The University of Manitoba has released The Truth and Reconciliation Framework: Time for Action, which will serve as a guiding document for UManitoba’s efforts in advancing reconciliation and working with Indigenous persons and communities. The framework is centered around four focus areas: Integrating Indigenous knowledges and ways of being, creating a sense of belonging, empowering learning, and decolonizing and Indigenizing spaces and places. “Success will be built on love, relationship, trust, truth-telling and promise-keeping,” commented Knowledge Keeper Leslie Spillett. “It is the work of warriors – those who lead, listen, act, and take full responsibility for what we do right, what we get wrong, and what we fail to do.” UManitoba Vice-President (Indigenous) Angie Bruce, who is Red River Métis from St Laurent, shared that the framework outlines how all members of the institution will contribute to truth and reconciliation: “What I love about this is that everyone — every single one of us, whether it be the clerk who is processing our payroll, whether it be professors, instructors, facilities, whether it be administrative assistants — there is a role for all of us.”
