Residential school archive moves to Algoma University

NEWS RELEASE

ALGOMA UNIVERSITY

************************* Algoma University to receive national archives Aboriginal Healing Foundation resource centre moves to Sault Ste. Marie

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON - (July 6) - The Aboriginal Healing Foundation board of directors has announced that the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and Algoma University will become the beneficiaries of the Gail Guthrie Valaskakis Memorial Resource Centre. This resource centre, which commemorates Dr. Gail Guthrie Valaskakis (the AHF's original director of research who passed away in 2007), contains over 6,000 items, among them video and audio interviews of residential school survivors, research materials, and AHF project reports.

This one-of-a-kind public centre functions as a library, a reading room, and a private screening room.

Currently housed in the Aboriginal Healing Foundation's Ottawa office, the Gail Guthrie Valaskakis Memorial Resource Centre will be gradually transferred to its new home beginning later this year. "We are very grateful that the foundation has selected Algoma University and the CSAA to receive this Library and related records and materials," said Dr. Richard Myers, president of Algoma University. "We will respect, develop and continue to make it increasingly available to the world." "The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA) and Algoma University are entering our fourth decade of partnership for the true realization of Chief Shingwauk's vision," said Daisy Kostus, president of the Children of Shingwauk alumni council. "The library is a unique and extremely valuable collection that significantly complements and enhances Algoma's and the CSAA's capacities and efforts in assisting all Canadians, including students at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels, in understanding and addressing the Indian residential school system and its impacts." The Aboriginal Healing Foundation received several comprehensive and high-quality proposals for the transfer of the resource centre.

The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and Algoma University were chosen on the basis of their long-standing grassroots-driven commitment to "sharing, healing and learning" in relation to the legacy of Canada's Indian residential schools policy.

The campus and central buildings housing Algoma University and the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association were from 1873 to 1970 the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian residential schools, in Sault Ste Marie. About Algoma University Algoma University is committed to offering an undergraduate education experience unlike any university in Ontario, offering a wide variety of program options.

Algoma University also offers accelerated diploma-to-degree programs in business administration in Brampton, and two degrees, including a bachelor of social work, in Timmins.

As a partner with Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, Algoma U is committed to respecting Anishinaabe knowledge and culture.

To learn more about Algoma University, visit www.algomau.ca About the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association

The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA - former students of the Shingwauk and Wawanosh Schools, and staff, descendants, families and friends) are partnered with Algoma University, and the National Residential School Survivors' Society, the Anglican Church, the Shingwauk Education Trust (SET), the Dan Pine Healing Lodge, and others to: research, collect, preserve and display the history of the residential schools; develop and deliver projects of "sharing, healing and learning" in relation to the impacts of the schools, and of individual and community cultural restoration; and accomplish "the true realization of Chief Shingwauk's vision". About the Aboriginal Healing Foundation

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a not-for-profit, Aboriginal-managed national funding agency which encourages and supports community-based healing efforts addressing the intergenerational legacy of physical and sexual abuse in Canada's Indian residential school system. *************************