Reconciliation: When History Becomes Truth
$1,550.00
What can contemporary writing tell us about Indigenous communities and the role of non-Indigenous Canadians in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation process? Métis leader Louis Riel once predicted, “My people will sleep for a hundred years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.” Has this been borne out? Two experienced journalists will be joined by a very special guest.
To put down a deposit, choose “Deposit” on the checkout page after entering your payment details.
Only 2 left in stock
LEADERS
Joyce Wayne is the author of two novels, Last Night of the World (2018) about the actual characters who started the Cold War, and The Cook’s Temptation (2013) about a Victorian cook who happens to spread typhoid. Her essay, “All the Kremlin’s Men” appears in Best Canadian Essays 2021. She was the editor at Quill & Quire, and chaired the journalism program launching the Centre for Internationally Trained Individuals at Sheridan College. Joyce was also a contributing editor to This Magazine (now This) and the editorial director of nonfiction at McClelland & Stewart.
Susan Crean is a freelance journalist and the author of five books, including Finding Mr. Wong (2018), The Laughing One – A Journey to Emily Carr (2001) which won the Hubert Evans Prize for Non-Fiction in 2002, and Deux Pays Pour Vivre: Un Plaidoyer (1980) written with Québec sociologist Marcel Rioux. She has been an editor-at-large of This magazine for many years, and is a former chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. She was the first Maclean-Hunter Chair of Creative Non-Fiction appointed by the Creative Writing Department at the University of British Columbia, and was a founding co-chair of the Creators Rights Alliance/Alliance pour les droits des créateurs with Gregory Younging and Michel Beauchemin in 2002.
SPECIAL GUEST
Dub poet, Lillian Allen, currently Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto, will attend the last day of the seminar as a special guest. Allen is a community-based artist with an international following who teaches creative writing at the Ontario College of Arts and Design. She has collaborated with many other artists – poets, painters, singers and song-writers, including the late Maliseet artist, Shirley Bear.
BOOKS
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
(Harper Perennial, 2020)
ISBN-13: 978-0465097548
Meeting My Treaty Kin: A Journey Toward Reconciliation by Heather Menzies
(University of British Columbia Press, 2023)
ISBN-13: 978-0774890663
(On Point Press, 2023)
FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING
Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente
(Penguin Canada, 2021)
ISBN 978-0735235755
My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle
(Book*Hug Press, No. 4. 2020)
ISBN 978-1-77166-358-8
In this seminar we will explore how contemporary writing lends itself to thoughtful investigations of complex issues, in particular the struggle of Indigenous communities with the legacy of the Indian Act (1885), and the role of non-Indigenous Canadians in the process of reconciliation. The stories of the five survivors in Michell Good’s award-winning novel Five Little Indians will help shape our focus.
What is reconciliation? What does a call for reconciliation mean? What does it mean first to the public at large and to institutions, and then to individuals? These will be the central questions of our week together.
In all cases, moving toward an answer begins with interest in the issue, which is to say the history of Indigenous/settler relations. This comes with a willingness to open oneself to new information and ideas — in particular to the lived experience of Indigenous communities and to the history preceding us.
One starting point is the words of 19th-century Métis leader Louis Riel: “My people will sleep for a hundred years, and when they awake, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.” Has his prediction been borne out?
We’ll also discover who are the leaders of the movement. These include figures such as Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba, and Tomson Highway, writer and public figure who has articulated the experience of growing up Indigenous in his book Permanent Astonishment. And of course there is the work of Yvette Nolan, former artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts and the late Daniel David Moses, who had several of his plays produced by Native Earth.
Toronto Pursuits 2024
See the Toronto Pursuits 2024 page for full details on the program schedule, health and safety, booking your accommodations, terms and conditions, and more.
Additional information
| Discount | Concert ticket, Not eligible for discount, Five times, With friend, Gift registration |
|---|
