in Siksika, Alberta. NICOLE STOFFMAN/THE DAILY PRESS

Quilts for Survivors, the nonprofit in Timmins whose mission is to ship a handmade quilt to every survivor of Indian residential and day schools, the sixties scoop, and intergenerational trauma, shipped its 8,000th quilt on Thursday, Oct. 23.

The occasion was marked by an invitation-only gathering featuring remarks and a boxing of the blue and yellow quilt which will be shipped to Angeline in Siksika, Alberta.

Founder Vanessa Genier does not share the recipients of her quilts last names, though was careful to point out the success of her nonprofit is all due to them.

“What started as a way to bring comfort to one survivor— in our case, we were going to make 18 quilts, that was our goal—has grown into a nationwide circle of love, care and healing,” she told a small invited crowd of dignitaries and supporters.

In her comments, Genier spoke of quilting as a metaphor for healing. Just like a survivor must pick up the pieces of their lives, Genier and her army of volunteer quilters sew the pieces back together. 

👇Keep reading

May 6, 2025—Red Dress Day events held across Canada; new MMIWG data project

May 6, 2025 APTN News Brief

Our lead story: a look at some of the MMIWG events across the country for Monday's National Red Dress Day, when communities gathered to honour and remember the lives of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls.

 

MONTANA, USA:  https://youtu.be/bbuOPWniKTI?si=8WH0PW5hbJ7iH4x7

 

 

Otipemisiwak Métis Government to Advocate for Alberta Métis in Sixties Scoop Hearing

December 10, 2024 (Edmonton, AB) – A class action aiming to hold Canada accountable for the harms it inflicted on Métis and non-status Indian children in the Sixties Scoop is currently before the courts. From December 9-12, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government will participate as an intervener in the summary judgment hearing in Varley et al v. The Attorney General of Canada (“Varley Action”). The Otipemisiwak Métis Government is seeking justice for the many Métis children taken from their parents, families, and communities in this heinous act of cultural genocide.

“This week marks a pivotal moment in our ongoing journey toward justice for Métis Citizens who—through no fault of their own—were victims of Canada’s deliberate efforts to erase their identity as Indigenous people,” said Andrea Sandmaier, President of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government. “While we remain hopeful that the Court will recognize Canada’s responsibility for its actions—taking our children, disrupting our families, and stripping us of our ability to pass down our language, traditions, and culture—we know that true justice extends beyond addressing the harm done to individual victims. Our government is committed to holding Canada accountable for the profound damage inflicted on the Métis Nation within Alberta as a collective. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure our future generations are rooted in the richness of our Métis heritage.”

Brooke Bramfield, Secretary of Children and Family Services for the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, added, “the Sixties Scoop tore children away from the heart of their Métis identity, leaving scars that continue to affect families and communities today. As a government, we continue to seek accountability as we work to ensure that future generations of Métis children never experience the same erasure of their culture, language, and heritage.”

The Varley Action was brought in the wake of the 2018 Sixties Scoop settlement, which excluded Métis and non-status Indian victims from the compensation Canada promised victims.  The summary judgment motion will address whether Canada had a responsibility to protect Métis and non-status Indian children who were taken from their families in the Sixties Scoop, and if Canada had a special obligation to act in the best interests of those children. Canada, for its part, denies responsibility and argues that the victims’ claims are out of time because the limitation period has lapsed.

LINK:  https://albertametis.com/news/otipemisiwak-metis-government-to-advocate-for-alberta-metis-in-sixties-scoop-hearing/

COST CUTTING: Federal government nickel-and-dimes Indigenous Peoples

• Annapolis Valley Register
• 5 Dec 2024
• PETER MCKENNA Peter McKenna is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.

THINH NGUYEN

In an example of Ottawa’s cost-cutting and penny-pinching when it comes to spending on First Nations concerns, only five per cent or so of the government’s promise to spend $724 million on supporting Indigenous women and girls with new shelters and transitional housing has so far been spent.

Back in July, the governing Liberals decided to quietly announce they were cutting funding to Indigenous searches for unmarked children’s graves around residential schools.

Indigenous communities were initially offered up to $3 million per year to help defray the costs of identification.

However, the federal government chose to cap those funds — in the absence of any consultations with Indigenous leaders — at $500,000. Thankfully, the Trudeau government reversed course in August and restored the original funding allotment of $3 million.

