"Reconciliation is yours to achieve. We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future; a future of healing and trust."
- The Honourable Murray Sinclair, LLB MSC IPC
15th Chancellor of Queen’s University
Please join us Wednesday, September 30, 2026 as we recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Event details below are updated regularly beginning late August or early September.
Background
In 2021, September 30th marked Canada’s first official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR), a newly designated day of remembrance to honour victims and survivors of Canada’s Indigenous residential school system. For years, the 30th of September has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day.
In support of this important moment of reflection and learning, the university will be offering activities and opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to learn, engage, and act toward advancing reconciliation both on and off campus.
An important aspect of Truth and Reconciliation work is committing to your own awareness and self-education of the complex histories as well as ongoing issues facing Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island. With this, we encourage you to use the below resources as well as sources of information you discover on your own, to learn more, each day. Please read and sign the commitment to reconciliation here.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Working Group
The work done on campus leading up to September 30th is lead by the NDTR Working Group. This working group put thoughtful plans and actions toward reconciliation efforts at Queen’s University in a manner that engages community during the week of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and throughout the year.
For more information, please review the NDTR WG Terms of Reference.
Respectful Engagement
Each year, the NDTR Working Group has chosen an area of focus for messaging and events. In 2024, the focus was on education - providing additional learning opportunities while encouraging a personal commitment to your own education and awareness.
This year, the focus will be around respectful engagement - in reconciliation work, with Indigenous community, and as an ally. To help clarify what this may look like, the Office of Indigenous has prepared a guideline. This guide is intended for the entire Queen's community to support your conversations, your interactions, and can also be used to guide your social media messaging during NDTR content.
Events and Learning Opportunities
Please check back regularly for more planned events, which are open to all members of the Queen's University community unless stated otherwise.
If you are planning an event in support of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and would like it to be added to this webpage, please submit your event details using the NDTR Events Submission Form. Please fill out the form no later than Monday, September 21st, and, at minimum, two (2) weeks prior to your event date to allow for further promotion.
We encourage everyone to engage thoughtfully and respectfully with this important work and contribute to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation working group's ongoing commitment to strong community and relationship-building.
Union Gallery is open 11am to 4:30pm Tuesday to Saturday, with late hours until 8pm on Wednesdays. Admission is free an open to the public. Find out more at uniongallery.ca/visit
Tuesday, August 4, 2026 - Sunday, September 13, 2026
Online Auction | Union Gallery | Buy BACK by Nico Williams: Silent Auction | Auction Closes at 12:00am, September 13, 2026
Event Details: Donated by the artist, Nico Williams’ blue and black Buy BACK mat appeared his 2025 installations at Centre PHI (BINGO!) and Union Gallery (Loan Stars: Beading Back our Manidoo). Manufactured to add character to the pawn shop-inspired installations, the mat's message is one of cultural reclamation—a nod to Nico's practice of purchasing undervalued ancestral works (bandoliers, baskets, quilts, and beadworks) by artists-once-known, and displaying them with care alongside contemporary artworks by many incredible living Indigenous artists from across Turtle Island.
Funds raised from the silent auction will directly support artist fees for Union Gallery’s annual exhibition highlighting contemporary Indigenous artists local to the Katarokwi-Kingston area, hosted each year in partnership with Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Queen's University's Office of Indigenous Initiatives. Visitors can look forward to the 5th annual exhibition this September. About the artist: Nico Williams, O’dehmin (ᐅᑌᒥᐣ, pronounced DAY-min in Anishinaabemowin) (b. 1989) is a multidisciplinary artist from Aamjiwnaang (pronounced am-JIN-nun, meaning “at the spawning stream”).
