Announcements

National Youth Network for Healing and Reconciliation

Reconciliation Youth Network

Join the National Youth Network for Healing and Reconciliation (NYNHR) in Canada. This is a great way for youth across Canada to share your understanding of our shared history in Canada. Indian Residential Schools, Chinese Head Tax, Ukrainian Internment, Japanese Internment, just to name a few. The NYNHR is hosted from the NDHR national office and will focus on sharing knowledge, thoughts and reflections about historical trauma in Canada and what impacts it has had on youth today. The network will also focus on what social justice actions, projects and activities youth are initiating across Canada to build a future based on cultural respect and reconciliation among all Canadians. Like us on our Facebook page.

Community Grants

NDHR is offering 11 grants in the amount of $1100.00 each to support events that communities will host on June 11, 2012.


DEADLINE for applications April 9, 2012.

To read our criteria and fill out our forms click HERE»

THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA ARE REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF AN ELIGIBLE NDHR PROPOSAL

  • EVENT MUST OCCUR ON JUNE 11TH 2012 – No exceptions
  • A MINIMUM OF 2 LETTERS OF SUPPORT MUST BE INCLUDED WITH GRANT APPLICATION
  • APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED AT THE NDHR OFFICE NO LATER THAN APRIL 9, 2012
  • FULL AND COMPLETE FINAL REPORTS MUST BE SUBMITTED ON JUNE 29, 2012 OR FUNDING WILL NOT BE RELEASED TO GRANT WINNERS

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING YOUR PROPOSAL

  • Creativity & Description of Events- be sure to give details about the uniqueness of the healing and reconciliation activities you are planning
  • Connection to Healing and Reconciliation- How might the activities planned for NDHR have a lasting impact on your community?
  • Awareness- How do the planned events and ongoing projects in the community incorporate awareness of healing and reconciliation? How will you reach people who don’t know about our collective history in Canada, healing and reconciliation?
  • Quality of Activities- How will you ensure that healing and reconciliation is truly the focus of your NDHR activities?
  • Cost Effectiveness- How will the community utilize the grant funding in an effective manner to enhance the NDHR activities you are planning? What other resources are you accessing to ensure that your NDHR activities are sustainable?
  • Support- Does the community have the support of various partners, including leadership, for the entire planning and implementation process? Do the letters of support demonstrate this level of commitment?
  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
  5. (required)
  6. (required)
  7. (valid email required)
  8. (required)
  10. (valid email required)
  12. (required)
  13. COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION
  14. (required)
  15. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN PROPOSED EVENT
  16. (required)
  17. IMPORTANCE OF HEALING AND RECONCILIATION
  18. (required)
  19. PROPOSED NDHR 2012 EVENT
  20. (required)
  21. FUNDING AND RESOURCES
  22. (required)
  23. LETTERS OF SUPPORT
  24. Please include a MINIMUM of two letters of support. Letters of support should specify how the organization providing the letter plans to support your event. Note: When submitting letters of support please be sure to include the name of group/organization applying for the grant and the event coordinator’s name. You may upload your letters here, or either FAX your letters to 780-428-0187 or email to: charlene-bearhead@ncsa.ca
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Promotional Items

Each year we offer campaign materials to organizations and communities considering the launch of their own activities for the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.

The promotional items for NDHR 2012 are now available free of charge to community organizers. This year we have:
• Draw Sting Back Packs
• First Aid Kits
• Stress Balls
• Twig Pens

We have a map of our partners across Canada that can check by clicking HERE. Are you on the map? You can check your order by clicking on the red dot closest to the address you provided is with in your order form.

If you are not on the map, but would like to receive free promo items, Click here to order»


Deadline to order is April 9, 2012

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
  5. Shipping Address (where you want the package mailed)
  6. (required)
  7. (required)
  8. (required)
  9. (required)
  10. (required)
  11. (valid email required)
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

There are many things you can do to celebrate NDHR in your community. Some examples of activities from participants last year are:

* Cultural ceremonies
* Candle ceremony to honour those who passed on
* Barbecue with entertainment and speakers
* School displays
* Church services
* Discussion groups on diversity in schools
* Community Walk
* Health Fair
* Play
* Feast
* Sharing circles
* Cultural camp
* Video screening
For more ideas, Order your INSPIRATION BOOK RIGHT NOW!!!

_______________________________________________

Here is the map of our partners across Canada. Are you on the map? You can check your order by clicking on the red dot closest to the address you provided is with in your order form. If you are not on the map, but would like to receive free promo items, fill out our forms above!


HEALING HAPPENS Challenge

The NDHR team is excited to announce the “Healing Happens Challenge”. Each contestant will receive 200 recycled healing happens posters to use in the creation of an artistic expression of healing and reconciliation. Contestants will be required to utilize all 200 posters in the creation and to send a picture of their healing and reconciliation masterpiece to the NDHR team. The “Healing Happens Challenge” will be limited to the first 80 entries due to limited supplies of recycled posters.

All entry photos will be featured on ndhr.ca and will be displayed in a place of prominence to promote the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation in the community in which they are created.

There will be prizes awarded to the top 3 contests winners and the first prize winning creation will be shipped to the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation head office for display. Log on to ndhr.ca and click on “Healing Happens Challenge” to enter and receive your posters.
Deadline for submission of photos for judging purposes is May 11, 2012. Winners will be announced on May 25, 2012.

