This letter is written in support of your efforts to adapt the exhibition Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story, which you developed last year, to an on-line virtual exhibit.

My experience with the exhibit came when I served as facilitator of a workshop for the people of Red Lake. At that time, I was most impressed with the local empasis the staff had developed as a way to contestualize the travelling exhibit from Ottawa. The degree of interest expressed by the people who attended the workshop was intense and my hope was that many more would have the opportunity to see the exhibit and think through its meaning over time. The students who were there also found the material provocative an inspiring. I am committed to acknowledging history as a way forward to better relations amongst all the groups in Canada. This exhibit is one way to do that work. Residential schools for Aboriginal students are the starting point for formal education in Canada and their existence and legacy should not be forgotten. It is important for all citizens, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to know this history.

Taking the exhibit onto the web would allow an even wider group to have access to this important information and analysis. Again, a local view provides specific detail that can inform and inspire not only the people directly impacted but also peole across Canada who can use this as a base for comparative work. Clearly, if the exhibit goes on-line, it is not time limited an dit becomes available to people who are and were unable to visit the museum to see it directly. In addition, it becomes accessible for deeper research and constant re-appraisal.

I am most supportive of this initiative and see it as an important contribution to Canada's and Red Lake's efforts to help us all remember and make current the historical issues that are an iescapable, althought often ignored, part of all our contemporary lives. I look forward to seeing the Heritage Centre move Residential Schools: The Red Lake Story to a virtual exhibit.

Sincerely,

Celia Haig-Brown

Professor

York University