By Breanne Massey
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
With the goal of sharing meaningful community stories on a national scale, The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF) is requesting #reconciliACTION submissions.
The DWF will host four online events throughout different regions in Canada this June to raise awareness about National Indigenous History Month and to help develop content for next year’ Legacy School program’s learning resources.
“Each of these 30-minute online features will have a community focus with national reach. This year we will highlight Indigenous knowledge, culture and perspectives throughout Quebec, British Columbia, and Treaty 9 around James Bay, Ontario. All the events will culminate in a special nationwide event at the end of June,” wrote Lisa Prinn, DWF Legacy Schools program manager, educator, and activist wrote to the Pioneer by e-mail. “We are asking Legacy Schools throughout Canada to please send us photos, videos, lessons, presentations, and displays that encompass your Legacy School’s reconciliACTIONs celebrating Indigenous culture, hope, and unity.”
The DWF is comprised of survivors from the Downie and Wenjack families that hope to make change, uphold the legacies of their loved ones and create a path for all Canadians to move toward reconciliation.
Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe boy who perished from starvation and exposure in an effort to leave residential school on foot during the winter of 1966, was sent to the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, ON, in 1963.
Tragically Hip’s lead singer Gord Downie wanted to build “a better Canada” and made a commitment to raise awareness about residential schools through education and action.
The DWF started the Legacy Schools Program in 2018, and the initiative grew organically thanks to the involvement of both families.
Submissions can be sent electronically before April 9, 2021, at: https://downiewenjack.ca/our-work/legacy-schools-programs/legacy-school-reconciliactions/
