Giving Human Rights A Home
In the middle of the Canadian prairies, in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, stands the Canadian Human Rights Museum. A new structure that opened in September, 2014, it houses a museum with a mandate to explore the subject of human rights with a special, but not exclusive, reference to Canada, in order to enhance the public’s understanding of human rights and bodily autonomy, and to promote respect for others while encouraging reflection and dialogue.
A tribute to Gandhi:
One of the most prescient and moving memorials at the museum is the tribute to the victims and survivors of residential schools. These were government-sponsored religious schools, established with the singular goal of assimilating Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Resulting in thousands of families destroyed, their children’s spirits broken, through what amounted to a policy of officially sanctioned racism, layered with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of those in the care of this country. The plaque in the image below sits at the head of a memorial garden, outside the museum.
