Truth and Reconciliation Week 2023
This year’s TRC Week theme is “Colonization Impacts Everyone” and various books and movies tackle the theme and further number one of the 94 calls to “building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.” A call applying to faculty and staff as well in their daily work.
The Library continues to add Indigenous resources especially as more and more authors publish works as varied as Swampy Cree author David A. Robert’s graphic novel Sugar Falls to Cree scholar Verna Kirkness’s autobiography Creating a Life’s Work. Bringing these voices to the College community during Truth and Reconciliation Week, the Library is having an “Indigenous Voices” book table during the following dates and times:
- Sept. 25, 1-3pm | Exchange District Campus, Atrium
- Sept. 28, 11am-2pm | Notre Dame Campus, Library Hallway
Bring your staff/student ID to sign out books and we can recommend more titles from the collection. However, books are not the only formats offered during TRC Week, and the experience of colonization isn’t solely on Turtle Island.
Featured Titles (And More)
While the book table will bring a selection of titles, we want to highlight two titles in our collection with more found in the Library’s curated Indigenous Resources Collection.
Decolonizing data: unsettling conversations about social research methods
(by Jacqueline M. Quinless)
Provides a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of health as applied to Indigenous peoples, who have been historically underfunded and excluded from health services, programs, and quality of care; this has most recently been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this together: fifteen stories of truth & reconciliation
(by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail)
An eye-opening collection of personal essays by Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors from across Canada. Without flinching, the contributors—including journalists, academics, and artists—each explore their own “aha” moments regarding Canada’s colonial past and present to ask how we can all move forward in a spirit of reconciliation and anti-racism.
Featured Videos
Both CBC’s Curio.ca and National Film Board offer outstanding videos on Indigenous topics. To view a few hand-selected options, click on an image below. (login with RRC Polytech credentials may be required to view online resources).
Guides to Get You Started
Guides are a great place to start on any topic as they highlight resources hand-selected by Library staff. Of particular interest is our Indigenous Health and Well-Being guide.
Colonization Impacts Everyone: Two Notable Titles
While we continue to focus on Canada, colonization has impacted cultures around the world from borders to languages, with the fallout felt across generations. Countries like Australia and New Zealand have continued their own reconciliation journey with two films exploring the impact of systemic attempts to erase Indigenous Cultures:
Once Were Warriors
In a poor suburb of Auckland, Jake and Beth Heke live a life defined by drunken parties, unstable friendships, and confrontations with authorities. Jake, a complex man with a rascal’s charm, is weighted down by a quick temper, alcoholism, and an evil streak of male entitlement. Beth’s beauty has been scarred by broken dreams and Jake’s beefy fists. Yet her inner strength and desire to save her family make her the solid center around which this story of tragedy and hope is constructed.
Rabbit-Proof Fence
In 1931, Molly and her younger cousins, Gracie and Daisy, were three half-caste children from Western Australia who were taken from their parents under government edict and sent to an institution, were taught to forget their families, their culture, and re-invent themselves as members of “white” Australian society. The three girls begin an epic journey back to Western Australia, travelling 1,500 miles on foot with no food or water, and navigating by following the fence that has been build across the nation to stem an over-population of rabbits.
Have a Question or Comment? Connect with the Library!
Connect with a Library staff member through our Ask Us Chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours. We would love to hear from you!
Written by Fatima DeMelo – Reference Technician