Truth and Reconciliation Commission members (behind sign from left) Chief Wilton Littlechild, Dr. Marie Wilson and Justice Murray Sinclair lead the Reconciliation Walk.

Thousands of marchers, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, crammed Marion Dewar Plaza in Ottawa on May 31 for the first day of the closing ceremony of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A study recently released by Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa indicates that a large number of young people from
First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities suffer from mental health problems and drug abuse. However, they are not seeking help because of a lack of Aboriginal-specific services.

Deputy Premier of the NorthWest Territories,
Jack Lafferty (second from left), was just one of many to put acts of
reconciliation into the Bentwood Box over the six years the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission held events.

Mohawk psychologist Dr. Rod McCormick believes in the
healing power of nature. Halfway through his keynote address at a conference for mental health professionals on May 28, he assigned the participants a task. Go outside and focus on a piece of nature and ask a question or ask for help.

You have to approach it with humility and come back in five minutes were the only instructions he gave.

Peel Aboriginal Network (PAN) showed their resourcefulness
when they celebrated their kick-off to Aboriginal History Month in Mississauga. They converted their parking lot on Brittania and Hurontario in Mississauga into a celebratory venue complete with hoop dancing, barbecues, face painting, arts and crafts, and vendors selling everything from fine art to quill earrings to very hot sauces.

Born artist gave all he had

While other kids in Wikwemikong, on Ontario’s Manitoulin Island, were running around with baseball bats and jars for catching frogs, Josh Peltier carried paint brushes or a sketchpad.

Surrounded and inspired by great Woodland Anishnaabe artists like Leland Bell and Daphne Odjig, Josh continued creating until he realized he needed to expand his horizon.

Lawyer Louise Mandell was the first chancellor of Vancouver
Island University to have the honor to sit in the seat of Knowledge and Wisdom. When it was unveiled, May 27, she closed her eyes, grounded herself in a silent meditation and sat on the chair made from reclaimed old growth cedar adorned with 24-carot gold leaf designs.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has slammed the federal government for not implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. On May 6, the Conservatives voted down a bill that would ensure that the laws of Canada were in accordance with the declaration.

“The Canadian government’s rejection of the
implementation work with respect to the declaration sends an unfortunate message to Aboriginal people in Canada at a very sensitive time as well as to all Canadians and to the world,” said TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair.

Court action launched by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and Shishalh Indian Bands on behalf of their own day scholars will have an impact on all Aboriginal people who were day scholars at Indian residential schools from 1920 to 1997.

“It’s been a rough journey but it was amazing when I got the call from our legal team that we’d been certified. I was very overwhelmed,” said Jo-Anne Gottfriedson, day scholar legal action coordinator for Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Indian Band.

Guest Column

To the children we lost, the ones who survived, and the families who were never the same without them, we honour and recognize your stories and your truths.

For more than 100 years, our children were taken from us. Our communities and families suffered as 150,000 little boys and girls were removed from their homes and taken to schools where their language was beat out of them, where they faced unimaginable abuse and trauma, and where many lost their lives.