Learning from the past and charting a path toward reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians are the main objectives of a national forum in Winnipeg this week.

Sharing the Land, Sharing a Future is being held on the 20th anniversary of the final report from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). The five-volume, 4,000-page report outlined a 20-year agenda for change that included 440 specific recommendations.

Marlene Brant Castellano, a co-director of research for RCAP who is helping organize the forum, says Sharing the Land, Sharing the Future comes at a key moment in Canadian history when there is widespread support for addressing Indigenous issues through the lens of a nation-to-nation relationship.

“The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples set out a bold plan that wasn’t followed through on. Now, though, we have a second chance to heal the rift in the Canadian fabric,” says Ms. Brant Castellano, Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Council at Queen’s University. “In its final report last year, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission repeatedly echoed recommendations of the RCAP, which were grounded in a massive body of consultation, research, and analysis that continues to be relevant today.”

During the forum, a wide range of participants will explore and update learning from RCAP about how to live together respectfully as distinct peoples. Background papers will help broaden awareness of policies and institutions that need to be changed. Furthermore, dialogue at the forum will promote inter-generational and inter-cultural relationships and learning.

The forum will also feature a number of high-profile speakers and panelists, including The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Perry Bellegarde, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations, RCAP Co-Chair René Dussault, and Mark Dockstator, President, First Nations University of Canada.

Library and Archives Canada, the custodian of the archival records of RCAP, will launch at the forum the online database of publications, testimony, and research related to the commission’s work. The material, which was originally circulated to public institutions in CD-ROM format, has been inaccessible for years because of changes in software technology.

“The searchable database will be a key resource for research and education into the future,” Ms. Brant Castellano says. “I am thrilled that Library and Archives Canada, working with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, has taken the initiative to retrieve this important historical record and move it online.”  

Sharing the Land, Sharing a Future takes place Nov. 2-4 at the Caboto Centre (1055 Wilkes Ave.) in Winnipeg. Visit the Queen’s School of Policy Studies website for the agenda.