His ancestors were central to the Huron Tract Treaty of 1827, the Amherstburg negotiation that ceded 2.2 million acres of Anishinaabek territory. Based in Mooniyang / Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, Williams operates his incorporated studio, developing cross-disciplinary projects. Rooted in sculptural beadwork, his practice extends Anishinaabe knowledge systems into contemporary art. On his Kettle Point side, he descends from Gertrude Bresette, a member of the Great Lakes ash-basket-making guild, situating his work within the long continuum of Anishinaabek artistry and the enduring teachings of the Great Lakes Nation.
Williams holds an MFA in Sculpture from Concordia University (2021) and is a lifelong member of the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork research team. He has taught at MIT, the McCord Stewart Museum, the University of Toronto, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and has created major installations at the Brooklyn Museum. In 2025, his solo exhibition Bingo opened at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, curated by Daniel Fiset. Following his 2024 Sobey Art Award, these projects affirm Williams as a leading Anishinaabe voice in contemporary art.
Silent Auction Link: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/buy-back-by-nico-williams-silent-auction
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 - Saturday, October 3, 2026
5th Annual Indigenous Art Exhibition | Union Gallery | 11-4:30 pm
Event Details: Office of Indigenous Initiatives, Agnes, and Union Gallery are thrilled to continue a partnership for the 5th annual Indigenous Art Exhibition at Queen’s University. Programmed in conjunction with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the exhibition is a celebration of Indigenous artists in the Katarokwi area. Featuring artwork by Angela Wiggins, Brittany Dale, Chayse Davey, Carleigh Candice Mignonne Milburn, Helen Baillie, Hugo Lussier-Meek, Kiah Seppala, Mikey BrandTM, Niiostoseraah Thompson, Nitānis Greyeyes-Brant Barker, and Sasha Hill. The exhibition is curated by Sasza Hinton.
Additional Information: https://www.uniongallery.ca/posts/indigenous-art-exhibition-2026
Saturday, September 12
Opening Reception | Union Gallery | 1-3 pm
Event Details: Join us us for an opening reception at Union Gallery (UG) and meet some of the artists whose work will be exhibited in the gallery this semester. In the Main Space, the 5th Annual Indigenous Art Exhibition (presented in conjunction with the Office of Indigenous Initiatives + Agnes Etherington Art Centre) brings together artwork by Indigenous artists local to the Katarokwi area practising in a variety of artistic disciplines.
This exhibition is curated by Sasza Hinton and features artwork by Angela Wiggins, Brittany Dale, Chayse Davey, Carleigh Candice Mignonne Milburn, Helen Baillie, Hugo Lussier-Meek, Kiah Seppala, Mikey BrandTM, Niiostoseraah Thompson, Nitānis Greyeyes-Brant Barker, Sasha Hill. We will also be launching two visiting artist exhibitions centred on UG's annual curatorial theme, "living together".
In the Project Room, interdisciplinary Cree Métis artist Lara Felsing is visiting from Northern Alberta to present Holding Our Breath, which investigates the increasing prevalence of wildfires as summers continue to grow hotter and drier. On the Feature Wall, Christina Battle (visiting artist, amiskwacîwâskahikan/Edmonton) and Jill Glatt (local artist, Katarokwi/Kingston)'s collaborative exhibition Artists in the Garden reflects on a collectively-led garden project focused on plant-based art-making practices informed by the climate crisis. Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP is not required, but appreciated for planning purposes.
Event Registration: https://form.jotform.com/262254520850250
Tuesday, September 15 - Saturday, November 21
Holding Our Breath: Visiting Artist Exhibition by Lara Felsing | Union Gallery | 11-4:30 pm
About the Artist: Lara Felsing is an interdisciplinary Cree Métis artist from Northern Alberta, Canada, and a registered member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. Her material practice and research are approached with ‘two-eyed seeing’, with one eye looking through a lens of Indigenous teachings and the other through a lens of Western knowledge. Lara’s practice responds to the stories happening on the land where she lives and beyond. Her work investigates climate change, community, and kinship towards the land and more-than-humans. Her practice addresses the increasing prevalence of wildfires, including sharing her experiences evacuating from her community twice in 2023.