It is instructive to note that Ottawa has constitutional competence for — and thus a fiduciary responsibility to — Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

All of this got me thinking about one of the most enduring features of Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations in Canada — namely, the federal government’s obsession with pinching pennies when it comes to our Indigenous communities.

DELIBERATE FRAMEWORK

One of the critical areas of investigation around this topic is fully understanding its key drivers.

Why would monetary considerations be top of mind for colonial and Canadian governments for hundreds of years? What should we infer from that fixation with dollars and cents?

Significantly, I’m not talking about budget constraints, lower reserve costs, special circumstances or an increase in wealthier Indigenous communities.

I’m suggesting there has been a deliberate and ongoing mindset in Ottawa that starts with this premise: How do we find ways to cut funding for Indigenous Peoples?

The whole point of colonial and Canadian government policies toward Indigenous Peoples was to assimilate them and, if that didn’t work, to eradicate them outright. (kill off)

That way, the federal government’s “honour of the Crown” and its fiduciary commitment would come to a screeching halt. Crudely put, the costs associated with “Indian status” would no longer be necessary.

SEVERING BONDS

Residential schools in Canada were intended, among other things, to sever the bond between Indigenous children and their parents and reserve community. As they assimilated into white society, this would eventually lead to fewer First Nations people on the government’s payrolls.

The schools (many were of poor construction and deadly firetraps) were a case study in cost-cutting: Indigenous children constantly complained of being hungry and cold and often went without medications. Even when children died at these schools, the government refused to pay the costs of returning them to their Indigenous families.

Similarly, the horrible “Sixties Scoop” was a continuation of this same line of thinking: force Indigenous kids into foster care and foreign adoption to reduce costs over time.

The federal government moved in the late 1950s with the express intention of saving money by turning the care and welfare of Indigenous children over to provincial child protection services.

With respect to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Trudeau Liberals have been excruciatingly slow in implementing many of the final report’s 231 “calls for justice.”

Only five per cent or so of the government’s promise to spend $724 million on supporting Indigenous women and girls with new shelters and transitional housing has been spent.

From the advent of colonial governments in Canada in the mid-1700s, each one has sought to reduce expenditures for Indigenous Peoples. Officials in the old Department of Indian Affairs — long before its current iteration as the Department of Crown Indigenous Relations — were always crunching the actuarial numbers to identify when payments to Indigenous communities would finally end.

Don’t forget the cost-savings sought through violating solemn treaties, withholding annuity and land dispossession payments, building low-budget “Indian hospitals” and even denying benefits for returning Indigenous soldiers from the world wars.

Much of the cutting of Indigenous monies is consistent with a colonial mindset or project that has devalued, dehumanized and degraded Indigenous Peoples from the very beginning.

The racist rationale was simple: they were only going to die off anyway, they would forever be ””uncivilized,” pagan “savages,” they would never be smart enough to know what to do with the land and financial resources, and they would always be expendable, largely invisible and, most assuredly worthless.

I’m sure that I’ve missed many other examples of damaging government cost-cutting. But one common theme that is painfully obvious is that Canadian governments have historically sought to short-change Indigenous Peoples.

In the end, the First Peoples just weren’t worth spending government money on. You have to conclude that the real power brokers of this country never really accorded them much value from the outset.

 

Article Name:Federal government nickel-and-dimes Indigenous Peoples

Publication:Annapolis Valley Register

Author:PETER MCKENNA Peter McKenna is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.

Start Page:A7

End Page:A7

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/annapolis-valley-register/20241205/281689735385006

 

Canadian Medical Association Apologizes for Harming First Nations People | HEALING STONE at Seneca

By Native News Online Staff |  September 20, 2024

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) apologized for its role and the role of the medical profession in past and ongoing harms to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples in the health system.

In presenting the apology at a ceremony held on Wednesday, Sept. 18, in Victoria on the ancestral lands of the lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ-speaking people of Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations., CMA President Dr. Joss Reimer spoke of the organization's commitment to being accountable and working together with Indigenous Peoples to do better in the spirit of humility and reciprocity.

“We have not lived up to the ethical standards the medical profession is expected to uphold to ensure the highest standard of care is provided to patients and trust is fostered in physicians, residents and medical students,” she said. “We realize we have left Indigenous Peoples out of that high standard of care.”

