B.C. is committing $300,000 towards a two-year project that will encourage education, awareness and dialogue around the legacy of federal Indian Residential School.
Reconciliation Canada, a community based initiative with its roots in British Columbia, will use the funding train community facilitators.
The province's Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister made the announcement Sunday at Prince George's National Aboriginal Day celebrations.
"As a province we need to be working with First Nations thinking about how we build long term reconciliation," said John Rustad, MLA for Nechako Lakes.
The hope is that the facilitators will lead more than 100 workshops across the province, Rustad said.
"What we're trying to do with education is about building this level of awareness and this understanding of our history. A big step in terms of healing, in terms of things like the residential school is that recognition. It's not to keep it buried, but to recognize it, understand it."
Rustad said it's about starting a community conversation and one that marks a continuation of a call to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to improve education around residential schools, which Aboriginal children were forced into starting in the 1870s. The last of more than 130 schools closed in 1996.
Chief Robert Joseph, ambassador for Reconciliation Canada, said now is a time for reflection.
"I want to just tell you that reconciliation is a beautiful word. Sometimes hard to comprehend. It can be simple, it can be complex," said Joseph, who last week received the Order of British Columbia.
Reconciliation Canada is an Aboriginal-led nonpartisan organization. Joseph, a former executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, launched the non-profit.
"Everyone can play a part (in reconciliation)," said Joseph, who is also a member of the National Assembly of First Nations Elders Council and a survivor of the St. Michael's Indian Residential School.
The workshops will also be held in partnership with the Union of BC Municipalities and the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres.
The province also previously announced that Aboriginal history, culture and perspectives will be integrated into the new K-12 curriculum.
