The Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford will receive more than $1 million from the federal government for its “Save the Evidence” project. The evidence will include stories from residential school survivors.
Woodland Cultural Centre executive director, Heather George said, “When there’s stories directly from survivors, so quotes, those will actually be embedded in the wall and the furniture so that their stories are very permanent in this space. The historal narritive and those more general elements to stories will be on wall panels. So that the real permanent element of this interpretation and experience are from survivors themselves.”
READ MORE: Brantford police seek 15-year-old boy missing for over a week
In 2015, the Save the Evidence project started to help protect Canada’s largest facility managed by First Nations, which is on the site of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School.
Former elected chief Ava Hill says this project is important for unity, to the survivors, “the power is they will hear the story first hand from survivors. It’s said that the truth in reconciliation is that the more we learn about each other then maybe we can start to eliminate some of the stereotypes that exist in this world. That is true reconciliation.”
$1.3 million will go to the Save the Evidence project and the Canadian Arts Presentation Fund will provide $75,000 over three years to put towards seasonal celebrations.
READ MORE: Brantford police seek 2 men wanted in sexual assault investigation
“I’m so grateful to be here today, particularly with this announcement which will continue to help us preserve and strengthen the Indigenous language and culture and history,” Hamilton liberal MP Lisa Hepfner says it’s not going to be easy but the government is committed to the conservation of the exhibit.
“And finally we couldn’t bring this project to completion without the generosity of the Canadian Heritage Fund which will allow us to create all the interpretive elements to the project including audio listenings with first hand accounts from the survivors and other audio and visual tools,” Hepfner said.
The doors are set to open to the public in May 2025.