The ceremony also included singers, drummers, dancers, musicians and storytellers.

Approximately 225 guests, including local and national Indigenous leaders, members of the CMA Indigenous Guiding Circle and Indigenous Survivors listened as CMA leadership outlined the organization’s path to an apology.

“Today, we turn the first page of a new chapter in the CMA’s history,” said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, CMA president (2022–23). “It's a chapter that we hope First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples can write with us together, as we work toward a health system that provides Indigenous Peoples with the right care, at the right time, in the right place, in a good way.”

That path included an in-depth review of more than 150 years of archives, which revealed the role the CMA, and the medical profession, have played in the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples, whether through action or inaction.  These harms include the devastating impacts of Indian hospitals, forced medical experimentation, forced sterilization, child apprehensions, systemic racism, neglect and abuse within the health care system.

The CMA’s first Indigenous president, Dr. Lafontaine announced the association’s commitment to an apology in June 2023, as an important part of the CMA’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.  With the goal of creating meaningful change in health care and in the relationship between physicians and Indigenous Peoples, the CMA is hoping the apology inspires members of the profession and medical organizations to begin their own reconciliation journeys.

Building on past reconciliation work, the CMA’s ReconciliACTION Plan outlines how it will advance health and well-being for Indigenous Peoples, support the medical profession’s journey toward truth and reconciliation, and promote internal reconciliation as an organization.

SOURCE: https://nativenewsonline.net/health/canadian-medical-association-apologizes-for-harming-first-nations-people 

 

Seneca Iroquois (Alleghany) Museum: https://www.senecamuseum.org/

The Healing Stone will remain at the cultural center for two years before returning to New Zealand for the next World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference. Alongside the stone, the Seneca Nation received other gifts from previous conference hosts, which will also be displayed at the cultural center.

The Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center is open six days a week and offers exhibits, collections, and educational programs. To learn more visit their website.

LOCATION: Salamanca, New York 

ALSO READ: Healing Stone from World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference on Display at Seneca Museum

Nadleh Whut'en unveils Hope and Strength billboard on HIGHWAY OF TEARS | MMIWG inquiry deeming deaths and disappearances a genocide

A new billboard, advocating awareness for the the Missing and Murdered Indigenous people was unveiled along Highway 16, near Fraser Lake (June 25).

Vanderhoof Omineca Express Staff  Jun 27, 2024

• 
• 
• 

• 

  Nadleh Whut’en unveiled the Hope and Strength billboard, located at the Tse Yaz Bunket Gas Bar, along Hwy 16 on June 25 . The billboard signifies Nadleh’s commitment to the safety of all people along Highway 16. (Carrier Sekani Family Services photo)

 

A new billboard, advocating awareness for the the Missing and Murdered Indigenous people  was unveiled along Highway 16, near Fraser Lake (on June 25). 

The billboard, unveiled amidst drumming and speeches, features the message of 'Hope and Strength' and is located 5 kilometres east of Fraser Lake at the Tse Yaz Bunk’et Gas Bar & Café.

It was erected by Nadleh Whut’en, in partnership with Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS). 

Talking about the event, Serina Greene, Family Advocate at Nadleh Whut’en said the moment exemplifies the strength of the Nadleh community.

 “The billboards are important to draw awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous people along Highway 16 and to bring hope and strength to our people,” Greene said. 
“It took a lot of people and partnerships to make this possible, and it warms my heart to see so many come together for justice," she said, adding, "I get goosebumps just thinking about it.” 

Last year, CSFS, in partnership with the Highway of Tears Governing Body, raised their own Hope and Strength billboards along Highway 16.
“Highway 16 has been a place of hurt for many Indigenous families, and we want to honour those families to the best of our abilities” says Julie Daum, CSFS Executive Director of Justice.
“Amidst the heartache of the Highway of Tears, these Hope and Strength billboards are a symbol of our resiliency," she said.

"The strength shown by families who have lost loved ones along Highway 16 is inspirational, and gives us strength in our campaign for justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Men, Boys, and 2SLGBTQQIA individuals who are missing or have been murdered along this highway. All of this work is for them.”