Please send me my 200 Healing Happens recycle posters and enter me in the Healing Happens Challenge»


  1. (required)
  2. Shipping Address
  3. (required)
  4. (required)
  5. (required)
  6. (required)
  7. (valid email required)
  8. (required)
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days


Project of Heart – Partner Highlight

Project of Heart is a hands-on, collaborative, intergenerational artistic initiative that brings awareness of the history and legacy of Indian Residential Schools to all Canadians.

Project of Heart was created by a teacher, Sylvia Smith, in Ottawa, Ontario to commemorate the lives of the thousands of Indigenous children who died as a result of the residential school experience. Since the inception of the project over one hundred schools from across Canada have implemented Project of Heart in their own classrooms.

In December 2011 Sylvia Smith received the Governor General’s Award for Project of Heart. NDHR and Project of Heart are working in partnership to bring this very important project to as many schools across Canada as possible.
Log on to www.projectofheart.ca to find out how to bring Project of Heart to your school or your community.

To watch a short video and read more about Project of Heart, click HERE»



Project of Heart is an innovative educational tool kit designed to engage students in a deeper exploration of indigenous traditions in Canada and the history of Indian residential schools. It is a journey for understanding through the heart and spirit as well as facts and dates.

Indigenous concepts of education and literacy, such as Grandmother and Grandfather teachings and reading the environment, are fully incorporated into the curriculum. Elders from First Nation, Metis and Inuit communities become regular participants in classroom presentations and discussions. Students lead many of the project outcomes, demonstrating their learning through videos and multimedia presentations and decorating small wooden tiles. Each tile becomes a meaningful artifact, representing one of the thousands of young lives lost due to the effects of the Indian residential schools system.

A key objective of the program is to encourage “ownership” of this historic injustice by enacting gestures of reconciliation for the past and continued oppression of Aboriginal people in Canada. Project of Heart continues to be shared with elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools in other regions of Canada. It was show-cased at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s first national event, held in Winnipeg in June, 2010.

Partners

Every community organizer or community organization that orders promotional items to utilize at the community event that they are planning becomes an NDHR Community Partner. Please use our map below to see who is a community partner in your area and who our community partners are across the country.

Contact Us

We are always happy to hear from the community.
You can contact us at ndhr@ncsa.ca or call our office at 780-447-9340.
Our office is located at 10975-124th Street Edmonton, Alberta T5M 0H9.

Mission Statement

The National Day of Healing and Reconciliation (NDHR) is a movement of people committed to growing together within our families, communities and across Canada, towards healing and reconciliation. The goals of National Day of Healing and Reconciliation are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To read more about our Mission and our Logo, click HERE»

The National Day of Healing and Reconciliation seeks to offer people opportunities to communicate, heal and celebrate together through events and activities that are meaningful within each specific community. Through these activities, we strive to create environments for building meaningful relationships among all Canadians: especially between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

The intent of NDHR is to promote the reconciliation of relationships between people, agencies, and/or governments who have been mistreated, or have mistreated others, as a result of national policy, historic discrimination or societal perspectives at a given time in the history of Canada. These people, groups and agencies include churches, the government of Canada, former students of residential schools, Aboriginal peoples and other peoples who have been similarly mistreated as a part of our collective history of Canada.

Download Logos: BIG | MEDIUM | SMALL

 

NDHR Logo Explanation

The four people symbolize the four races and/or the four age groups. but in spirit, because when we do see past the colour we are all spirits holding hands to move forward in healing and reconciliation. The colour purple in many cultures also represents “healing“.

We walk on green grass to symbolize growth. The water is to nurture the growth and to symbolize that Mother Earth becomes richer with watering as we too become healthier when we feel accepted. The sun symbolizes the vision we all share of healing and reconciliation through education and building understanding.

history

The origin of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation in Canada stems from Australia’s National Sorry Day.  On May 26, 1997 a report entitled “Bringing Them Home”, detailing painful evidence of the removal of thousands of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders children from their families, was presented to the government.  One year later, a National Sorry Day was instituted sot that the healing process could begin.  In Canada the value of such a movement was recognized by Dr. Maggie Hodgson, and others, and our own National Day of Healing and Reconciliation was born on May 26th to honor the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal Australians as well as the children who attended Indian Residential Schools in Canada.

In 2008, both Australia and Canada’s Prime Ministers issued formal apologies to the Indigenous peoples of their respective countries. On June 11th Canada specifically recognized past government policies of assimilation, the known excesses of the Residential School System, and condemned the creation of the system itself. It was in this year that the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation in Canada changed to June 11th.
In that same month Canada set up the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The road to Healing and Reconciliation in Canada was finally set on solid ground.
As a nation we will heal and reconcile, and as a nation we have our own date to celebrate: June 11th is our day.

Resources

  • Inspiration Book – This “inspiration book” is designed to get you started. Many groups find out about NDHR and want to get involved, but they think it is only for certain types of organizations. click here for more information.»

  • Independent Assessment Process – The deadline for applications to the Independent Assessment Process under the Settlement Agreement has been extended to September 19, 2012. Click here for more information or to apply.

    • What do I do with this “inspiration book”?

    The reality is that NDHR is about everyone and for everyone.

    We hope that the ideas contained in this booklet will inspire you to think about how you and the people that you work, live and interact with on a regular basis can be a part of a positive change in Canadian society. Let’s come together one person at a time in the spirit of respect, kindness and understanding.

    We divided this book into various sections for all of our different partners and communities involved. So if you are a 3 person group, a 30-plus church group, a school class of whatever size or any other group, download the book and find some new ideas for this years events!

    NDHR is a department of Native Counselling Services of Alberta

    NDHR

    National Day of Healing and Reconciliation