Led By Dr. Kelly Sherman-Conroy

Tuesday, November 15

6:00 - 8:00 PM EST via Zoom (Zoom link to be sent to registered participants the Thursday prior)

About Our Time Together:
It is our hope that the information and activities within this exercise will give participants the resources they need to examine aspects of the Residential School System and to recognize the impact it has had, and continues to have, on generations of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the United States. Awareness that the legacies of the residential schools also impact non-Indigenous Peoples is also intended.

Participants will explore: various meanings of reconciliation, experience a fictional situation in which a community is invaded, changed and the children taken away (within small groups), review the meanings of reconciliation first asked and talk about reparations and the difference between the two and create an action plan.

For over a century, beginning in the mid-1800s and continuing into the late 1990s, Indigenous children in Canada and the United States were taken from their homes and communities and were placed in institutions called Residential Schools. These schools were run by religious orders in collaboration with the federal government and were attended by children as young as four years of age. The children were separated from their families, often for years at a time. They were prohibited from speaking their mother tongue or language and practicing their culture and traditions. The vast majority of the over 150,000 children who attended these schools experienced neglect and suffering. The impacts of the sexual, mental and physical abuse, shame, and deprivation endured at these institutions continue to affect generations of Survivors, their families, and communities. Many died and were never to return home. Remarkably, in the face of this tremendous adversity, many Survivors and their descendants have retained their languages and cultures, and continue to work toward their personal healing and Reconciliation.