I was very happy to read that you intend to create an on-line exhibition from Residential Schools: the Red Lake Story, and I am fully in suppot of the project.

As the curator for Where are the Children: Healing the Legacy of Residential Schools I was very impressed by the effort your gallery put into creating The Red Lake Story when Where are the Children came to the Red Lake Regional Heritage Centre. When I curated the exhibition I envisioned hosting institutions taking an interactive approach by adding relevant information from their own communities and The Red Lake Regional Heirtage Centre did an excellent job of this. And I belive only one of three institutions that has so far done this during the exhibitions four year tour.

When I had the chance to visit Red Lake and see the exhibition I was very impressed by the use of historical photogrphas from the region and it was a wonderful compliment to Where are the Children. I was also impressed by the community support the exhibition received and the number of people that attended my presentations while in Red Lake, certainly highlighting the community's hunger for more information and the need for an on-line project. I recall giving a talk to regional high school principals and remember how many of them talked about the lack of First Nations teaching information for their teachers and how important the exhibition is for their region.

As you know the legacy of residential schools continues to affect Aboriginal people and a problem that won't go away in the next few years, but in face will take generations of work . So the ability of ongoing healing and the importance of having access to information like The Red Lake Story is critical for everyone, both Aboriginal and the general population. I do hope your project becomes a reality!

Jeff Thomas

Curator

Where are the Children Healing the Legacy of Residential Schools

On behalf of the Red Lake Indian Friendship Centre, we offer our support towards the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to an on-line virtual exhibit.

The exhibit last year has shown many of our Aboriginal community members as little people caught up in this political war.

This exhibit has brought the community of Red Lake, the realization that Residential School students were/was and are our next door neighbour; the person down the street was the person who attended Residential School.

The virtual exhibit will allow healing for our people as it gives achnowledgement on such a terrible time in our history.

Sincerely yours,

Simon Thompson

President

I am writing you in strong support of your proposal to adapt the exhibition Residential Schools" the Red Lake Story, which was shown last year at your museum, to an on-line virtual exhibit.

I know what a tremendous and helpful impact the exhibition had on visitors to Red Lake and, especially, to members of the Aboriginal communities you serve. Having hosted the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's 'Where Are the Children' exhibition at the University of British Columbia while I was director there, I also know more generally how important such exhibits. Creating a virtual exhibit is an ideal way to retain and extend the value of this project so that it can reach a great many more people and continue to serve as a point of reference for those who were able to see it in its physical form. I have no doubt that it will thus continue to play a profound role in the healing process not only for the victims of residential schooling, but also for their families, who continue to live with the damaging effects of this history, and for the wider public which seeks to understand this chapter of Canadian history

I can't think of a more important project for programs such as the Virtual Museum of Canada and I support your proposal in the strongest possible terms.

Sincerely,

Ruth Phillips

Canada Research Chair and Professor of Art History

Carleton University

I was very impressed with your Residential School exhibit on my visit to Red Lake Heritage and now that the Centre is planning on expanding its exhibit to an on-line virtual exhibit, tha twould be quite a learning experience for may who will be viewing it.

Our young people are always seeking information and should be provided to them in many ways as possible, the virtual exhibit would be an ideal place for that.

If this futhers the history and the impacts of the residential schools to the general public then would be something we fully support.

Yours truly,

Sam Achneepineskum, Residential School Project Coordinator

Nishnawbe Aski Nation

As President and Chairman of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, I encourage and support your proposal to adapt "Residential Schools: the Red Lake Story" as an on-line virtual exhibit.

We at the Foundation know from experience that the telling of our stories in our own words and images contributes powerfully to healing. When I was Co-Chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, I became well aware of the hunger across this country to talk about what happened in the schools and to have these testimonies heard and validated by others. The 1996 RCAP Report recommended that more oportunities be given to former students tot talk about their experiences. I have abserved with dismay that over ten years later much work remains to be done in this area.