SOURCE: https://www.ominecaexpress.com/local-news/nadleh-whuten-unveils-hope-and-strength-billboard-on-hwy-16-7416660 

 

👇BACKGROUND

'Bittersweet' reaction to MMIWG inquiry deeming deaths and disappearances a genocide

 May 31, 2019

For many British Columbians, a new report deeming the deaths and disappearances of thousands of Indigenous women and girls a "Canadian genocide" could not come soon enough.

The national inquiry into the ongoing tragedy, two-and-a-half years and $92 million in the making, culminated in a final report that was set to be released on Monday. CBC obtained a copy earlier.

"Our families have been fighting for this for so long and it's coming to an end," said Lorelei Williams, who testified at the national inquiry.

"I'm definitely feeling emotional."

CBC News

What Happens Now? What about the victims of the Doctrine of Discovery?

Tamara Baldhead Pearl is cautiously optimistic the Vatican's repudiation of The Doctrine of Discovery can lead to change in what she refers to as "white supremacy in Canadian case law."

"The greater the consensus that the Doctrine of Discovery is fundamentally racist and immoral, the harder it is for Canadian courts to continue to decide cases based on this fundamental doctrine," said Pearl, who is from One Arrow First Nation, in an interview with Day 6.

(left) Tamara Baldhead Pearl, an assistant professor of law at the University of Alberta, is cautiously optimistic after the Vatican's repudiation of The Doctrine of Discovery. (University of Alberta)

Pearl, who's also an assistant law professor at the University of Alberta, says she hopes there will be increased pressure to "try to rethink how Canadian law can be brought into conformity with the contemporary understanding of Indigenous rights and equality among peoples."

The Doctrine of Discovery is a set of colonial-era theories, backed by 15th-century papal bulls, which was used to legitimize the seizure of Indigenous lands by colonial powers. Legal decisions in both the U.S. and Canada invoked the doctrine in some form.

The Vatican says in its statement the doctrine was not a Catholic teaching and had been manipulated for political purposes by colonial powers.

"The Church's magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being," the statement reaffirmed.

There have been calls to repudiate the doctrine for decades, but they gained more visibility in Canada during Pope Francis' visit last summer. Two women held a banner reading "Rescind the Doctrine" at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré on July 29, 2022. They were escorted from the basilica without incident, but draped the banner outside as part of a protest.

Sarain Fox, right, and Chelsea Brunelle of the Batchewana First Nation demonstrate outside the mass presided over by Pope Francis at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre, Thursday, July 28, 2022, in Saint Anne de Beaupre, Quebec. (John Locher/The Associated Press)

During the visit, Pope Francis apologized to Indigenous people for the residential school system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their homes. However, he was criticized by some for not taking the opportunity to repudiate the doctrine.

KEEP READING 

• Indigenous experts, leaders say Vatican's Doctrine of Discovery rejection marks step forward 

• Vatican's disavowal of Doctrine of Discovery a good step but 'fundamental change' still needed: Manitoba elder 
•  Indigenous leaders hope Vatican's repudiation of oppressive colonial concepts leads to real change
  

MMIWG: Bodies in Landfill

 

Police believe remains of three women in Winnipeg landfill, but do not plan to search

SH

By Steve Lambert and Brittany HobsonThe Canadian Press

 Dec. 2, 2022

Winnipeg’s police chief said Friday the remains of three victims of an alleged serial killer are believed to be at a city landfill, but no search is planned.

Too much time has passed and there is no known starting point at the large site, where bulldozers are constantly moving things around, Danny Smyth said, adding that he understands that families are frustrated.

“I would want the remains of my loved ones as well.”

Smyth’s comments, after a police board meeting, came as Jeremy Skibicki, 35, appeared briefly in court.

Skibicki was taken into custody and charged on May 18 with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24. Her partial remains were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building. Police later found the rest of her remains in the Brady Road landfill in the city’s south end.

On Thursday, Skibicki was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and an unidentified woman. Their bodies have not been found.

Contois lived in Winnipeg and was a member of the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. Harris and Myran also lived in Winnipeg and were both members of Long Plain First Nation. Police say the three were killed in May.

The unidentified woman is also believed to be Indigenous. Police believe she was killed in March.

“We caught a break with Rebecca Contois in the timing of that particular search,” Smyth said.

“We were able to take some action to isolate a very specific area of the landfill within hours of discovering her other remains at the scene of the crime. We don’t have that luxury with these other victims.”

