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I am honoured to be here today to speak at the Expressions of Reconciliation Ceremony.  I stand before you as the minister of the Northwest Territories government department dedicated to educating the young people of the North.

I am aware that there is an historic connection between the department I am responsible for, and many of the events and experiences that are being shared around these circles this week.

Residential schools have been the source of much of the pain and loss that many generations of Aboriginal people in the North and across Canada experienced.  At the same time, schools can also be where some of that past is reclaimed, where some of the reconciliation that is needed can happen, where some of our hope for the future can be found.

There must be places dedicated to exploring this learning and reconciliation.  The TRC events are some of those places.  School curriculum is another place.

Last year, I attended the TRC national event in Inuvik.  I announced that we would create a curriculum resource and teaching unit that would be mandatory learning for all high school students in both Nunavut and the NWT.

The Government of Nunavut and the Government of the NWT are doing this as an expression of reconciliation to the people across the NWT and Nunavut who experienced residential schools or who have been affected by them.

In partnership with the Legacy of Hope Foundation, that unit has now been developed, and has been piloted in the NWT and Nunavut this past semester.  A larger group of select schools across both territories will begin using the unit this coming fall.

This 15-25 hour unit explores the difficult truths about residential schools in Canada, and provides students with opportunities to see where we are and where we still need to travel on our paths of reconciliation.

Similar to this national event that we are part of here in Saskatoon, this curriculum resource is built around the voices and experiences of people who shared their stories and gave guidance to the educators developing the learning activities.

They are the teachers in this learning resource.  We thank those former students – now many of them leaders in a wide range of fields in the North and across Canada – for the gift they have given us as this curriculum resource was developed.

We thank them for helping us to put the events and the effects of residential schools into its proper place in Canada’s history.  From now on, all people who go through our school systems will know what has happened and the impacts on the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

Today, our gesture of reconciliation is to offer two things:

A promise – to donate the first copy of the completed curriculum resource to the TRC when it comes from the printer.

And this pair of children’s slippers – created by a skilled Dene woman from Whati.  These symbolize both the strong Aboriginal cultures of the North that survived residential schools, and also the steps we are taking, however small they may be, on our paths to a hopeful future.  I hope to bring a larger pair the next time we meet.

Thank you.  Masi.