Students to learn more about legacy of residential schools

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Province Launching DVD, Guide To Assist with Teaching

June 21st, 2012

This fall, Manitoba students will learn more about the legacy of residential school abuse, and the reconciliation and healing that continues today, through new resources including a DVD and accompanying guide, Education Minister Nancy Allan announced today at R.B. Russell High School in Winnipeg.

"Residential schools are a tragedy of our past. Today the legacy of this tragedy lingers still," said Allan. "Education is the key that will promote further healing, reconciliation and understanding, and help our students learn about residential schools and how their legacy continues to impact our community today."

The DVD, From Apology to Reconciliation, features a brief history of residential schools in Manitoba, interviews with school survivors, the formal apology to survivors made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on behalf of the Government of Canada on June 11, 2008, the formal apology made by all three Manitoba party leaders in the legislative assembly and responses from Aboriginal leaders the following day.

A February 2012 interim report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recommended that age-appropriate educational materials about residential schools be developed for use in public schools. The new resources were piloted in selected schools in the 2010-11 school year and will be implemented provincewide in September 2012.

"I commend all of the contributors to Manitoba's new curriculum initiative on Canada's residential school system," said Justice Murray Sinclair, chair, Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "By unveiling the truth of what happened in the schools, we will be better able to understand their legacy while we strive to achieve national reconciliation through the restoration of respectful relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians."

These resources will be available to grade 9 and 11 social studies students. The accompanying guide supports teachers in using the DVD and includes suggested learning outcomes and strategies for teaching.

The minister noted, residential schools have been part of the new social studies curriculum for several years, adding the new resources will help to address this issue in a deeper and more meaningful context.

"Over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit students were separated from their families and forbidden to speak their languages or practice their traditions because of the residential school system," said Allan. "Their stories are part of our collective history as Canadians and must not be forgotten."

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