Canada’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the University of Manitoba (UM) have announced a C$5 million ($3.7 million) grant from the Winnipeg Foundation to help fund a permanent home for NCTR and its activities.

The grant will serve as a lead gift in a C$40-million ($29.5 million) capital campaign to develop a headquarters for NCTR, which works to safeguard the stories and legacies of the Indigenous children and their families who survived the Canadian Indian residential school system. The formal government program, which operated for more than a century, was designed to isolate Indigenous children from their communities and assimilate them into a dominant Canadian culture.

The university, which has provided temporary space to NCTR since the center's founding in 2015, has described the planned new home as “a safe space for survivors and their families to come together to share their truths, knowledge, and experiences. The center will also be a place where family members can visit for healing and to reconnect with lost histories and loved ones.”

“The new home for the NCTR will be an internationally renowned site of learning, healing, and meaningful action,” said UM president and vice chancellor Michael Benarroch, “UM is honored to be the host for the NCTR, and I am looking forward to continuing to work together on this vital endeavor.”

(Photo credit: Wikimedia/Allison Mills)