Topic(s): 
Anti-Oppressive Practice
Decolonized social work research
Indigenous People and Communities
Webinar event date: 
Jan 12, 2022 12:00 pm EST
Webinar link

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Webinar Presenters: 

Grace Schedler, Indigenous Ambassador

Grace Schedler, a member of God’s Lake Narrows ininiw (Cree) Nation, has been the Indigenous Ambassador of Circles For Reconciliation since July 2020. She recently retired from the Manitoba government, where she worked for twenty years in the Indigenous Court Work Program. She assisted Indigenous people in recognizing their rights and understanding how the justice system functions. She also led the successful negotiations to have the Eagle Feather accepted in the provincial legal system to support Indigenous people in their testimonies before the court. Grace is also on the board of Indigenous Languages of Manitoba (ILMB), offers an online course in introductory Cree, and is a volunteer for Civil Air Search and Rescue.

Raymond Currie, Dean Emeritus, Project Coordinator

Raymond Currie has been a member of the sociology department at the University of Manitoba since 1973 and served as the Dean of Arts (1991-99). He was also the Executive Director of the Canadian Research Data Network (2002-2010), a network of 27 universities across Canada in which over 3,000 researchers analyze all of Statistics Canada’s data on health, social and economic issues. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LL.D.) from McMaster University in 2012. Following the release of the TRC Final Report in December 2016, he co-founded Circles For Reconciliation and is currently its Project Coordinator. He and his wife, Charlene, are adoptive parents to two Indigenous children, who are now in their forties.

Description

Circles For Reconciliation is an organization founded and incorporated on the principles of an equal partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, which is reflected in our staff, board, advisory committee, and activities. Our goal is to “create and maintain mutually respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” as defined by the Commissioners of the TRC. We foster the creation of such grassroots relationships by forming ten-week Circles across the country, which each involve weekly meetings of ten participants (five Indigenous and five non-Indigenous) and are led by two trained facilitators (of whom one is Indigenous and one is non-Indigenous). 

Webinar Objectives 
The key objective of this webinar is to introduce participants to the work of Circles For Reconciliation and explain how our model can be applied to both local communities and organizational workplaces in order to advance reconciliation