There is in addition to this a complementary need to educated our people, and in particular our youth, about the residential school system and its enduring legacy. We will not have healing in our familes and nations, nor will we have reconciliation with Governement and churches, without an understanding of history and a commitment never again to countenance such a system.

On behalf of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, I thank you for your dedication and wish you success in your efforts.

Masi,

Georges Erasmus,

President

Aboriginal Healing Foundation

Wawatay News was impressed at the depth and breadth of you and your staff's presentation of Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, which you presented last year. The research you and your staff have done was exceptional and supassed even the national exhibit with the details an dpersonal stories you presented. To adapt this exhibit to a virtual one should, naturally, be the next step as it would be available to a larger audience.

You and your staff put in such tremendous efforts to present the exhibition, Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to citizens and visitors of Red Lake last spring. Our readers were able to benefit from this grotesque part of our history that has been silent. There is value and importance for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal visitors to realize the sufferings of Canada's First Nation children in residential schools and their impacts on today's generations.

By going on-line, I feel you could reach an even wider audience. Sadly there are many Canadians who are not aware of the specifics of this part of Canadian history. Your exhibit not only answers the 5 W's, it also puts a human face on the residential schools program. This program has affected the citizens of Red Lake. More people need to know this.

A virtual exhibit will also make it easier for Canadians to learn about this time period as they are not always at liberty to get to the museum. A virtual exhibit, on the other hand, will always be just a click away.

With that, I encourage you and your staff to make Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story a virtual exhibit.

Sincerely,

Joyce Hunter

Editor

Wawatay News

This letter is written in support of your efforts to adapt the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, which you developed last year, to an on-line virtual exhibit.

My experience with the exhibit came when I served as facilitator of a workshop for the people of Red Lake. At that time, I was most impressed with the local empasis the staff had developed as a way to contestualize the travelling exhibit from Ottawa. The degree of interest expressed by the people who attended the workshop was intense and my hope was that many more would have the opportunity to see the exhibit and think through its meaning over time. The students who were there also found the material provocative an inspiring. I am committed to acknowledging history as a way forward to better relations amongst all the groups in Canada. This exhibit is one way to do that work. Residential schools for Aboriginal students are the starting point for formal education in Canada and their existence and legacy should not be forgotten. It is important for all citizens, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to know this history.

Taking the exhibit onto the web would allow an even wider group to have access to this important information and analysis. Again, a local view provides specific detail that can inform and inspire not only the people directly impacted but also peole across Canada who can use this as a base for comparative work. Clearly, if the exhibit goes on-line, it is not time limited an dit becomes available to people who are and were unable to visit the museum to see it directly. In addition, it becomes accessible for deeper research and constant re-appraisal.

I am most supportive of this initiative and see it as an important contribution to Canada's and Red Lake's efforts to help us all remember and make current the historical issues that are an iescapable, althought often ignored, part of all our contemporary lives. I look forward to seeing the Heritage Centre move Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to a virtual exhibit.

Sincerely,

Celia Haig-Brown

Professor

York University

I believe that adapting the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to an on-line virtual exhibit would be an excellent way of ensuring that the learning won't stop.

The exhibition, Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, reached a lot of citizens and visitors of Red Lake last year and we can't let that information be hidden again. Acknowledging even the ugly parts of Canada's history can only benefit the community. It is important for people to begin to understand the sufferings of the children in residential schools, the pain of those who were left behind and the impact on today's generations.

Hopefully, with the virtual exhibit, you will be able to reach an even wider audience. More people need to know this. It can only benefit our community, our students, our citizens.

I encourage you on the project of making the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story a virtual exhibit.

Miikwech!

Sincerely,

Kaaren Dannenmann, Coordinator

KIISHIK Foundation

Last spring you and your staff presented the exhibition, Residential School: The Red Lake Story. We wholeheartedly support your plan to adapt this exhibition to an on-line virtual exhibit.

