Elementary school students at Laura Secord School in Winnipeg have spent about a year creating a book titled 鈥淎nswering the Calls: A Child's View of the 94 Calls to Action,鈥� which helps teach the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to other children.

By rewriting the recommendations and incorporating drawings, the children have made it easier for others of the same age to understand the horrors endured by Indigenous children in the residential school system.

The students rewrote each of the recommendations so younger students could understand them and then wrote about why each recommendation was important.

鈥淎 bunch of the words were new to us including reconciliation, but learning about this meant we knew what they had been through,鈥� Lily, one of the students involved in the book, told CTV News.

While other projects, like Orange Shirt Day and the late Gord Downie鈥檚 鈥淪ecret Path,鈥� aimed to raise awareness of residential schools, this book is believed to be the first such project made by and for children.

The residential school program involved Indigenous children being taken from their homes and brought to government-funded religious schools that ultimately left survivors with years of trauma. It鈥檚 estimated that 6,000 of the children died.

An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children spent time in a residential school during the 150 years of the program. 

In 2015, following six years of research and interviews with more than 6,700 former residential school students, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a report calling the residential school program 鈥渃ultural genocide.鈥�

鈥淓very child deserves to be safe and that鈥檚 what survivors wanted,鈥� said Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what you see in their hearts and eyes. That鈥檚 what so important about all of this work.鈥�

The report called for federal and provincial governments to implement 94 recommendations aimed at reconciliation, including:

  • A call for child welfare groups to keep Indigenous families together whenever possible;
  • For the federal government to work with Indigenous groups to the eliminate the gaps in education and employment among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians; 
  • And establish a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

During the election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

The book is available in all Winnipeg School Division libraries and is , with 10,000 copies already in print. Digital copies will also be made available through the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

鈥淲hen I heard it was 10,000 and when I told the kids at school that it was 10,000, it鈥檚 almost a number too big to believe,鈥� said teacher Jackie Cleave.

Cleave added the school is considering similar projects for the future.

鈥淐ertainly, the title says it all, we鈥檙e answering the calls,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not done, this is the start.鈥