On Wednes­day and Thurs­day, Nov. 8 – 9, the Office of Indige­nous Engage­ment in part­ner­ship with the Nation­al Cen­tre for Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion host­ed the 3^rd Annu­al Build­ing Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Forum in the Mul­ti-Pur­pose Room of the UMSU Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­tre Build­ing to dis­cuss the state of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in high­er edu­ca­tion across the coun­try. The orga­niz­ing com­mit­tee of the con­fer­ence invit­ed lead­ing researchers and exec­u­tives of Indige­nous ini­tia­tives in Post-Sec­ondary Uni­ver­si­ties to deliv­er pan­els and speech­es. Dr. Cyn­thia Wes­ley-Esquimaux (Lake­head), Indige­nous Chair of Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, deliv­ered the keynote addresss on Day 1. The Forum was Mod­er­at­ed by CBC Radio Per­son­al­i­ty Rosan­na Deer­child, who invit­ed Dr. Lynn Lavallee, Vice-Provost Indige­nous Engage­ment (UMan­i­to­ba) to open the pro­ceed­ings and then Dr. Wes­ley-Esquimaux (Anishi­naabe — Chip­peawa of Georgina Island) to deliv­er her address enti­tled: ​“Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Is Not Just A Word”. This is an abridged ver­sion of the keynote.