She creates an ecology of artwork that reflects the power and knowledge embedded in the land, and shares the message of acknowledging our connection to the natural world for our survival and the health of the land and more-than-human species with whom we coexist. About the exhibition: This fire season, thousands of wildfires have burned worldwide. Lara Felsing’s exhibition, titled Holding Our Breath, investigates the increasing prevalence of wildfires as summers continue to grow hotter and drier. The title Holding Our Breath is drawn from the experience of living with poor air quality from extreme wildfire smoke and the collective anxiety felt while wildfires burn.
This body of work is made with wildfire burn-site castoffs, flagging tape, harvested plant-dyed, up-cycled textiles, and secondhand items from Lara’s community that have been altered to reflect the increase in wildfires and their connection to drought, rising global temperatures, and the burning of fossil fuels. Sculptures and textile pieces are combined not only with forest castoffs and secondhand materials, but also with photographs taken during the wildfires in Alberta where she lives. They reference the windows she looked out of before and after evacuating, as she documented the shifting sky for signs of safety and danger. Holding Our Breath takes place at the end of the 2026 fire season. It invites conversation, sharing, and reflection on where we are, where we’re headed, and how we proceed amid wildfire, wildfire smoke, and the climate emergency. This exhibition is supported by the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund of Queen’s University and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Additional Information: https://www.uniongallery.ca/posts/lara-felsing
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Missing | Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Jennifer Velva Bernstein Performance Hall | 7:30-9:30 pm
Event Details: Experience the powerful production of Missing, the acclaimed chamber opera by Métis playwright Marie Clements and JUNO award-winning composer Brian Current. Missing gives voice, in English and Gitksan, to stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Set in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and along the Highway of Tears, Missing is a poetic expression of loss and hope. This moving production is led by Music Director Timothy Long and features Digital Set Design by Andy Moro. The cast includes sopranos Melody Courage and Maeve Palmer, mezzo-sopranos Marion Newman, Andrea Ludwig, and Michelle Lafferty, tenor Asitha Tennekoon, and baritone Evan Korbut.
Event Registration Required (FREE): Https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/whats-on/missing-opera
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Harvest Moon Celebration with David R. Maracle | Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Principal Emerita Karen Hitchcock Recital Hall | 8-10 pm
Event Details: David R. Maracle, Bear Clan Tehanenia’kwè:tarons Cutter of Stone Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Kenhtè:ke Kanyen’kehá:ka Award-winning Haudenosaunee artist David R. Maracle is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer whose work blends ancestral teachings with modern creativity. Since 1985, he has created exceptional stone sculptures and music, earning multiple Canadian Indigenous Music Awards, two RIAA Gold Records, and international performances including the 2000 Olympics and for the Queen of England. This performance is a celebration of harvest, gratitude, and the enduring traditions of Indigenous Peoples. Tickets $25. Queen's University Students FREE
Event Registration: https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/whats-on/harvest-moon
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Sacred Fire | Agnes Benidickson Field | 1 pm
Event Details: The event is open to the entire Queen's University community.
September 14, 21, and 30: Truth & Reconciliation Virtual Sessions for Educators - Outdoor Learning School | Details Here
September 9, 16, 23, and 30: Walking Together: Two-Eyed Seeing for Educators - Outdoor Learning School | Details Here
Orange T-shirts on Campus
Orange T-shirts will be made available the week prior to September 30th. Please check back in the coming weeks for confirmed dates, times, and location of t-shirt booths.
This year, we are honoured to work with an Indigenous student artist on a new design. Design and artist to be announced on September 8, 2026.
Resources
The following resources will help provide education, understanding, and awareness on Indigenous history, current issues, etc.
For a full list of resources, please click here.
Indigenous Organizations
The following are local and province-wide organizations, Indigenous communities, etc. for you to be aware of.
To view more organizations, please click here.