National Indigenous Peoples Day

Photo credit: Nuxcine

June 21st, National Indigenous Peoples Day, is a celebration of the knowledge, contributions and cultures of Indigenous peoples on this land. The CRRF is grateful for the important teachings shared by our Indigenous colleagues, teachers and partners, and we re-affirm our commitment to collective learning, promoting cultural awareness, and supporting initiatives that center Indigenous truths, joy, voices and stories.  We recognize that there is much work, learning, and unlearning to be done and we are committed to building relationships and learning as we grow.  

In 2023, the CRRF brought together members of the Indigenous and Rwandan Tutsi communities in Quebec to address the question “Beyond reconciliation, how can communities rebuild themselves after surviving the most extreme form of organized violence?”. There were several learnings stemming from this programming and we share some of those with you all here in this playlist:

This month, in the context of the National Anti-Racism Fund, the CRRF is honoured to support the following initiatives:  

We have also worked with the First Peoples Group to understand more about anti-Indigenous racism in the education system. Join us in our learning by viewing the first module which can be found in this video:   

As we celebrate this month, the CRRF encourages all our readers to seek out the Indigenous histories, expertise and resources in their own communities, learn more about the ways they have shaped the lands on which we live, and the important lessons we can and must learn from them.