We wish to acknowledge this land on which we gather as Treaty 4 Territory, the traditional lands of the Cree, Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, Saulteaux and the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Regina Public Library is committed to working together with Indigenous peoples as we take an important step forward on the pathway of collaboration, reconciliation, and change.

Reconciliation Resources

Here you'll find programs, services and resources that support and celebrate Indigenous culture, traditions and histories. 

We've included traditional and contemporary resources that reflect cross cultural awareness, education and understanding for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. These programs, resources and services create opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of reconciliation.

On This Page

• Featured Events
• Reading Lists
• Video Resources
• Movies
• History
• Reconciliation Information
• Web Resources
• Classrooms
• Indigenous Languages

Featured Events

Decolonizing YQR Workshop Series

The Regina Public Library and Reconciliation Regina present a monthly workshop series exploring decolonization through 2021. Facilitated by Indigenous community leaders for audiences of any ancestry, these workshops will create a space where we can begin to explore decolonizing ourselves, practice taking personal responsibility for our beliefs and actions, and build allegiance with centuries of Indigenous resistance. All are welcome.

Upcoming workshops:

September 21: TBD 

October 19: TBD 

November 23: TBD 

Past workshops:

June 1: Decolonizing Spaces 

June 22: The History of Racism in Canada 

National Indigenous History Month Window Display

Download the NIHM colouring page, colour it, and then display your finished art on your front window to show your support for National Indigenous Peoples Month this June.

Learn about the teachings and values related to the tipi poles; for caring for ourselves, and living in balance. View this video to learn about construction, placement, and traditional teachings associated with the tipi.

Indigenous Word of the Week:

We're learning a word each week in one of the six languages spoken in Treaty 4 this summer. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram every Tuesday for the latest edition of our 30 second video tutorials.

1 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Hello in Michif

2 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Thank you in Michif

3 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Hello in Saulteaux

4 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Thank you in Saulteaux

5 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Hello in Cree

6 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Thank you in Cree

7 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Hello in Dakota

8 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Thank you in Dakota

9 - Indigenous Word of the Week - Hello in Lakota

Online Programs

Discover programming for National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day: feel the history, joy, and culture of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people.

Selections of films from the RPL Film Theatre collection

• Click here for screenings

Artist Talk: Jaime Black

• Artist Jaime Black talks about her art practice and her installation project REDRESS, which responds to the more than 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

RPL Book Club: Firekeeper's Daughter

• Coming to Netflix, Firekeeper's Daughter is taking the reading world by storm!

Beaded Red Dress Necklaces in Honour of MMIW

• Join artist Anne Cook to learn how to bead an original beadwork pattern of a red dress in memory of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada.

Beading Circle: Dentalium Earrings

• Learn how to make traditional Indigenous dentalium earrings, made with a hollow white shell used in traditional regalia and jewelry.

Unci/Kookum Crafted Paper Dolls

• Make a crafted paper doll with Indigenous artist Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway, and share Unci/Kookum (Grandmother) teachings about rebuilding our visions for society through matriarchal wisdom traditions.

First Nations Language Speaking Circle: Cree

• Increase your familiarity with the Cree language by learning words and conversational phrases, focusing primarily on developing oral knowledge of Cree.

Nakoda AV Club Project Celebration

• Dunlop Art Gallery hosts a screening and celebration of videos made by students of Scott Collegiate and F.W. Johnson Collegiate with Nakoda AV Club member and artist Jarret Twoyoungmen.

Decolonize YQR: The History of Racism in Canada

• Join us for a presentation from Becky Sasakamoose-Kuffner on the history of racism in Canada.

From Dunlop Art Gallery

The RPL Dunlop Art Gallery proudly represents Indigenous artists, and in 2021 alone has acquired permanent or long-term works by four prominent Indigenous artists. 

Anishinaabe artist Jaime Black’s REDress installation is a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us. Through her work, Black draws attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Indigenous women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence. These photographs will be installed at Albert Branch. 

Two murals by renowned Saskatchewan artist Daphne Boyer, All my Relations and For Clémence, celebrate her Metis and Fransaskois heritage. These murals will be located at Central Library and Sherwood Village Branch until April 2022. 

(Left) Daphne Boyer, All My Relations, vinyl, 2021. Central Library. Photo by Don Hall.
(Right) Daphne Boyer, For Clémence, vinyl, 2021. Sherwood Village Branch. Photo by Don Hall.

Jeffrey Veregge’s Stark is installed in Regent Place Branch, Last Son is installed at Connaught Branch, and She’s Got it Where it Counts at Glen Elm Branch. Veregge combines references to popular comic icons with imagery of his S’Klallum (Port Gamble/Coast Salish) ancestors.

