Where are the Children?

The Legacy of Hope
A Message from Richard Kistabish, President

The Legacy of Hope Foundation was established to address the long-term implications of the damage done to Aboriginal children and their families by many of the residential schools. The psychological wounds run deep and have infected new generations. Healing is a gradual process that will demand time and patience.

A primary objective of our work is to promote awareness among the Canadian public about residential schools and try to help them to understand the ripple effect those schools have had on Aboriginal life. But equally important, we want to bring about reconciliation between generations of Aboriginal people, and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Everyone who belongs to the First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities has been affected by the residential school experience. Only through understanding the issues can we undertake this healing journey together.

The importance of the virtual exhibition was brought into sharp focus in 2001, when Aboriginal youth at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation Youth Advisory meeting in Edmonton expressed a lack of knowledge of the residential school history. They felt that awareness of this chapter in their history should be the central factor in healing and reconciliation.

I would like to thank everyone who helped to make the virtual exhibition a reality - Heritage Canada, Library and Archives Canada, Donna Cona, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Jeff Thomas, the curator, for his vision and sensitivity in creating this project.

Richard Kistabish,
President,
Legacy of Hope Foundation

75 Albert Street, Suite 801
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5E7
Telephone: (613) 237-4806
Toll Free: 1-888-725-8886
Facsimile: (613) 237-4442
E-mail: ahca@ahf.ca