Province gives $20M for National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at U of M

The Manitoba government is providing $20 million to build a permanent home for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.

“This is going to be the only place in the world of its kind, so we’re going to be a real leader, as Manitoba, and that’s going to mean good things for future generations,” Premier Wab Kinew said.

The new site will feature exhibits and indoor and outdoor ceremonial spaces, and will be open to the public. It will offer places to deliver educational programming and conduct ongoing research. It will also be the keeper of documents relating to the residential school system.

“There is no place like what’s going to be built here. You carry our darkest secrets and you keep them for us,” said Eugene Arcand, a member of the Survivors Circle, which guides the centre and ensures survivors’ voices and perspectives remain central to its programs and policies.

“Those secrets are not meant to hurt. They are meant to tell you the truth about this country, that we are all so proud of. But the first people of this country shouldn’t have had to give up their lives in a genocidal practice under the guise of something called a school. Those were not schools. That’s the truth you have to understand.”

He thanked Manitobans.

“You have invested in this, you have set an example in this country, of truth, reconciliation and real investment,” said Arcand, a residential school survivor and member of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.

“You have set an example for those provinces that talk but don’t show any action. I come from one of those provinces.”

The project has received funds from the federal government and the Winnipeg Foundation. The facility will be located on the former Southwood Golf and Country Club grounds. The university gifted the land to the centre.

“I want to express my appreciation to the people of Manitoba,” said centre executive director Stephanie Scott, the daughter of a residential school survivor and survivor, herself, of the ‘60s Scoop.

Scott said the new building will play a vital role in countering denialism.

“The new home we are building for the centre is about upholding that sacred responsibility,” she said. “The centre cares for, and has the most complete record possible of the residential school system in this country. The children who were taken away, the families, the communities left behind — we are here to work for you.”

The new facility will preserve millions of documents, including survivors’ statements, and serve as what Scott described as a “global learning lodge.”

“A place where survivors and their families will always feel at home,” she said.

The centre, established in 2015, operates out of a temporary location at the U of M’s Fort Garry campus.

The Mastercard Foundation announced Tuesday it is giving $25 million to the centre for education programs.

The foundation is giving $235 million to 30 post-secondary institutions and national Indigenous organizations across Canada, including $5 million each to the U of M, the University of Winnipeg and University College of the North in The Pas.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca