TLC Series: Truth, Love, and Community
The Stratford Perth Museum and its partners welcome all to a ongoing seminar series aimed to exchange stories, address social challenges, care for our environment, and celebrate our multicultural heritage. Creating a healthy dialogue with a confluence of diverse minds and hearts, we will draw on local narratives that are shaped by the world around us. Understanding, compassion, kindness, humour, and love are the true revolutionary ideals that are keys to our humanity. Our symbiotic relationships and community synergy can enkindle hope and generate essential change for all to embrace.
Line up of Seminar Speakers and Events Below….
WORKING WITH INDIGENOUS ARTISTS
Date: Saturday Sept. 9
Time: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM approximately
Location: Stratford Perth Museum Indoor Theatre
Cost: FREE – Donations always welcome and appreciated!
We welcome special guest, Crystal Semaganis, to share her expertise, experience, and insight into the global and local artworld and the issues surrounding stolen identities and cultural appropriation of indigenous people and communities.
“The impact of Indigenous Identity Fraud is real and traumatic, and the “Grey Owl Syndrome: Pretendians, Race Shifting and Indigenous Identity Fraud” sessions seek to address the issue across all sectors for indigenous people and all who work with them. Indigenous Identity Fraud robs indigenous people of true reconciliation and participation across all economies. This workshop is for anyone committed to True Reconciliation and honouring Indigenous-led relationships within our nations.”
-Crystal Semaganis, www.sevenwolves.org/
This workshop will address the following topics
– Protocols for Engaging Indigenous Communities and Artisans
– Sample Guidelines and Considerations for Hosting Indigenous Events
– Understanding Cultural Appropriation VS Cultural Appreciation
– Reconciliation in Action: How the Indigenous Community Defines Allyship
– Maintaining Relationships: What a Respectful Partnership Looks Like
– Resources: Verification Processes, Organizations and Activators
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CRYSTAL SEMAGANIS
Little Pine First Nation, Treaty No 6 Battle River Cree Nation
Crystal is a Sixties Scoop Warrior who was born and raised in Saskatchewan. The youngest of seven, Crystal is now a mother of four and Grandmother to two. She is a an activist for indigenous people on social issues and environmental protection (Water Protector and Land Defender). Her current scope of work is combatting Indigenous Identity Fraud and all issues related to that, including Social Media and facilitating a group that seeks to develop effective Processes of Verification for all working with Indigenous People in the true spirit of Reconciliation.
With over thirty one years of sobriety, she pursues the Creative Arts: painting, photography, pyrography poetry, beadwork, sewing and digital art. Her booth, Seven Wolves, is a regular on the Pow Wow trail throughout Ontario and Quebec. She also admins four Facebook groups which reach around 100K indigenous people across Turtle Island.
Crystal is fifty two years old and is also known by her legal name, Michelle Christine Cameron. Her family’s forty six year search for her oldest biological sister was featured in Season Two of CBC’s Missing and Murdered by Connie Walker and became the podcast “Finding Cleo”. Now with over 35 million downloads worldwide, Crystal has reclaimed her birth name and uses this platform for indigenous activism. Her recent work includes facilitating forums to speak about the Sixties Scoop, Lateral Violence in Indigenous Spaces, Intergenerational Trauma, Homelessness, Navigating the Child Welfare System, Displaced Indigenous People, Indigenous Identity Fraud, Articles of Repatriation, Entrepreneurship, and more.
Crystal has worked with high schools, colleges, universities, government and the private sector for all varieties of audiences. She now lives in Temagami, home of the Old Growth Forest and height of land for Ontario. Her website features her many talents at sevenwolves.org
Past Events
Anne Frank Exhibit Closing Event
We welcome special guests, Jason Schwartz and Carrie Wreford, to the Stratford Perth Museum on January 28 from 1-3 to help us say goodbye to the Anne Frank: A History for Today Exhibit. Addressing issues of Anti-Semitism and discussing their family’s Holocaust/ Shoah history, they will offer insight into the dangers of polarity, prejudice, and fearing diversity. “No liberty can be synonymous with amnesia” – a comment made by Sylvain Caen, a Holocaust survivor and one of the subjects of Jason Schwartz’ series of black and white photographs documenting the atrocities experienced during WWII. Jason’s photography series provides significant and evocative identities of many Holocaust victims, which in turn, humanizes all those who continue to be impacted by discrimination and genocide. We are honoured to have both Carrie and Jason present their profound journeys and share in our community mission to combat racism and persecution.
Date: Saturday January 28
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: Stratford Perth Museum Indoor Theatre
Cost: $10.00 per person (Includes special guest presentations, a tour of the Anne Frank Exhibit, access to the whole museum, and Refreshments provided by Douze Bakery)
Click HERE for Tickets
Carrie Wreford
Carrie Wreford is co-owner of Bradshaws, Small-Mart and Werk-Shop – three retail shops she runs alongside her husband, Stratford native, Jeremy Wreford. After moving to Stratford in 2005 from Toronto, Carrie has served as a board member of Gallery Stratford, participated in the Advisory Committee of the Stratford Chef School and was a board member and past Chair of of Destination Stratford. Through her businesses, Carrie and Jeremy have been supporters of innumerable cultural events, organizations and charities in an effort to contribute to strengthening the fabric of the Stratford community.
Before relocating to Stratford, Carrie worked as a wardrobe stylist in the Toronto film industry which is where she and Jeremy initially met. She then worked as a Graphic Designer for Roots Canada before taking a leap of faith to move to Stratford with Jeremy to become the 6th generation of Stratford families to run Bradshaws. Carrie and Jeremy have two kids – Ezra and Gigi ages 13 and 11. It is very important to Carrie that her children learn by example and make positive impacts on the community she and her children live in.
Carrie will be speaking at Stratford Perth Museum about how and why she chose to get involved in helping over 1000 (current total) Stratford and area middle school students attend a docent-lead tour of the Anne Frank Exhibit at the Stratford Perth Museum in an effort to increase Holocaust education and awareness for youth in Stratford. Her involvement lead to being interviewed on The Bridge podcast by Peter Mansbridge – “Hate and Trying to Confront It” (first aired May 16th 2022 with an encore presentation on July 18th 2022). She was also interviewed by journalist Ralph Benmergui on “I was not ready to move on” podcast “Yehupetzville” for the Canadian Jewish News on May 31st 2022.
Jason Schwartz
Jason Schwartz is a freelance photographer/location scout residing in Toronto, Canada. He has documented the stories of Israeli victims of terrorism on behalf of One Family Fund. He has also completed a major commission on behalf of The Florida Holocaust Museum photographing 115 Holocaust survivors in Southwest Florida (2001) as well as his own book of portraits entitled “The Ghosts That Haunt Us”-Portraits of Holocaust
Survivors” (1997). Spanning a thirty-five year period, Schwartz has exhibited internationally and has photographed various celebrities including Eric
Clapton, Judy Blum, Amos Oz and Lech Walensa. He was recently awarded the Loebenberg Humanitarian Award (2022) by the Florida Holocaust Museum for his photographs completed on behalf of the museum some 20 years earlier.
He can be reached at locations@rogers.com or by telephone at (416) 871-6967.
More of his work can be viewed at jason-schwartz.ca