Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation

Honoring the bees. Building Community. Because culture is treatment.
2025-08-06 10:30 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | Where we gather in a good way – Ka ije Mino Negockedadiik, Indigenous Healing Circle/ Healing Forest, Last Dual Park, Perth, Ontario, Canada
Kwey / Boozhoo / She:kon / Aaniin / Salut / Hello / Bonjour
Friends, I hope you may join us for an informal gathering and medicine walk as we celebrate the bees and other pollinators, and learn about their cultural significance to Indigenous peoples. This is the first of what I hope will be many celebrations of the bees, the animal people, and All Our Relations.
David Gorman will hold the responsibility of Firekeeper for our Ceremony. David is Mohawk and an off-reserve member of Six Nations of the Grand River, currently residing in Kingston with his family. Colleen Gray will pay respect to the heartbeat of Mother Earth through her beautiful drumming and singing. Colleen is of Mi’kmaq/Acadian/Irish descent. An artist and advocate, Colleen founded the Art for Aid Project in 2013. Art For Aid supports First Nations, Inuit and Métis art education in remote communities through provision of quality art and winter program supplies.
All are welcome. Please bring your drum and join us.
The Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health will bring two busloads of its program participants as part of its land-based programming. The cultural plan when they arrive is for Grandma Sharon to do a circle, a prayer of gratitude, and together we will lay tobacco.
Grandma Sharon will share a teaching about bees, followed by a short introduction to the space, the bee keeping and garden programs at The Table Community Food Centre, and a medicine walk along the Healing Forest Trail with Jamie Spence, Wabano’s land-based educator. The Tay River flows by the location, and there are washrooms on site.
Please bring your own lunch, beverage, blankets and chairs. Bring your drum to join us.
Date C Arrival: August 6, between 10:30 and 11:00 am. 10:30 is recommended. Come earlier if you would like to help set up. Wabano participants expect to depart by 1:30 pm but please stay to visit, to share, to strengthen relations, and to build community.
Location: The Indigenous Healing Circle; the Healing Forest Trail, and The Table Community Food Gardens, situated on the traditional and unceded territories of the Omàmìwininì
(Algonquin) Peoples. Mailing address is Last Duel Park, 22 Craig Street, Perth, Ontario.
***Construction on Craig Street, please access the Healing Circle from Brock Street.
For information, to share a teaching, or to collaborate for future events, please contact Celina, Indigenous Care Navigator, Perth Family Health Team – because culture is treatment. celinat@perthfht.ca, 343-322-6800

Silver Lake Traditional Annual Pow Wow
2025-08-23 10:00 - 2025-08-24 17:00 | Silver Lake Provincial Park, 22726 Hwy 7, R.R.#2, Maberly, Ontario, K0H 2B0, Canada
Aug 23 and 24
Silver Lake Provincial Park
Gates open at 10:00
Admission by donation
More info 613-700-4787
Hermanknapp510@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16cdnEHkBv/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Lanark Drum Circle – August 2025
2025-08-31 13:00 | Trinity United Church Smiths Falls, 41 Market St N, Smiths Falls, Ontario, ON K7A, Canada
Aaniin gakina awiiya, / Hello everyone,
As with every last Sunday of the month, we invite you to join us in the circle at 1:00 PM at Trinity United Church Hall at 41 Market Street in Smiths Falls. Come and feel that heartbeat calling us to share our voices, stories and teachings with each other.
We come together in the circle to nourish our spirits through traditional songs and teachings, and to feel the heartbeat of our drums resonating within us and all around us. Everyone is welcome and no prior experience is necessary. It’s OK if you don’t have a drum or rattle or sticks; bring your open heart and join our open circle. There is always room for you!
Apegish apii waabamigooyan / Hope to see you then,

Lanark Drum Circle

Interwoven Narratives: Identity and Place - Ottawa
2025-09-27 13:00 - 16:00 | Royal Canadian Academy Of Arts, 50 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1M 2K1, Canada
Interwoven Narratives: Identity and Place
50 Sussex Dr, Ottawa, ON K1M 2K1
September 27th, 2025 from 1pm to 4pm
Tickets: 10$
Join us for an in-depth artist talk featuring Dayna Danger, Barry Pottle, Leslie Reid, and Nico Williams — four artists whose practices offer powerful meditations on identity, land, and cultural continuity across Inuit, Métis-Saulteaux-Polish, Anishinaabe, and settler perspectives. Art becomes a site for both resistance and healing — a way to make visible the stories and experiences that are often overlooked or erased.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/interwoven-narrativesrecits-entremeles-tickets-1488839331519