Skibicki, his head shaved and sporting a long beard, kept his gaze forward as he walked by family members of some of the women and their supporters in the courtroom. He said “correct” when a judge said his name and asked him to confirm his identity.

Skibicki did not enter a plea, but his lawyer said he maintains his innocence and a trial is likely some time away.

“We just received 10 terabytes today of disclosure and that’s probably not all there is to it,” Leonard Tailleur told reporters outside the courthouse.

Court documents show Skibicki has been accused of violence against women in the past. One woman applied for and obtained a protection order against him in 2019. The woman alleged in the documents that Skibicki stalked her and repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was sleeping.

Another woman applied for a protection order against Skibicki in 2015. The documents say she alleged he repeatedly assaulted her while they lived together and that he held a knife against her stomach while she was pregnant. Her application for a protection order was dismissed.

The court documents also say Skibicki has several Facebook pages. One page with a profile photo matching Skibicki contains antisemitic and white supremacist posts. A post from last January linked to a video questions the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools.

The Crown said it plans to proceed by direct indictment with a murder trial, which means there will be no preliminary hearing to first consider whether there is enough evidence. Skibicki remains in custody.

Members of the Contois family said they are deep in sorrow.

“The last couple of months have been incredibly exhausting. We have experienced paralyzing grief,” the family said in a written statement.

“We also continue to think of the other families. Our deepest condolences to them.”

— With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Saskatoon

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

 

No More Stolen Sisters! ✊🏽 #MMIW pic.twitter.com/vx9KjUAepT

— Ember Spotted Elk (@SpottedElk7) December 5, 2022

AFN national chief says there has to be truth before reconciliation

The sad, surreal visit of an apologetic Pope (UPDATED)

QUEBEC, CANADA - JULY 27: One-year-old Yonnan Flamand is lifted into the air by his father Alland Flamand of Manawan as Pope Francis delivers remarks at the Citadelle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham on July 27, 2022 in Quebec, Canada. Pope Francis is traveling across Canada for a “pilgrimage of penance,” to meet with and apologize to Indigenous communities for the abuse at Catholic-run residential schools. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Canadian Indigenous peoples face a reckoning after being granted an audience with a major symbol of their oppression.

Rob Capriccioso

Pope Francis is scheduled this evening to complete his week-long Indigenous apology tour through Canada. He’s used his visit to offer seemingly heartfelt condolences to Indigenous peoples throughout Canada for portions of the Catholic Church’s role in their genocidal assimilation. 

Indigenous peoples’ most progressive hope for his trip was that he would rescind the 1493 Papal Bull and related Doctrine of Discovery, which served as the historical Church-sanctioned policy rationale for destroying and subverting Native culture in the so-called New World. But he has not done that — and even the most idealistic of Indigenous advocates suspected he would not.

To do that would have undermined a foundational principle of Christian, colonial and capitalistic ideology, and few contemporary world systems seem prepared for the possible ramifications — financial, social and otherwise.

A brief summary of the 1493 bull follows:

The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera," issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year. It established a demarcation line one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial possessions and to trade in all lands west of that line. All others were forbidden to approach the lands west of the line without special license from the rulers of Spain. This effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World.

The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that "the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself." This "Doctrine of Discovery" became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion. In the US Supreme Court in the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the unanimous decision held "that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands." In essence, American Indians had only a right of occupancy, which could be abolished.

 KEEP READING

 Questions abound: Will the papal bull ever be rescinded? If so, what will that mean? Will the Pope make a similar visit to the U.S. and to Latin America, which both experienced similar atrocities to the Indigenous peoples of Canada? Will anything really change as a result of this sorry snapshot?

**

Papal Visit 

The historic visit by Pope Francis to Canada this week drew thousands of Indigenous people from across Turtle Island to hear the apology they had been expecting for the Catholic Church’s role in the ugly residential school history.

ICT’s special correspondent Miles Morrisseau, Métis Nation, based in Manitoba, Canada, was among them. He witnessed the apology in Maskwacis, Alberta, on the grounds of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School. He was there for the applause, for the tears and the emotional protest song.

And he was there to gather reaction to the long-awaited penance, from tribal leaders who gathered and the First Nations, Métis and Inuit people who made a pilgrimage to see the Pope.

