Our PIPSC executive members gathered for a video screening and an intergenerational panel discussion on November 18, 2021.
We viewed an excerpt from “First Contact,” an APTN series. In the video, a group of white Canadians visit one of Canada’s longest-running residential schools.
With the video and panel discussion, we learned about what Indigenous children faced while residential schools operated. Indigenous children were taken from their families and put in schools like the one in the video. What the state-sanctioned educators made the children go through was akin to torture. Sexual, physical and verbal abuse were common.
The panel was broadcast live from the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network (APTN) studio in Winnipeg. Vera Houle of Sandy Bay Ojibway Nation moderated the discussion. It featured youth ambassador Taylor Galvin of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and Elder Belinda Vanderbroeck (Ininiw; Soki Kapikiskwet Osawi Omisiw).
Our Indigenous representative to the Canadian Labour Congress, Greg “Wolf-Star” Scriver, thanked APTN and the panelists for their generosity in meeting with us.
To take action for reconciliation, contact our Human Rights and Diversity Committee.