ATWATER READS THE TRC

In the spirit of nationwide reconciliation, the Atwater Library is hosting Atwater Reads the TRC, a guided community reading of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to help build meaningful and open relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the Montreal region.

The co-facilitators of the reading series are Mi’kmaq poet and critic Shannon Webb-Campbell and settler scholar Dr. Sarah Henzi (Université de Montréal).

Funding is from the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th (a collaboration between Fondation du Grand Montréal and the Government of Canada) and the Cole Foundation.

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

Project coordinator Shannon Webb-Campbell invites Montreal-area Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents to register for the following events by emailing shannon@atwaterlibrary.ca.

  • screening of National Film Board films by Indigenous filmmakers, with discussion, in the Library’s auditorium on Thursday, August 31, 2017 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm (open to the public);
  • discussion sessions (limited to 25 registrants) every second Thursday evening at 6:30 pm from September 14, 2017 through January 25, 2018 (two hours per session except for the October 12th meeting, which will be three hours and include the Blanket Exercise); and
  • a closing event on January 30, 2018.

Please note that the Library’s meeting spaces can be accessed only by long stairs. (The organization has not yet raised the funds required for an elevator.) Childcare will be available for the evening sessions.

Shannon and Sarah will facilitate group conversations based on readings, section by section, of the summary volume of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. This 2015 report contains 94 Calls to Action to address the legacy of Canada’s residential school system. The Library will provide a copy of the summary volume to each registrant.

Through Atwater Reads The TRC, settler and Indigenous people will have the opportunity to form relationships and together witness and discuss the powerful testimonies of some of the 30,000 Indigenous survivors who were forced as children into institutions that stripped them of their cultures, forbade them to speak their languages, and kept them in inadequate housing – poorly nourished, forced to work instead of learn, and often subjected to physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse.

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To register, or for media inquires, please contact project coordinator Shannon Webb-Campbell at shannon@atwaterlibrary.ca.