He followed the Pope to Lac Ste. Anne where the Pontiff sat silently looking toward the lake before blessing the crowd with its sacred waters. And he was there to talk to the Cree woman whose tearful song on Monday brought an outpouring around the world.

ICT National Correspondent Mary Annette Pember also joined the coverage, gathering perspectives from Indigenous people in the United States who hope the Pope will make a similar “penitence pilgrimage” to apologize for the U.S. boarding school system. She explored Indigenous demands that the Catholic Church return the tens of thousands of sacred artifacts stored in Vatican museums.

ICT gave readers the Indigenous perspective of a story that is very personal for many of us.. 

Here’s a round-up of ICT’s coverage of the papal visit:

Sunday, July 24

Pressure mounts for residential school apology By Miles Morrisseau and Mary Annette Pember A six-day swing through the heart of Indigenous Canada is meant to be a ‘penitential voyage’ ... continue reading

[AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski]

Pope takes first step toward apology By ICT Pope Francis arrived Sunday in Canada to high expectations that he will apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in operating Indigenous residential schools ... continue reading

[AP Photo/Eric Gay]

Monday, July 25

Apology at last in Canada By Mile Morrisseau Pope Francis tells thousands gathered at Maskwacis he is sorry but the question remains: 'What's next?’ ... continue reading

[AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia]

Tuesday, July 26

'It's going to take a long time' By Miles Morrisseau The Pope’s apology brings renewed calls for reconciliation, reparations ... continue reading

[Photo by Miles Morrisseau/ICT]

 

THE TIME IS NOW: NABS Healing Coalition

 

She has to race because so many of the boarding school survivors from the worst of the era up to mid 70s are passing away. Their stories must be told and recorded so the world knows what happened to them. https://t.co/aDMFSukzzV

— Dr. Denise Lajimodiere (@DLajimodiere) July 20, 2022

We stand with @SecDebHaaland in what has been an historic year for truth, justice, and healing from boarding schools. In this moment, we honor the generations of relatives who have fought and persisted in advocating for accountability.
Please Watch/Share: https://t.co/2wbye4gAi0 pic.twitter.com/caci5YjO3D

— NABS Healing Coalition (@NABSHC) June 2, 2022

Today: @Interior The Road to Healing Tour (Oklahoma) with @SecDebHaaland & Assistant Secretary Newland. This year-long tour across the country to provide survivors of the Federal Indian boarding school system and their descendants an opportunity to share experiences. pic.twitter.com/XltcXTgaXN

— NABS Healing Coalition (@NABSHC) July 10, 2022

Canada to exhume Indigenous children's remains, return to villages for burial https://t.co/bKmjSQz5tk

— Darlene Whitehead (@Darlene66555533) July 12, 2022

Montreal students honour memory of Indigenous children by hand-sewing moccasins

Students at Montreal's Beurling Academy are on a creative mission to honour the memory of Indigenous children, one moccasin at a time.

The students are learning about how, since the late 19th century, 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their families and forced to attend residential schools.

To learn from and honour Indigenous children, students learned how hand-sew small moccasins during a community initiative called Project 215.

The workshop was hosted by Rebekah Elkerton. She is Anishinaabe from Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, near London, Ont. KEEP READING

 

Pope Francis apologizes for Catholic Church's role in Canadian residential school system

'I am very sorry:' A look at the history, hurdles of papal apologies

First Nations say Pope Francis meeting the beginning of a 'new partnership'

'I never thought I'd see that in my lifetime': Three generations of Indigenous family witness Pope's apology

Read the full text of the Pope's apology for Canada's residential schools

Residential school survivor presents Pope with symbolic moccasins

As Pope Francis prepares to come to Canada, a look at past papal visits

Indigenous delegate receives cultural name in ceremony outside Vatican

Why the meeting with Pope Francis is a historic one for First Nations

Former AFN regional chief believes papal apology is important for Catholics too

Here are the times a pope has apologized in recent history

Canadian residential schools: A timeline of apologies

A forensic anthropologist on the difficulties of identifying human remains

Indigenous artifacts in Vatican collection 'need to come home,' advocates say

Hopes high for 'change of heart' by Pope Francis after meetings with Indigenous delegates

'Today is about our own life': Metis elder reflects after meeting with the Pope

Meeting with Pope an 'opportunity' to begin handover of residential school records: former AFN chief

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