Jeffrey Veregge, Stark, print, 2013.

David Garneau’s Métis in the Academy and Displacement, Indigenous Scholarship come from a series of still life paintings that explore the artist’s complex experience of living as a contemporary Indigenous person, academic, and artist. Métis in the Academy is available to view at Prince of Wales Branch.

(Left) David Garneau, Métis in the Academy, acrylic on canvas, 2019 
(Right) David Garneau, Displacement, Indigenous Scholarship, acrylic on canvas, 2019.

Reading Lists 

• Indigenous Voices collection: Read or listen to a rich diversity of Indigenous voices, from established authors to new voices,  by immersing yourself in an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive/Libby.  
• Indigenous Children’s Books: Explore the work of Indigenous voices through a list of recommended eBooks and eAudiobooks for children and young adults, available on Overdrive/Libby.
• Indigenous Reading and Streaming: Read, watch and listen to eBooks, eAudiobooks, music, and movies that celebrate the diverse stories by Indigenous voices through Hoopla. 
• American Indians in Children’s Literature Best Books: A resource for parents, caregivers and teachers. 

Also available through Overdrive/Libby:

• The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 
• National inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 
• Residential Schools

Video Resources

From the community:

Making bannock with the Sioux Chef

See the Sioux Chef in action making traditional oven bannock. He'll also share a few tips on how to give a boost to your baked bannock. 

• Bannock-making recipe and demonstration: 0:00-6:15
• Interview with Chef Dickie Yuzicapi: 6:15-15:04

Tipi raising and sharing traditional tipi teachings

Learn about the teachings and values related to the tipi poles; for caring for ourselves, and living in balance. View this video to learn about construction, placement, and traditional teachings associated with the tipi.

From Regina Public Library:

Indigenous Word of the Week: Check the bottom of this page or follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts for our 30 second Indigenous Word of the Week tutorials! 

Movies 

• Kanopy Indigenous film 
• NFB Campus: Get great Canadian content from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), with free streaming video of NFB films. NFB Campus provides exclusive access to hundreds of films not available to the public on the main NFB site. 
  • The Aboriginal Voice: The NFB and Indigenous Film makers through the years 
  • Indigenous Voices and Reconciliation 
  • Residential Schools 
  • Indigenous Cinema: The NFB’s online collection of Indigenous made films 
  • Browse Indigenous Peoples in Canada (First Nations & Métis) 

History 

• Indigenous Peoples: North America: Collections from Canadian and American institutions, providing insight into the cultural, political and social history of Indigenous Peoples from the seventeenth into the twentieth century. 

Reconciliation Information

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action 
• CBC Beyond 94 Truth and Reconciliation in Canada 
• Canadian Federation of Library Associations, Indigenous Matters  

 Web Resources 

• CBC Docs: Canadians have been breaking their promises to Indigenous People
  • Filmmaker Tasha Hubbard narrates a history of Indigenous peoples in the prairies and their relationship with the government, focusing on the events of the late nineteenth century.  
• KAIROS Blanket Exercise: An educational workshop to help people understand the shared history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada.   
  • Welcome to the KAIROS Blanket Exercise 
  • The Blanket Exercise: Indigenous Perspectives
• Indigenous Canada: A free 12-lesson Massive Open Online course from the University of Alberta. It explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.  
• Knowledge Keepers: Sharing Stories from the Métis Community: an oral history project honouring Métis families of Indian Head and the Qu’Appelle Valley. We're grateful to the Indian Head Museum for allowing us access to view this film. 

Classrooms 

• The Learning Circle: Classroom Activities on First Nations in Canada, Ages 4-7   
• Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan 
• Think Indigenous – Online Indigenous Education K-8. These educators are taking their Indigenous teachings online via Facebook, with science, math and storytelling classes for students who are out of school. 

Indigenous Languages 

Cree: The Cree language has the largest speaker population of all of Canada’s First Nations languages  

• Online Cree Lessons
• Online Cree Dictionaries:  
  • Cree Dictionary
  • Plains Cree Dictionary
• Resources for Learning Cree 

Ojibwe: Ojibwe has been called by many names including Anishinaabemowin, Ojibwe, Ojibway, Ojibwa, Southwestern Chippewa, and Chippewa. It is a Central Algonquian language spoken by the Anishinaabe people throughout much of Canada from Ontario to Manitoba and U.S. border states from Michigan to Montana. 

• University of Toronto Libraries: Anishinaabemodaa: Ojibwe Language Resources 

Michif: Michif is a mixed language which combines Cree with French. For the most part, Michif uses Cree verbs, question words, and demonstratives while using French nouns.  

• Michif Tools
• Learn Michif
• Michif language resources