The CAW Student Commons is the site of a screening Sunday of the animated film Secret Path, which retells the story of the death of Chanie Wenjack.
On October 22, 1966, 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack died near Kenora, Ontario. He was walking the more than 400 miles from a residential school to the home from which he had been taken.
Now, Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie has taken inspiration from Wenjack's story and turned it into the Secret Path project, which consists of a solo album, a graphic novel and an animated film.
The film, created in collaboration with Essex County-born cartoonist Jeff Lemire, will be screened Sunday, October 23, as part of an evening discussing the legacy of residential schools and the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada.
It starts at 8 p.m. in the CAW Student Centre Commons. Admission is by free-will donation to the legal defence fund for Vanessa Gray of Aamjwinaang First Nation, who has been charged for shutting down Enbridge’s pipeline near her traditional lands outside Sarnia.