On February 13th, Ottawa teachers Kim Bruton and Amanda Anderson presented Project of Heart at Connaught Public School’s Evening Towards Reconciliation. The event was put on by the school and parent council to continue a dialogue regarding Indigenous culture and history. The first part of the programme included a dinner, and keynote addresses by Peter Garrow and the Caring Society’s Daxton Reid. Continue reading POH honoured to be part of Connaught Public School’s Evening for Reconciliation
Kim Bruton and Amanda Anderson were presenting at the 3rd annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Mass Atrocities Youth Conference at Carleton University in Ottawa. Project of Heart was invited to be part of the day’s program in order to recognize the Indian Residential School era and the vast number of Indigenous children affected by Canada’s “hidden genocide” – a cultural genocide which was meant to “kill the Indian within the child”, and that all too often killed the child as well. Continue reading Project of Heart a valuable resource for Day of Remembrance and Action on Mass Atrocities Youth Conference
On the evening, June Girvan, Community Service Award winner for 2014, was feted by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for her extraordinary work in children’s rights. June dedicated the award to the memory of Shannen Koustachen and her “Dream Team” of activists for carrying on Shannen’s work–equal education for First Nations children. Shannen has inspired youth across Canada to continue her work of bringing justice to First Nations children across Canada who continue to suffer systemic discrimination at the hands of the Federal government. Continue reading Shannen’s legacy lives on
On February 10 students from Elizabeth Wyn Wood school in Ottawa made the decision to join with and support hundreds of other students from the National Capital area on Parliament Hill as they voiced their concerns to Prime Minister Stephen Harper–loud and clear! Continue reading Have a Heart for First Nations Children: Ottawa Project of Heart students take to the Hill
Setting a Canada-wide record for POH participation, Ottawa teacher Michael Bernards sent in this report (below the bump) to document the occasion.
Our thanks also go out Thomas Louttit, an IRS survivor, who came in to talk to Michael’s students and to smudge the tiles.
Continue reading Lester B. Pearson makes it six years in a row
The “Have a Heart for First Nations Children” rally got under-way on unceded Algonquin Territory with Elizabeth Wyn Wood students in Ottawa joining up with Pierre Elliot Trudeau Elemetary School students from Gatineau, Quebec. Continue reading Project of Heart students brave the snow to speak out for F.N. children
This past term students from Elizabeth Wyn Wood in Ottawa took all that they had learned about the Indian Residential Schools to heart, when they decided to put their words into action and attend the annual Sisters in Spirit Vigil hosted by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Continue reading Honouring the lives lost in Residential Schools means demanding justice for the Missing and Murdered
At St. Pius X Catholic High School in Ottawa, ON, the students of the NDA 3M class recently completed their Project of Heart adventure. It began with weeks of learning about residential schools and the devastating impact they’ve had on the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people of Canada. Many students described it as an eye opening experience, really putting together the missing puzzle pieces they had been searching for. At the same time, it was also a memorable and enjoyable experience for them to feel like they were a part of something larger and to be able to give back, through the survivor cards), to a community searching for healing.
Our thanks to Glebe Collegiate teacher Aneke Jansen van Doorn Cambell for this report; in it she shares the experience of remembering the students who lost their lives at Ahousat Indian Residential School in B.C. and the Federal Hostel at Igloolik, Nunavut. Continue reading Ottawa: Glebe Collegiate Aboriginal Awareness Day incorporates Project of Heart
Congratulations to Tanya Rafuse’s grade 11 students who partnered with Project of Heart this spring to heighten awareness of the Indian Residential Schools and to take action to address contemporary injustices. Residential School survivor and recording artist, Christopher Herodier Snowboy, spoke with students about his experiences. Through Chris’s witnessing, students were made aware that many survivors continue to live the losses that the IRS inflicted upon them each day. Continue reading Merivale High School remembers the Aboriginal students of Grandin College in N.W.T.