Reconciliation Through Art
2025-09-28 - 2025-09-30 | Ontario
ALMONTE, Sep 28 – 30
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT https://www.reconciliationthroughart.ca/

Reconciliation Through Art is a three day event that coincides with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It will feature art, storytelling and performances from local and Indigenous artists.
Dates & Locations:
September 28th, 2025: Documentary Screening (Inendi), 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Almonte United Church Sanctuary
September 29th, 2025: Our Voices in Song, 7:00 PM – 10:30 PM (Doors Open 6:30 PM), Almonte Old Town Hall
September 30th, 2025: Water Walk, 8:00 AM, Almonte Old Town Hall
Indigenous Art Showcase & Teachings: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Mississippi Valley Textile Museum
Special Screening:
On September 28th, a special screening of Sarain Fox’s Inendi will be held at the Almonte United Church Sanctuary. Inendi chronicles the life of Sarain’s great-aunt Mary Bell, a knowledge-keeper and the oldest remaining matriarch in her family. Mary survived nearly a decade in a Residential School and worked on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, recording the stories of other survivors. Sarain and her family will be in attendance and available for the discussion after the screening.
Musical Performances:
On September 29th, an unforgettable Indigenous music showcase will be held at Almonte Old Town Hall. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Show starts at 7:00 PM.
Water Walk:
On September 30th, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, a Water Walk will take place. The Water Walk begins at Almonte Old Town Hall and ends at Metcalfe Geoheritage Park with an Offering to the Water.
Art Exhibition:
On September 30th, local and Indigenous artists from across Ontario will be featured in the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum’s Gallery. They will be selling their art, explaining and demonstrating their craft, and telling stories and significance behind their pieces.
Teachings & Presentations:
On September 30th, in the Millworkers Learning Centre, upstairs from the Gallery, Indigenous educators, dancers, and musicians will deliver teachings and demonstrations throughout the day.
School Presentations:
On September 30th, Indigenous educators and storytellers will visit local schools throughout the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to deliver classroom presentations and share teachings and reflections.
Raffle:
On September 30th, a cash-only raffle featuring Indigenous art and donated products from local businesses will take place.

BROCKVILLE - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
2025-09-30 09:00 - 15:00 | Hardy Park, Bockville, 85 Water St E, Brockville, Ontario, K6V 1A6, Canada
This info provided by word of mouth: Brockville September 30, Hardy Park, 9am-3pm: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Bringing together Indigenous community members, individual cultures and nations to reflect on the Calls to Action. Activities include Indigenous food and vendor fair featuring a mix of modern Indigenous food and traditional foods.

Perth Orange Shirt Day Ceremony
2025-09-30 17:30 | Where we gather in a good way – Ka ije Mino Negockedadiik, Indigenous Healing Circle/ Healing Forest, Last Dual Park, Perth, Ontario, Canada
Join us for a time of education and reflection as we remember the experiences of the Indigenous children who attended Residential Schools.
The ceremony will be directed by local Indigenous Elders and include Pipe Ceremony and drumming.

Media Release: Orange Shirt Day
September 30th is Orange Shirt Day and it originated from the amazing courage shown by an Indigenous Woman named Phyllis Jack Webstad who, in the spring of 2013, dared to tell her experiences of being at Residential School. Phyllis has said, “When you wear an Orange Shirt, it’s like a bit of justice for us survivors in our lifetime and recognition of a system that we can never allow again.”
It is hard for us even to imagine a school system designed to hurt and harm children. The residential school program designed by the Colonial and Canadian Governments forcibly took children from their homes, denied contact with their parents, punished them for speaking their own language, shamed them for their culture and beliefs and treated them shamefully. The main objective was to assimilate Indigenous people into the colonial system at any cost. Yet, this is exactly what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed was the truth.
Beginning in the fall of 1831 Indigenous families could expect a knock on the door. The local officials had arrived and the truck was ready to leave. The children must go.
We cannot imagine that happening to us or our children.
In her new book, North of Nowhere, Marie Wilson said this about the testimony of survivors, “Their stories are difficult to hear. Do not flinch. Do not hide. I cannot make it softer for you. This is what I witnessed. This history belongs to all of us.”
Uncovering these truths has rekindled a national reckoning of this traumatic history. The discovery of mass graves of Indigenous Children has vindicated what survivors and their communities have long known. Their combined voices have now been heard and finally acknowledged. Calls for accountability continue to rise across the country from people who are listening and learning about this Canadian Tragedy and our collective part in it. It is a shadow that covers the ground where the Indigenous Children lay buried in places sometimes unknown. But never forgotten by their families and communities.
This year on Monday, September 30th at 5:30 pm, we invite you to come to the Orange Shirt Day Ceremony to remember and acknowledge the multigenerational trauma caused by the residential school system in Canada. To respect and honour the Survivors and those who did not return home. Please commit to ongoing learning about the Calls to Action, listen to personal stories, find the truth, and be aware. That is the call to action for each of us.
Stand up – Speak Up Every Child Matters
Join us at the Indigenous Healing Circle – Perth Healing Forest Memorial Site – 35 Craig Street Perth, Ontario. We ask that you remember this Day by wearing something Orange.
Supported by the Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation.
Support and Services for those impacted by residential schools are available to you. Please contact the 24–Hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 if you need emotional support.