Putting your whole exhibit on-line will allow more people to acquaint themselves with parts of Canadian history that remain untold. It would also honor the experience of former residents of the schools by giving them a broader audience and allowing their descendants and non-Aboriginal people to become more informed.

We appreciate the photos you included lat year in your email messages depicting various parts of your exhibit. How could our members benefit from your exhibit on-line? It would allow the few members of our congregation who worked in Residential Schools, especially in the McIntosh School in Armstrong, and who are still with us, to talk about their experiences and continue to heal their pain.

We encourage you and your staff to make the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, a virtual exhibit.

Sincerely yours,

Lea Boutin, mo

I am writing you to encourage you to adapt the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, which you presented last year, to an on-line virtual exhibit.

You and your staff put in such a tremendous effort to present the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to citizens and visitors of Red Lake last spring. My classes and other at the high school greatly benefited from a view of this part of our history that has been silent. It was very beneficial for students to have an opportunity to talk about the experiences of their families and it was important for non-Aboriginal students to realize the sufferings of the children in residential schools and the impact on today's generations.

By going on-line, I feel you could reach an even wider audience. There are many Canadians who are not aware of the specifics of this part of Canadian history. Your exhibit not only answers the 5 W's but, it also puts a human face on the residential schools program. This program has afected the citizens of Red Lake. More people need to know this.

A virtual exhibit will also make it easier for future school children in our area to learn about this time period. Classes are not always at liberty to get to the museum whereas a virutal exhibit is just a click away.

So, in conclusion, I encourage you and your staff to make the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story a virtual exhibit. I see only benefits to our communit, our students, our citizens.

Sincerely,

Catherine Mochrie

Urban Aboriginal Program

Red Lake District High School

Thanks for sharing our plan the Red Lake Heritage Centre's recent exhibit on the area's residential schools on-line as a virtual exhibit. This would maximize your

hard work and make the material available to a much larger audience. In working with the Centre I kno wyou have a proven track record of carrying our this type of project successfully.

The exhibit through photographs, documents and information gathered for the purpose, provides a unique look at residential school history through the eyes of the Red Lake area, an important story that deserves to be broadly told.

Currently, we do not have a program that could resource this project. But I encourage your efforts and hope that your have success with other programs in realizing the project.

Good luck with your efforts.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boulton

Kenora Regional Consultant

Ministry of Culture

On behalf of the Red Lake Indian Friendship Centre, we offer our support towards the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to an on-line virtual exhibit.

The exhibit last year has shown many of our Aboriginal community members as little people caught up in this political war.

This exhibit has brought the community of Red Lake, the realization that Residential School students were/was and are our next door neighbour; the person down the street was the person who attended Residential School.

The virtual exhibit will allow healing for our people as it give acknowledgement on such a terrible time in our history.

Sincerely yours,

Simon Thompson

President

Red Lake Indian Friendship Centre

This is a letter of support and to offer encouragement to you to adapt the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, which you presented last year, to an on-line virtual exhibit. In this 'virtual age', by going on-line I feel you could reach an even wider audience.

As the founder of the Kiishik Fund, I encourage you and your staff to make the Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story a virtual exhibit. The Kiishik Fund was established to create awareness of First Nations in the classromms and communities of the Red Lake District. The Residential School story is an important part of Canadian history and is congruent with the goals of the Kiishik Fund.

I believe Kaaren Dannenman, who administers the Kiishik Fund, was instrumental in bringing the Residential School Exhibit to the Red Lake Heritage Centre last year. I applaude the efforts of the Red Lake Heritage Centre staff to bring this important exhibit to Red Lake where so many First Nations people continue to be affected by the legacy of the policy of residential schools.

Therefore, I wholeheartedly support this initiative as I see only benefits to our community, our students and our citizens.

Sincerely,

Linda Lundstrom

President and Chief Creative Officer

Linda Lundstrom Inc.