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How to watch and listen to National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on CBC

Tune into a day of special programming across all CBC platforms to honour the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30.
CBC ·

September 30, 2021 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to recognize and reflect on the legacy of residential schools in Canada. To mark this event, CBC is sharing First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and experiences from across the country. 

(Elisapie - Jonathan Brisebois/Logo - Emily Kewageshig/Rosanna Deerchild - CBC)

For the entire day, these stories will be broadcast across CBC TV, CBC News Network, CBC.ca, CBC Kids, CBC Radio One and CBC Music including a commercial-free primetime broadcast special, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

WATCH

Thursday, September 30 at 8 p.m. local time (9 p.m. AT, 9:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Television, CBC Gem, CBC.ca and YouTube

UPDATE: Watch the full special here on CBC Gem

Elisapie (Jonathan Brisebois)
NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION –  Join JUNO Award-winning artist Elisapie for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: a unique one-hour, commercial-free special that honours the stories and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples affected by the tragedies of the residential school system in Canada, with musical tributes and ceremonies in Indigenous communities across the land. The one-hour national special will broadcast on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio One and CBC Listen. 

WE KNOW THE TRUTH: STORIES TO INSPIRE RECONCILIATION – This CBC Manitoba documentary recasts Canada's history and future through the empowerment of Indigenous Peoples. Meet the people who are challenging the history of Canada and residential schools, and creating change on their own terms. Reflect with residential school survivors and be inspired by those who are working hard to keep their culture and languages alive. Watch now on CBC Gem

LISTEN

Thursday, September 30 at 12 p.m. noon on CBC Radio One

Rosanna Deerchild, host of Unreserved. (CBC)

ANSWERING THE CALL: Stories of resistance, reclamation and resilience on Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – Host Rosanna Deerchild explores how Canada is doing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and how First Nations across Canada are demolishing, redeveloping, and reclaiming former residential school sites. JUNO Award-winning musician William Prince will discuss the role artists play and share how his family is marking the day. Finally, retired senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, offers his thoughts on the future of reconciliation in Canada.  

MORE ON CBC

Thursday, September 30 at 10 a.m. on CBC Radio One 

Documentary Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin (Scott Stevens)

Q – Tom Power speaks with Alanis Obomsawin, one of the most accomplished documentary filmmakers in Canada, and one of the most acclaimed Indigenous filmmakers in the world. She is the winner of the Glenn Gould Prize, the prestigious award given for a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human condition through the arts. She was also honoured at this year's Toronto International Film Festival with a career retrospective of her work called Celebrating Alanis Obomsawin. The video interview with Alanis Obomsawin will be available on cbc.ca/q. 

CBC Docs

A woman with long black hair and a serious facial expression stands outside in a toque and a puffer jacket looking over her shoulder at something off camera.
Tanya Talaga is a writer and documentary filmmaker. In the film Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin Spirit to Soar, she revisits what has happened in Thunder Bay since the inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations teens between 2000 to 2011. It looks at that question she is so often asked: "Are things getting any better?" (Spirit to Soar/CBC)

MASHKAWI-MANIDOO BIMAADIZIWIN SPIRIT TO SOAR – Now streaming in Anishinaabemowin  and English on CBC Gem. Watch an encore broadcast on September 30 (2:30 p.m./ 6:30 p.m. NT).

Directed by Tanya Talaga and Michelle Derosier, Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin Spirit to Soar examines the hard truths around the deaths of First Nations students in Thunder Bay, especially one big truth that Canada continues to ignore: that racism kills, especially when it presents as indifference. It's a look at how families and communities struggle to carry on while pursuing justice for their loved ones and equity for their people, and it follows Tanya Talaga's personal journey as she explores her own Indigenous identity. 

Also now streaming on the CBC Listen app is a companion podcast to this documentary, Spirit to Soar: Where We Come From, a four-part podcast about four disruptions to Indigenous life, and ways to move forward together. The story is told first in Anishinaabemowin by elder Sam Achneepineskum and then in English by Jolene Banning.
Watch more documentaries on CBC TV and CBC Gem:
11 a.m. (11:30 a.m. NT) Colonization Road
1 p.m. (1:30 p.m. NT)  Every Child Matters
3 p.m. (3:30 p.m. NT) - New film: Our People will be Healed
7 p.m. (7:30 p.m. NT) Through Our Eyes: Indigenous Shorts

CBC News

An Indigenous-led team of journalists will deliver timely news features and special reports throughout the day from the CBC News investigating Residential Schools on The National, CBC News Network, World Report, The World at Six and cbc.ca/Indigenous

CBC Gem

The Truth & Reconciliation Collection will be available starting September 24 on the free CBC Gem streaming service with more than 20 documentaries and films honouring the history, heritage and diversity of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples, including The Secret Path, Gord Downie's animated film that tells the true story of Chanie Wenjack, and Inendi, Sarain Fox's journey to preserve her cultural legacy by collecting stories from her family's Matriarch.

CBC Music

Throughout the day on September 30, CBC Music will feature Indigenous artists and composers from 6 a.m. to midnight. CBCMusic.ca will offer stories in the lead up to September 30, including a feature on where Indigenous musicians have experienced moments of truth and reconciliation, an exploration of the art within protests and a collection of songs and lyrics about reconciliation.  

CBC Books

Visit cbc.ca/thisplace for the CBC Books podcast, This Place. The original series, adapted from the award-winning graphic novel, explores 150 years of Indigenous resistance and resilience. Learn more with additional CBC Books content covering the 20 authors and illustrators who made the graphic novel, a cast roundup of the Indigenous actors who voiced the dramatizations and a list of some of the Indigenous heroes we meet in the series.

CBC Kids and CBC Kids News

CBC Kids News will feature an "Ask an Indigenous person anything" segment where four Indigenous people (First Nation, Inuit and Métis) under 30 meet and chat with kid contributor Isabel DeRoy-Olson to discuss reconciliation and take questions from kids across Canada. Additionally, CBC Kids News will feature two segments for a tween audience outlining what reconciliation is and why it is needed, and how to be a better ally.

Molly of Denali is an action-adventure comedy for kids that follows the adventures of feisty and resourceful 10-year-old Molly Mabray, an Indigenous girl living in Alaska. (CBC)

CBC Kids is recognizing September 30 with an hour-long special from the award-winning animated series Molly of Denali plus original content from Studio K all about Indigenous heritage and culture.

CBC Arts

For National Truth and Reconciliation Day, CBC Arts will be doing a special edition of the Poetic License video series featuring four poets including Kahsenniyo Williams from the Mohawk Nation Wolf Clan, who will be doing a piece called Decolonial Love. Also available that day, CBC Arts has a written feature that asks Indigenous curators, cultural programmers and artists to highlight a piece of art that speaks to the ideas behind Truth and Reconciliation, including contributions from writer Alicia Elliott and visual artist Adrian Stimson. 

CBC Sports

CBC Sports will feature interviews and opinion pieces by and with Indigenous athletes including Hunter Lang, Michael Linklater and Kali Reis. 

Across CBC

See the work of Contributing Art Director Emily Kewageshig, an Anishinaabe artist raised in Saugeen First Nation #29. She designed the CBC logo marking the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Her work captures the interconnection of life forms using culturally significant materials from the land.  

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