(L to R) Kenora Elder Joe Morrison and Father Mike Mahoney of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, helped handbook on healing and reconciliation. Photo: Aileen Urquhart
A handbook that can guide communities on how to engage in dialogue and activities around healing and reconciliation from the legacy of Indian residential schools will soon be available for free.
Published by the Sioux Lookout Community Coalition for Healing and Reconciliation (SLCCHR), the handbook will be launched at the third national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) in Halifax on Oct. 26 to 29.
The SLCCHR is a group of former residential school students, clergy and local people engaged in the work of healing and reconciliation. The handbook is entitled, “Starting to Talk – A Guide for Communities on Healing and Reconciliation from the Legacy of Indian Residential Schools.”
“Reconciliation means different things to different people,” said Garnet Angeconeb, co-chair of SLCCHR in a press statement.
“In Sioux Lookout, we have been active in creating meaningful dialogue on issues stemming from our shared history of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools system. It’s about renewed relations. It’s about healing and understanding.”
About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their communities over most of the last century and forced to attend federally-funded but church-run boarding schools aimed at assimilating them. The Anglican Church of Canada operated about 30 of these schools between 1820 and 1969.
Before the handbook’s national launch in Halifax, the SLCCHR will host a local blessing ceremony on Oct. 20 at the Sioux Lookout Menoyawin Health Centre.
For more information on how to obtain a copy of the handbook, contact Garnet Angeconeb at gangecon@sympatico.ca or at (807) 737-3169; or call Terry Lynne Jewell at (807) 737-2831.
The handbook will also be available online at the website of the Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee.