The Brock community has planned a month of programming to educate, honour and promote healing in the lead up to National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Monday, Sept. 30.

The events provide opportunities to learn and reflect on Canada’s past as well as the harm colonization continues to have on Indigenous Peoples to this day.

“This is a day of mourning and remembrance and it’s always such a heavy load for us to carry. To see the whole Brock community come together and take some of that weight from us is really wonderful,” said Cindy Biancaniello, Director of the Hadiya’dagénhahs First Nations, Métis and Inuit Student Centre.

Biancaniello will teach the basics of the peyote stitch at Bead and Read Sessions throughout the month. Participants will also listen to Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Anishinaabe author Patty Krawec in advance of an author-led discussion on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

The Legacy of Hope’s Killing the Indian in the Child — Generations Lost: The Residential School System in Canada and its Peter Henderson Bryce: A Man of Conscience exhibit will be on view in the Scotiabank Atrium and at Brock’s Burlington Campus, respectively, throughout September. A reception will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 17 from 1 to 3 p.m. in BSC 122, the new dedicated Hadiya’dagénhahs space in Burlington, where attendees can learn about the exhibit and services offered by the Centre.

Additional events include a workshop on anti-Indigenous racism in Canadian health system delivery on Monday, Sept. 16, a traditional medicine-picking workshop on Friday, Sept. 20, a recital featuring the Strong Water Singers on Tuesday, Sept. 24 and a sacred fire on Friday, Sept. 27. The Brock University Library will officially open the Entiohahathe’te Knowledge Den, an Indigenous reading collection located in the Matheson Learning Commons, on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Throughout the month, Indigenous Plus Consultant and Downie Wenjack Ambassador Evelyn Dilworth (BEd ’24, BA ’24) will lead drop-in sessions to create a Heart Garden memorial. Participants are encouraged to create personalized paper hearts that reflect what reconciliation means to them, which will be installed at Alumni Field on Monday, Sept. 30.

A series of other events will also be held on Sept. 30, also known as Orange Shirt Day, to honour survivors of Canada’s residential schools as well as children who never returned home.

The Office of People and Culture will host Calling in the Calls to Action for faculty and staff from 10 a.m. to noon in Pond Inlet. Facilitated by Robyn Bourgeois, Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement, the workshop encourages participants to apply the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action to their work at Brock. A Treaty for Action will also be created to extend lessons learned beyond the event itself.

“We’re really opening the door to what Brock does, as a multi-faceted university, by creating this action plan because reconciliation really is a University-wide initiative,” Bourgeois said. “As somebody whose family’s lived experience is residential school, I look forward to spending time with people at Brock to create a safe space for translating these calls for justice into action.”

To further raise awareness of the significance of the Orange Shirt and its message that Every Child Matters, the entire Brock community is also invited to participate in an aerial photo at Sept. 30 at 3:30 p.m. on Alumni Field.

Orange shirts are encouraged and can be purchased from a variety of Indigenous creators, including those designed by Montana Adams, an Ojibwe/Chippewa artist from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Available at the Campus Store, the shirts support Survivors’ Secretariat, which assists survivors who attended the Mohawk Institute, the longest running residential school in Canada. Details will be available on the Campus Store Instagram account.

Beginning at 6 p.m., all are invited to attend the University’s men’s lacrosse game against the Toronto Varsity Blues at no cost. A selection of family-friendly programming will include traditional song and drumming by the Strong Water Singers and Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre to usher teams on and off the field and a stick-handling lesson led by Kevin Sandy, Director of Haudenosaunee Lacrosse.

Events will also extend beyond September to encourage continued dialogue about reconciliation on campus and beyond.

Individuals in need of support are encouraged to contact Krystal Brant, the Indigenous Counsellor on campus, at kbrant@brocku.ca

Additional event information is available on the ExperienceBU.