Last July, I started what turned out to be a series of 8 Writing Letters for Reconciliation Free Online Meetups. This was inspired by the initial uncovering of children’s remains at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and my desire to do something to help – to show my solidarity and support. I have to admit that prior to my first Writing Letters for Reconciliation session, I had never written a letter to our Prime Minister about anything. I had meant to, I wanted to, but is seemed overwhelming. I didn’t know what to write. I didn’t want to get anything wrong. I didn’t even know where to send the letter! But, after our amazing conversation with David Robertson, author of the beautiful, powerful children’s book on residential schools, “When We Were Alone”, I knew that I had to figure this out, I knew that I couldn’t not start writing these letters – this was the least I could do. You can watch the inspiring clip from our conversation with David here: https://youtu.be/3Oc5EmIVoqM
I’m sharing this template here, for the session on “Eliminate the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in prisons and jails”, in the hopes that it inspires you to write your own letter. The goal of this template is to provide the kids with some inspiration and guidance for their letters. They are invited to pick and choose from my suggested sentences, using the wording as is, or changing it as they wish. As always, the amazing kids continue to exceed my expectations with the compassion, kindness, knowledge and courage they write into their letters.
Here is the template as a PDF:
Eliminate the Overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in Jail
This is a great video to watch with your kids before starting this letter to get a better understanding of the issue – “Transforming the Criminal Justice System: Indigenous Over-representation – Devon”: https://youtu.be/7d6qrv3nKds
I truly hope that this helps you feel supported in writing letters to the Prime Minister as a family. And if your awesome kids do write a letter, and they want to take a photo and send it to me, I would love to share it on my social media pages. I think it is important that we celebrate the good work that our kids do, and it might just help to inspire another kid to take action! You can send me the photo at worldchangingkids@gmail.com
Also, if you want to join our next online session, here are the details:
Topic: End the Gap in Education Funding
Day: Thursday, June 9
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 pm EST
Register here to receive the Zoom link by email:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/o/world-changing-kids-17548400912