UBC to build $5.5-million Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre

UBC formally announced the construction of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre Monday, the Georgia Straight reported.

The $5.5 million building in the heart of campus will feature multimedia exhibits with residential school records and archival materials.

“Recognition of our past is of critical importance to UBC and to all Canadians in planning our future,” said UBC president Santa Ono. “The centre will help us to collectively rethink the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in this country.”

“Through both policy and inaction, the circumstances of indigenous peoples have often been invisible in all but the most superficial ways,” said UBC First Nations House of Learning director Linc Kesler. “It is a responsibility of the university and the educational system as a whole to change that and provide the basis for more informed interactions.”

A similar story also appeared in 24 Hours Vancouver and News 1130.