National Indigenous History Month 2023 – Week 3: Children and youth
June is National Indigenous History Month (NIHM), an opportunity to acknowledge and honour the history, culture and resilience of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation.
We encourage all Canadians to take time to learn more about Indigenous Peoples and to explore our collective past. Knowing and acknowledging the past and its ongoing impacts is the first step towards healing and reconciliation.
2023 weekly themes
Each week will be dedicated to a different theme to highlight specific aspects of Indigenous history, cultures and perspectives.
Week 3: Children and Youth
To launch this third week with the theme of children and youth, discover the archives we preciously preserve in our collections:
- Collection: Album: Indigenous people and children
- Collection: Photo: Charles (1854–1875) and Joseph Riel (1857–1921) were the brothers of Louis Riel (1844–1885), the Métis spokesperson, founder of Manitoba, teacher and leader of the North-West Resistance.
- Collection: Photo: Young girl carrying groceries on a snowy road, Buffalo Narrows, Saskatchewan, March 1955. This photo is included in the travelling exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight, which is currently in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
- Collection: William Eakin Fonds
- Project Naming: Three Inuit children stand by a large canoe, Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), Nunavut (formerly Northwest Territories), September 5, 1958. Do you recognize anyone in this photo?
- Project Naming: Class of students standing outside their schoolhouse, Hazelton, British Columbia, 1909. Do you recognize anyone in this photo?
- Project Naming: Child sitting in a washbasin, Little Grand Rapids, Manitoba, date unknown. Do you recognize the child in this photograph?
- Blog: Cradleboards: keeping babies safe and portable
LAC acknowledges that a great deal of records related to First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation peoples held in our collections lack important contextual information. As outlined in Vision 2030: A strategic plan to 2030, LAC is doing more to place collections in context, making them easier to understand by setting them in a wider historical and cultural landscape. We do this in various ways, including by offering theme-based collections and programs and by encouraging a variety of uses for the collections. The projects We Are Here: Sharing our Stories and Listen, Hear Our Voices support this commitment.
Reconciliation will not be accomplished overnight and is a journey that requires commitment from all people in Canada.
#NIHM2023
Associated links