Survivors and others affected by the legacy of residential schools will have the chance to share their experiences in Red Deer starting on Thursday.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada will be at Red Deer College for two days. There will be opportunities to speak, read educational displays, watch films and listen to speakers.
These events will run concurrent to the truth-sharing panels. Members of the public are encouraged to learn about the untaught Canadian history and the legacy of Indian Residential Schools.
The emphasis will be on the involvement of Metis children.
In attendance will be reconciliation commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair. Former prime minister Joe Clark and Red Deer Mayor Morris Flewwelling will serve as honourary witnesses.
Metis poet Marilyn Dumont and award-winning folk singer Phyllis Sinclair will entertain on both days at noon. A Friday night concert features a celebration of Metis culture with fiddlers, dancers and singers. It gets underway at 7 p.m. at the college.
Seven commission public sharing panels (10:30 a.m. 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on both days and 9 a.m. on Friday) are scheduled at the Kevin Sirois Gym.
These panels will allow survivors, intergenerational survivors or anyone else who has information on the schools to share with the commission.
There will be two church listening circles (10:30 a.m. on both days) with representatives from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and United Churches. It will be facilitated by Indian residential school survivors in the college’s main gym.
Private statement taking in individual rooms will also be an option.
The Thursday panel of the Forum on Reconciliation features Flewwelling, Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, Charles Woods and an aboriginal person. Friday’s panel includes Clark, former United Church moderator Bill Phipps, Metis leader Muriel Stanley Venne and a residential school survivor.
Starting at 11 a.m. at Fort Normandeau on Saturday, a ceremony with a feast will be served to remember the children of the Red Deer Industrial School (1893 to 1919). The school was located across the Red Deer River from the fort. This will be the fourth and final ceremonial feast.
Everyone is welcomed to listen to the panels and the circles. All events are free. The panels are recorded by the commission and the recordings will reside in the planned National Research Centre in Winnipeg.
An opening ceremony gets underway with master of ceremonies Charles Wood, the president of the Remembering the Children Society, at 9 a.m. in the Kevin Sirois Gym at RDC.
The Remembering the Children Society is hosting the event in Red Deer.
For full program information, visit www.trc.ca.