Hello,

True North Aid staff trusts that this email finds all our supporters keeping well.

This is a quick follow-up regarding a few of our current initiatives, and to introduce you to a new reconciliatory initiative that we need volunteers for!

A few key features of this email:

• Next Tuesday, February 28 our annual literacy event Northern Reads ends.
• Register for our last Authors Series featuring Aimée Craft.
• Contribute to Northern Reads by purchasing a gift card benefiting a literacy program in a northern and remote community.
• Sign-up for our Settler Discussion Series beginning Sunday, March 5th.
• Only 5 spaces remain for Becoming Kin Retreat Ontario, featuring Anishinaabe/Ukrainian author Patty Krawec and anti-racist activist Sharmeen Khan. Based on Patty's book, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future, we will consider our responsibilities as non-Indigenous people and what it means to be good kin, and we will learn how to use our platforms to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people.
• Lastly, we are calling on supporters across Canada to host a Reconciliation Walk in their own community on September 30, 2023. Already successfully piloted for three years in Kingston, Ontario, we will guide the process and logistics with you, providing the materials you need to host this meaningful event.

See below for details regarding all upcoming events.

As noted in a previous email, this year we are making an effort to go where our supporters are, engaging with one another online or in-person. Join us!

Warmly,

Katie Koopman

Reconciliation Program Coordinator

gap@truenorthaid.ca

www.truenorthaid.ca

Northern Reads: Authors Series

Next Tuesday, February 28, we will close out our annual literacy event, Northern Reads with the fourth and last Indigenous guest in our Authors Series, Aimée Craft.

Aimée is an Anishinaabe/Métis lawyer from Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba, and is an award-winning teacher, researcher, artist and change-maker.

We will discuss Treaty responsibility and her work as a land and water protector.

We are so grateful that she is joining us.

Register to attend this Zoom event here.

View Aimée's books here.

Learn more about Aimée here.

Northern Reads: Gift Cards/Shipping

With just having reached 55% of our goal in GoodMinds gift cards, and 65% of our shipping costs, True North Aid will nevertheless ensure that the three recipient communities (Cross Lake, MB; Wekweeti, NWT; Inuvik, NWT) will receive the books requested for their literacy programs.

You can still participate and help us get closer to our goal!

• Purchase a gift card from GoodMinds and donate it back to True North Aid,
• Contribute to our shipping costs,
• Share this initiative on social media.

Visit Northern Reads 2023 for further info.

Becoming Kin Retreat Information

Ontario March 31 - April 2 | B.C. September 27-29 | Nova Scotia October 13-15

Retreats are limited to 25 - 30 participants.

Becoming Kin Retreat follows Patty Krawec's newly released Becoming Kin: An Indigenous call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future.

This retreat was first hosted by True North Aid in October 2022.

People joined us from schoolboards, churches, universities, and other community groups to investigate history and talk about building a better world.

It was so impactful, we're taking it across Canada.

And it's not just for non-Indigenous people.

Patty will host a breakout session with just racially marginalized participants who get something different from the material.

Because our kin and our responsibilities are different from each other.

Patty Krawec will be present each weekend with co-facilitator Sharmeen Khan (Upping the Anti) joining Patty in Mono, Ontario and at Loon Lake Lodge in B.C. Alexis Shotwell (Against Purity, Knowing Otherwise) will co-facilitate in Tatamagouche, N.S.

This intimate gathering, intentionally held in a natural setting, will

"...braid together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, to 'unforget' our history."

To learn more about Becoming Kin and to register, visit

Becoming Kin Retreat 2023

"I gained a deeper understanding of Indigenous Peoples, their complex histories and entrenched struggles related to colonialization. This weekend helped me to examine key interconnected concerns for Indigenous Peoples in Canada including prejudice, health issues, inadequate housing, and higher rates of suicide and addictions. Providing a safe place to learn under the direction of an Indigenous educator within nature provided an enriched opportunity to learn and discuss these systemic issues.”

P. Shea, Participant

October 2022 Retreat

*NEW INITIATIVE* Reconciliation Walk 2023

True North Aid is looking for supporters to host a Reconciliation Walk in communities across Canada on September 30th, 2023.

Indigenous voices are calling upon non-Indigenous people to do the work that is asked of us: educating ourselves and our peers.

The Reconciliation Walk provides non-Indigenous Canadians with an opportunity to learn about the timeline of Canada’s residential school legacy through an interactive, self-guided experience.

Further, the Reconciliation Walk hopes to instill an urgency for change and action in moving forward together in justice and solidarity.

Please contact Katie at gap@truenorthaid.ca for more info,