Truth and Reconciliation Day - September 30th, 2023
Editor: Rosemary Parker
Announcements:
The 2024 Rotary International Convention will be held in Singapore from May 24-29, 2024. To register go to the Rotary International website.
2nd Annual Environment Fair taking place this Saturday, September 30th from 11 am to 2:00 pm at the Ottawa Baha'i Centre, 211 McArthur Avenue (see poster below)
Rotary Club of Ottawa Bytown Car Rally 2023 will take place on Sunday, October 1st in support of the Ottawa Food Bank and Centertown Community Food Centre. Register at: http://www.ottawabytownrotaryclub.com
The Dreamers Walk for Cerebral Palsy - Saturday, October 7th, 2023 from 11:00 am - 6:00 pm at Superdome at Ben Franklin Park. Raise pledges and help send a kid to Camp Merrywood. Register at: http://www.dreamerswalkcanada.org and you can speak to David Humphries for more details.
Rotary District 7040 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Presentation: Reclaiming Indigenous Images on Screen -October 7th, 2023, 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM. The DEI committee will again this year observe Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30th ) which honors the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities; and US Indigenous Peoples Day (October 10th ) which celebrates and honors Indigenous Americans and commemorates their histories and cultures. Dr. Rebecca Pelky from the Brothertown Indian Nation of Wisconsin will be presenting. To access this presentation: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84234784167pwd=U0hqWEpzWWJkUVdzZ3d6NFJpZDd4Zz09
World Polio Day is on October 24th, 2023 - One Day. One Focus: Ending Polio. World Polio Day is a time for Rotary members, public health advocates, and all who want a world free from polio to come together, recognize our progress in the fight to end polio, and talk about the actions we need to take in order to end polio for good. At Rotary Ottawa South we will have a dinner to raise funds for World Polio Day at KS on the Keys. We will enjoy a Lebanese buffet and we encourage you to bring your family and friends to enjoy the evening with us. Hadi Mortada, Past District Governor at Rotary International, will be our guest speaker.
September 27, 2023 Weekly Meeting - Truth & Reconciliation - Kateri Clark
Truth & Reconciliation: Kateri read a beautiful Land Acknowledgement to begin the meeting. Land Acknowledgements are a way to recognize and respect Indigenous peoples as traditional stewards of the land.
We watched a sobering documentary called "Childhood Denied, Indian Residential Schools and their Legacy". From the 1880s to the 1990s, over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were torn from their families and sent to Indian residential schools, often located far from their homes. Many students suffered neglect and abuse. Thousands of children died. https://vimeo.com/253510969 Take the time to watch the video and learn about some of the survivors.
Katreri encouraged us to discover and learn about a work of art called the Witness Blanket at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights located in Winnipeg. Inspired by a woven blanket, the Witness Blanket is a large-scale work of art. It contains hundreds of items reclaimed from residential schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures from across Canada.
Here, you can explore the items and stories carried by the Witness Blanket. They are accompanied by the voices of Survivors who talk about the experience of being forced into residential schools. Their generous and insightful stories convey the reality of anti-Indigenous racism, colonialism and genocide. They reveal the ongoing harms caused by Canada’s residential school system.
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