CBC: National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation archives added to UNESCO world register

As CBC reports:

The collection of archives, personal stories and photos of residential school survivors at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg were added to the UNESCO Canada Memory of the World Register Wednesday.

“This says that the material that we hold here — the survivors’ statements, the documents — are essential knowledge for all Canadians. They have to be protected and they have to be preserved,” said Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR).

Moran worked as the director of Statement Gathering and National Research Centre during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Canada Memory of the World Register was created in 2017 to promote and provide access to a wide range of documents that are significant to Canadian history. 

Wednesday’s addition was one of three collections that were added to the register, the other two being the McCord Stewart Museum’s Notman Photographic Archives in Montreal and the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection at the University of British Columbia Library.

The announcement at the centre was attended by a small group of residential school survivors, including Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad.

“I am so emotional,” said Webstad.

“It’s a world recognition that these documents of survivors’ truths are going to be kept for years to come and for future generations.”

Read the full story here.