Decolonizing Lens is a film and discussion series based in Winnipeg that brings together Indigenous filmmakers, their films and audiences as a form of public education. We began the series in 2016 after the publication of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada and a gathering of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students facilitated by a youth-driven movement, the 4Rs . The 4Rs engages young people in cross-cultural dialogue toward reconciliation.
We helped co-ordinate the gathering at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba. As educators, we share a commitment to Call to Action 65 of the TRC, which focuses on the roles of universities and the national centre in advancing understandings of reconciliation. Participants at the gathering said they wanted to keep learning about Indigenous history, and about colonialism in Canada and its effects on Indigenous peoples and lands.
They said they had not learned very much about these topics in elementary or high school. Film screenings we have since organized, followed by discussions, aim to continue the conversation and help it grow. Filmmakers Trudy Stewart and Janine Windolph travelled to Winnipeg in June 2016 to screen a documentary on the Regina Indian Industrial School, RIIS from Amnesia .
The film details community efforts to protect the cemetery at the school site and commemorate children buried there. We held the event at a local movie theatre, Dav.