{"id":7354,"date":"2017-10-25T13:19:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T17:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=7354"},"modified":"2026-01-03T13:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:59:22","slug":"algoma-district-school-board-hosts-dr-niigaan-sinclair-a-respected-voice-on-truth-and-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/25\/algoma-district-school-board-hosts-dr-niigaan-sinclair-a-respected-voice-on-truth-and-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Algoma District School Board hosts Dr. Niigaan Sinclair – a respected voice on Truth and Reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oct 25, 2017 @ 13:19<\/b><\/p>\n

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The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) was pleased to host Dr. Niigaan Sinclair for two days this week, as he spoke with students, staff, parents and community leaders from across the district about Truth and Reconciliation.\u00a0 He is an Associate Professor with the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba and a respected voice nationally on current Indigenous issues.<\/p>\n

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On Monday morning, Niigaan spoke to approximately 350 ADSB students, representing grades 9 to 12, indigenous and non-indigenous. He tried to help students understand the complexity of truth and reconciliation by telling a simple story about a young boy, Cameron, who owned a bike.\u00a0 It was a great bike that had been passed down from one generation to the next (being fixed along the way) and Cameron loved it dearly.\u00a0 One day a new boy moved into the neighbourhood.\u00a0 He asked to borrow the bike.\u00a0 Cameron granted permission \u2013 first for 15 minutes, then for an hour and eventually for a day. \u00a0The new boy grew to love the bike too and wanted it for himself.\u00a0 Borrowing it wasn\u2019t enough and he eventually stole it.\u00a0 Cameron was heartbroken.\u00a0 After a year, the new boy began to see how sad and depressed Cameron had become over the loss of his bike.\u00a0 He went over to Cameron\u2019s home with the bike and said \u201cI\u2019m really sorry for taking your bike.\u00a0 I can see how much it means to you.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019ll accept my apology\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 Then the new boy hopped back on the bike and drove away.<\/p>\n

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Niigaan asked the students to imagine these two young people growing up in the same neighbourhood.\u00a0 \u201cWhat will the story be that each chooses to tell their family over time?\u201d<\/em> He went on to say that \u201cif you can understand the complexity of this story you understand the challenge of reconciliation.\u00a0 We have a difficult situation ahead of us.\u00a0 We have a lot of anger, resentment, frustration.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Niigaan also shared some of his own family\u2019s history, including the story of his grandfather, Henry Sinclair, who lied about his age in order to join the army, in effect \u201cchoosing bullets over school\u201d<\/em> because he attended a residential school where he was mistreated and abused. His grandfather returned from war injured both mentally and physically.\u00a0 This, on top of the horrors he experienced at residential school, led him to become a heavy drinker and when he drank, he hurt those around him.\u00a0 Yet on the day Niigaan was born, with the threat from Niigaan\u2019s father of not being able to see his grandson, his grandfather quit drinking.<\/p>\n

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Niigaan never saw the angry, hurtful man that Henry once was.\u00a0 \u00a0Niigaan said to the students \u201cIf my grandfather can chose something different, following the hardships and sadness from his younger days, and the decision to do something different comes from love, you can do it too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Niigaan\u2019s father, Justice Murray Sinclair, was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.\u00a0 Ninety-four recommendations came out of the commission\u2019s final report, many of which offer ways that we can create relationships.\u00a0 Niigaan reiterated that the students have a role to play in reconciliation, as does everyone and he encouraged them to volunteer, write, make a piece of art, blog, serve, connect.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Elder Willard Pine opened the day with the students by asking everyone in the room to clear their minds, open their hearts and to remember anything said is said not to hurt but to help. He reminded the students that \u201c\u2026education is very important and that we need it today.\u00a0 The world is big and beautiful.\u00a0 But it can be cruel and mean.\u00a0 Your teachers are like wolves. A wolf will bring up their cubs so there can be a strong blood line.\u00a0 Listen to your teachers.\u00a0 Help them by studying, so that you can learn to be that wolf someday.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dr. Sinclair shared his message about the role we all play in Truth and Reconciliation again on Monday night at an event open to the public at the Community Theatre Centre.\u00a0 He also spent the day on Tuesday with ADSB educators, helping to determine where, how and why it is critical to incorporate Truth and Reconciliation into today\u2019s curriculum. \u00a0In addition, school teams developed action plans for each school\u2019s next steps in moving forward with reconciliation. \u00a0Niigaan\u2019s final presentation was to ADSB Trustees and Senior Administration, along with SSM Mayor Christian Provenzano, at the ADSB Board Meeting on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oct 25, 2017 @ 13:19   The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) was pleased to host Dr. Niigaan Sinclair for two days this week, as he spoke with students, staff, parents and community leaders from across the district about Truth and Reconciliation.\u00a0 He is an Associate Professor with the Department of Native Studies at the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[924],"class_list":["post-7354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-dr-niigaan-sinclair"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 21:24:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7362,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354\/revisions\/7362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}