Lessons From the Land: New Canadians Centre invites Community to Join in Day of Reflection On July 1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lessons From the Land
New Canadians Centre invites Community to Join in Day of Reflection On July 1
PETERBOROUGH – This July 1, the New Canadians Centre invites you to participate in activities to reflect on our relationship with the land.
For many years, we have gathered on July 1 with our friends, neighbours and families to dance, feast and sing as we celebrate the richness of culture that we enjoy in Canada at the Multicultural Canada Day Festival. We have opened our celebration with the acknowledgement that we live, work and play in Nogojiwanong on Treaty 20 Michi Saagiig Territory and in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations. We thank Indigenous peoples for being stewards of the land we live on.
To many new Canadians, Canada Day is a day to celebrate their pride in being able to build relationships and write new chapters in their personal and family histories, to revel in the peace and welcoming that we enjoy. At the same time, it must be balanced with the knowledge that Indigenous peoples endured, and continue to endure, tremendous violence and inequity for the prosperity that we enjoy today, and that racism and discrimination persist.
“These children paid a dear price to provide us another opportunity to determine who we want to be as a people and how we want to show up together as a country from here.” – Karen Joseph, Chief Executive Officer, Reconciliation Canada
Please join us during this time for reflection, education and commitment towards acts of healing.
All programming is listed on nccpeterborough.ca/lessons-from-the-land
Program:
TRACKS Youth Program Summer Activity Book
- 100 free copies available for contactless pickup at New Canadians Centre (221 Romaine Street) on June 28-30 (9am-4pm)
This Land: Reflections from Newcomers
On July 1, we will premiere a short film titled “The Land” featuring an intergenerational group of six newcomers sharing their reflections on the land, nature, and environment. They share what nature means to them and how it has supported their settlement, integration, and wellbeing.
Education Hub: “No Life Begins without Water”
Learn about the water and its importance through videos shared with permission from the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival 2021 and their partners.
Free Film Screenings in collaboration with ReFrame Film Festival (available July 1-14):
CALL ME HUMAN, 2020, Kim O’Bomsawin, 78 min.
When elders leave us, a link to the past vanishes along with them. Innu writer Joséphine Bacon exemplifies a generation that is bearing witness to a time that will soon have passed away. With charm and diplomacy, she leads a charge against the loss of a language, a culture, and its traditions. On the trail of Papakassik, the master of the caribou, Call Me Human proposes a foray into a people’s multimillennial history, in company with a woman of great spirit who has devoted her life to passing on her knowledge and that of her ancestors. In her language, Innu means “human.” This screening includes a question and answer session with the director.
TRICK OR TREATY, 2014, Alanis O’Bomsawin, 84 min.
Covering a vast swath of northern Ontario, Treaty No. 9 reflects the often contradictory interpretations of treaties between First Nations and the Crown. To the Canadian government, this treaty represents a surrendering of Indigenous sovereignty, while the descendants of the Cree signatories contend its original purpose to share the land and its resources has been misunderstood and not upheld. Enlightening as it is entertaining, Trick or Treaty? succinctly and powerfully portrays one community’s attempts to enforce their treaty rights and protect their lands, while also revealing the complexities of contemporary treaty agreements. Trick or Treaty? made history as the first film by an Indigenous filmmaker to be part of the Masters section at TIFF when it screened there in 2014.
“Lessons from the Land” is sponsored by Canadian Heritage and supported by ReFrame Film Festival, Peterborough Children’s Water Festival, TRACKS Youth Program and kawarthaNOW.com.
The New Canadians Centre (NCC) is a non-profit organization that has been providing services in the Peterborough community since 1979. The New Canadians Centre strives to empower immigrants and refugees to become full and equal members of Canadian society, and to provide community leadership to ensure cultural integration in a welcoming community.
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For more information, please contact:
Yvonne Lai
Director of Community Development
705-743-0882 ext. 234[email protected]