NEWS RELEASE
SENATOR GWEN BONIFACE
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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) spent six years travelling across Canada and heard from thousands of people directly or indirectly impacted by the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system.
Ultimately, the TRC made 94 ‘Calls to Action’ that implore all levels of government, institutions and individuals to work together to repair the harm caused by residential schools and begin the process of reconciliation.
To help guide Simcoe County along the path to reconciliation, Senator Gwen Boniface, of Orillia, began in the fall of 2019 to assemble a diverse group of people from the region to sit on a Reconciliation Roundtable. Over the ensuing many months, that group has met regularly in Orillia and virtually to learn from the past and to seek a path to a better future.
That group is behind what’s being called the Gojijing Dialogues and a series of online Learning Portals based on the Seven Grandfathers gifts of wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth.
The Learning Portals feature interactive, online activities that will incorporate unique experiences designed to connect Anishnaabe teachings with local history and culture to better understand one another. Both events are grounded in the TRC Calls to Action with the goal of building new, better relationships.
“It’s really a symbol of our commitment to reconciliation and the work to be undertaken on the Calls to Action,” said Senator Boniface. “I am fortunate to have found a group of people so committed to work together for a better Canada,” she said, referencing the years of efforts, locally, that have led to this moment.
The Gojijing Dialogues are a series of virtual forums, led by local Indigenous community leaders, slated for the next three Fridays. They are meant to represent a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.
The dialogues will explore the portals to the imagination and feature the themes of homecoming, belonging, generativity, and transformative celebration. The ‘journey to awakening’ will include the following three events, each occurring between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.:
Friday June 4 – Belonging (Walking in Beauty)
Friday June 11 – Generativity (Leading by Grace)
Friday June 18 – Transformative Celebration (Embracing Hope)
Please register here to receive a confirmation email with the link and all necessary details. For more information on these dialogues and to participate in the interactive, multimedia Learning Portals, visit the website here.
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