October 1st 2023: Truth and Reconciliation

Truth and Reconciliation
 

MEET SARAH LEWIS

Sarah (she/her) is an Anishnaabe Kwe (Ojibwe and Cree) spoken word artist, activist, musician, community organizer and mother. She has ancestral roots in Curve Lake First Nation and Pukatawagon, Manitoba. She served as Peterborough’s inaugural Poet Laureate and has been featured on CBC Arts, Global News, and stages across the world. Sarah utilizes poetry as an act of resistance, giving voice to Indigenous resurgence and reclamation of identities, culture, strength and sovereignty. She encourages aspiring poets to speak their truth, and to envision a decolonial society where sexism, the patriarchy, capitalism and racism do not exist

First Reading

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a K’iche’ Guatemalan feminist, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. The quote that follows comes from her acceptance speech in 1992. She is known for advocating for the rights of Guatemala’s Indigenous people and Indigenous people globally. She founded the country’s first Indigenous political party, which is called Winaq, and ran for president in 2007 and 2011.

Our history is a living history, that has throbbed, withstood and survived many centuries of sacrifice. Now it comes forward again with strength. The seeds, dormant for such a long time, break out today with some uncertainty, although they germinate in a world that is at present characterized by confusion and uncertainty.

– Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Second Reading

Sitting in corners wringing hands and wondering what to do is not going to advance anything, including yourself. Read the calls to action, and as you go through them one at a time ask yourself: do I belong in this call?

- Jesse Wente, Journalist and Broadcaster

Banff Centre Truth and Reconciliation Summit Moderator

Third Reading

Those who search for the truth and make it their mission to shine a light upon it... accomplish a task that is indispensable to the flourishing of the spirit, the transmission of values and the progress of civilization.

- Jeanne Sauve, former Governor General of Canada