We encourage you to walk for Chanie Wenjack and his family on October 22, the day Chanie succumbed to the elements as he was trying to get home. Walks can also be organized on other dates during Secret Path Week (Oct. 17-22).
Start planning your Walk today! For more information and to register, click here.
Join @DownieWenjack on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube live at 2pm EDT as we chat with ShoShona of Digging Roots.
DWF LIVE connects viewers to Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to build awareness, education, and connection. These sessions inspire us all to answer Gord Downie’s call to “Do Something”, even during times of isolation, to make Canada a better place for Indigenous peoples.
These 30 – 60-minute online sessions are open to all ages through DWF’s social media accounts @DownieWenjack. The DWF LIVE sessions also work to help support artists during these difficult times.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.
For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers. This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!
Join Carol as she shares her grandmother’s story of Residential School and how she envisions Reconciliation.
Carol is an Ojibway elder from Batchewana First Nation in Northern Ontario where she lives with her husband. She has two children, a son and a daughter, and also three beautiful grandchildren. She returned to school when she was forty years old to obtain her grade 12, and with the support and encouragement of family and friends has continued on and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1995 from Sault College. Carol went on to work in First Nation Health as a Community Health Nurse for 22 years and during that time she became a Certified Mental Health Nurse. Carol retired three years ago. Since then, she has attended Algoma University and graduated this past May with a BA in Anishinaabe Studies. Carol enjoys reading, attending Pow Wows, and also spending time with her family.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.
For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers. This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!
Monique Aura Bedard (they/them) is a neurodiverse Onyota’a:ka x French art-maker x visual storyteller who is currently based on Dish with One Spoon Territory (Tkaronto). They grew up on Anishinaabe aki, downriver from Aamjiwnaang First Nation.
Through their art practice (sewing, beading, painting murals, journaling), they aim to express and share stories about intergenerational healing, mind health, identity, empowerment, and authenticity. They are inspired by stories, memory, community and growth, individually and collectively. Monique Aura aims to address intergenerational healing in their family by trusting the creative process. The core of their work is about moving through the world with love and fierceness. Their art is their voice, their truth and an extension of who they are. Aura’s hope is that their art reaches others in a way that inspires thoughts and feelings igniting questions, curiosity, reflection and self-love.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.
For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers. This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!
If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake, and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country. And she has played them all.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.
For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers. This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!
G.R. Gritt is a Juno Award-winning, Two-Spirit, Transgender, Francophone, Anishinaabe/Métis artist. After living many years in Yellowknife and forming the band Quantum Tangle, they have recently moved back to Sudbury/Robinson Huron Treaty territory where they grew up. This homecoming coincides with a journey that they feel better represents them. With these changes has come a new voice both physically and in the growing magnetism of their songwriting. G.R. Gritt pulls effortlessly from the past to create soulful futurisms with their new sound that elegantly weaves the melodies using vocals, guitar, and new electronic elements. They create both intimate and anthemic music that would fit in a folk club, a dance club, and anywhere in between. G.R. Gritt is currently preparing for the release of a new full-length album titled, Ancestors, in 2020 on Coax Records.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is an organization which knocks down classroom walls and take students anywhere in the world, never having to leave their desks. It aims to inspire the next generation of students by bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe.
For Secret Path Week, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants will be focusing on Indigenous education featuring Indigenous scientists, explorers, artists, activists, and speakers. This will be a valuable way to engage your class in reconciliation and encourage your students to “Do Something”!
Meagan Lortie is an non-status Anishinaabe Kwe from Barrie, Ontario. Currently, she is on her own journey of exploring her culture and ancestry. From very young she has been volunteering and working with the Urban Indigenous community and is passionate about reconciliation and decolonization. In her presentation, Meagan will explore what reconciliation looks like and how people can begin/ continue their own reconciliation/ decolonization journey by sharing her experiences while coordinating the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada’s Uncovering Common Ground (UCG) Initiative. Meagan will talk about the UCG initiative, share some examples of reconciliation projects and explore some ideas of how people can get involved in their own community.
Secret Path Week is a national movement commemorating the legacies of Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack, and takes place annually from October 17-22. This is a meaningful week as October 17th and 22nd respectively mark the dates that Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack joined the spirit world.
We call on all Canadians to use Secret Path Week to answer Gord Downie’s call to action, to “Do Something” by creating a reconciliACTION and furthering the conversation about the history of residential schools.
Tickets are available now! Click here to purchase.
Secret Path Live 2019 is a recreation of the 2016 performances that brought together renowned musicians to share the Chanie Wenjack story through an immersive multimedia experience. The project, conceived by Gord and Mike Downie, intertwines the music from the Juno award-winning album, graphic novel by Jeff Lemire, and the animated film Secret Path to bring to light the painful legacy of Canada’s Residential School System, and the long-suppressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families, to the national stage. The hope was to start a national conversation and further reconciliation.
Surprise guests, dancers, and artists will come together to create a fully immersive and cultural experience that celebrates Indigenous history and commemorates the lives of Gord and Chanie.
Click here for more information.
Inspired by Chanie’s story and Gord’s call to build a better Canada, the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund aims to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Our goal is to improve the lives of Indigenous people by building awareness, education, and connections between all Canadians.
Phone: 1-844-944-4545
E-mail: staff@downiewenjack.ca
Address:
PO BOX 749
OHSWEKEN, ON
N0A1M0