Sisters in Spirit Vigil
2025-10-04 17:30 | Where we gather in a good way – Ka ije Mino Negockedadiik, Indigenous Healing Circle/ Healing Forest, Last Dual Park, Perth, Ontario, Canada
The annual Sisters in Sprit Vigil takes place to honour the lives of Indigenous Women, gender diverse, Two-Spirit and transgendered people who have been murdered or gone missing. The National Inquiry determined it to be genocide. The Vigil is also a time for comforting family members and friends mourning those lost to this violence.

Family Violence and the Law: Training with Pamela Cross
2026-02-19 09:00 - 16:00 | Beckwith Township Municipal Office, 2022 Beckwith Park Lane, Carleton Place, Ontario, K7C 0V9, Canada
Explore family & criminal law intersections in GBV cases, challenges for survivors, and current law reforms.

This full-day training explores the intersections of family and criminal law in cases involving family violence, with a focus on understanding the big picture rather than procedural details. Participants will examine common legal challenges survivors face, including parental alienation, coercive control, publication bans, and dual or counter-charging, referencing insights from the CKW inquest.
Learn more and Register…

Red Dress Day Community Beading Workshop
2026-04-20 10:00 - 12:30 | Perth and District Union Library, 30 Herriott Street, Perth, Ontario, K7H 1T2, Canada
Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, is observed every year on May 5.
Participants will learn how to bead a red dress pin that they can wear in support of and to spread awareness of Red Dress Day. Please note, the beaded pins take 2+ hours to complete.
This program is free and open to 14+. Materials are provided. Bring reading glasses if needed!
Donations are welcome to help cover the cost of supplies.
Space is limited. Please RSVP

Red Dress Day Ceremony
2026-05-05 17:30 | Where we gather in a good way – Ka ije Mino Negockedadiik, Indigenous Healing Circle/ Healing Forest, Last Dual Park, Perth, Ontario, Canada
Red Dress Day, observed annually on May 5th, is a national day of remembrance and activism in Canada honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+). Inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project, it involves hanging red dresses in public spaces to symbolize lost lives and call for justice against gender-based violence.
Amnesty International Canada
Key Aspects of Red Dress Day:

Significance: It serves as a visual reminder of the disproportionately high rates of violence faced by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada.
Symbolism: The color red is used because it is believed to be the only color spirits can see, acting as a link to victims and helping their spirits find their way home.
Action: Supporters wear red, hang red dresses on trees, windows, or fences, and participate in events to raise awareness and support affected families.
Origin: The day was inspired by the REDress Project art installation created by Metis artist Jaime Black in 2010.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Why it Matters:

Awareness: It draws attention to the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Justice: It calls for action on the recommendations of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Remembrance: It creates a space to honour the victims and support their families

In Perth – A Red Dress Ceremony is held on May 5th at 5.30 at the Indigenous Healing Circle in Last Dual Park, Craig Street off County Road 43. The Red Dresses will be hung in the park. The Indigenous led ceremony includes drumming, a pipe ceremony and recognizing the tragedy of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Please consider increasing the community awareness of the continuing crisis of the violence and numbers of Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG2S+) who go missing by wearing red on May 5th and/or hanging a Red Dress on your property.

Meadowlarks Movie
2026-06-11 19:00 | Studio Theatre Perth, 63 Gore Street East, Unit 2, Perth, Ontario, K7H 1H8, Canada
June is Indigenous History Month. Join us for a screening of Meadowlarks.
Meadowlarks is a Canadian drama film, directed by Tasha Hubbard and released in 2025. It stars Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice, Michelle Thrush and Lorne Duquette as five Cree siblings who were separated by the Sixties Scoop, who are meeting for the first time as adults.
RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKET:
www.lanarkneighbours.ticketsplease.ca/events/meadowlarks/
There will be an opportunity to make a donation at the door.
Meadowlarks Review, by Matthew Simpson:
In Canada, we like to think of ourselves as progressive and inclusive and, relative to other nations today, we most likely are. That hasn’t always been true; our history is littered with heinous events and policies that persecuted the Indigenous peoples of this country. One of the main efforts to erase Indigenous identity and culture is known as the Sixties Scoop, an approximately four-decade period in the late Twentieth Century when government policy allowed child welfare services to ‘scoop’ children up and out of their families for the express purpose of having non-Indigenous families adopt them. We, as a nation, are still grappling with the fallout of this –and other heinous institutions like the Residential School System– on a larger cultural level. However, it can be easy to forget the very real people affected by these atrocious systems—the insidious, pervasive nature of the harm caused. Individuals, families, and whole communities are all still dealing with the scars of this state-perpetrated abuse.
Meadowlarks, co-written and directed by Tasha Hubbard, follows the siblings from one such family. Five Cree siblings were forcibly separated from their mother, and four of them (played by Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice, and Michelle Thrush) agree to come together in Banff, nearly fifty years later, in an attempt to reconnect. It is a thoughtful film, featuring slow and affecting dialogue about lost childhoods, the effects of being denied one’s own culture, and being othered not just by the powers that be, but also by the families they were placed with.
All four of the siblings still feel the pull of their family, of each other, and the tangibility of the time they’ve lost–with each other and with their community–is heartbreaking to behold. Whether adopted as a teenager or as a baby, each has felt disconnected to their lives in different ways. Each actor gets a moment to shine in the telling of their individual life experiences, and each is, in their own way, a story of isolation and loneliness. Whether it’s the story of the sibling who spent time on the street and is now purposefully avoidant of alcohol, or the sibling who was adopted into a seemingly nice life in Europe, each of them recognizes a hole in themselves that only the others can replace.
In many ways, Meadowlarks feels like a play. There are a few locations, and lots of dialogue, but that is perhaps the point. These are stories that need to be shared, that we need to hear, based on the real-life experiences of people to whom this happened. Giving them space to do just that is a part of healing. Be it in documentary form, like Hubbard’s Birth of a Family, upon which this film is based, or here in Meadowlarks. These stories remind us that these events didn’t happen in the abstract, or in isolation, and the choice to dramatize these conversations in the present instead of re-enacting them in a period-set film helps remind us that we as a nation are still grappling with our troubled legacy.
As such, Meadowlarks joins films like Beans and series like Little Bird as essential viewing for audiences–both from Canada and elsewhere. Although there is hope to be found here, be prepared to shed some tears.
Meadowlarks screened as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival

Director Tasha Hubbard and stars Michelle Thrush, Alex Rice, Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Betty Ann Adam, Oskiya Tootoosis, and Lorne Duquette of MEADOWLARKS in conversation with TIFF after the WORLD PREMIERE of the film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Birch Bark Baskets workshop
2026-06-13 09:00 - 12:00 | MERA Schoolhouse, 974 Dalhousie Concession 9A, McDonald’s Corners, Ontario, K0G 1M0, Canada
This workshop is organised by MERA. REGISTER HERE
Join John Wager to learn how to make a traditional birch bark basket, approximately 6-7 inches diameter by 3.5-4 inches tall.
In this workshop participants all start with a sheet of birchbark. You’ll use spruce root to stitch it together and add a rim.
About the instructor:
My name is John Wager, I am Michi Saagiig Anishinaabe from Curve Lake First Nation.
I make and sell craft for a living along with teaching the skills I have learned along the way in workshops.
I’ve lived in Curve Lake almost all my life and I love my community.
This whole craft thing started in college almost 8 years ago, we were handed some knives, taught how to use them and then shown how to carve and coal burn a wooden spoon but I didn’t even make a spoon that year I made a wooden knife. I ended up carving my first spoon almost a year after that and then I was not able to stop. I met people and made friends/mentors along the way that helped me get to where I am today but I’m still learning.
I carve lots of spoons but I also make Baskets, Knives, Bowls, Cups, Canoe Paddles, and even some leatherwork.
www.johnswoodenware.com @johnswoodenware

Indigenous Culture Day celebration
2026-06-21 10:00 - 13:00 | Where we gather in a good way – Ka ije Mino Negockedadiik, Indigenous Healing Circle/ Healing Forest, Last Dual Park, Perth, Ontario, Canada
Open invitation to all community, young and old, to enjoy and participate in drumming, dancing, teaching circle and a variety of crafts.
Opening ceremony will be followed by a cultural celebration in this month’s honouring of the Indigenous Peoples. Come join us as all are welcome!
• Traditional Indigenous Songs with Drumming by the Lanark Drum Circle *
• Demo dancing featuring traditional jingle dress and men’s traditional
• Teachings in circle
• Crafts to experience in tents
• Round dance
• And a small feast and giveaway
* We will have extra drums & rattles for hands-on experience
