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Free admission for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.🎟️Reserve your free ticket below or in-person at our box office.
📍The Westdale, 1014 King St W
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AKI - Wednesday, September 30 at 4:30 pm
🎟️https://thewestdale.ca/event/aki/
AKI (Anishinaabemowin for “earth” or “land”) is a meditative, visually immersive documentary set in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek in Northern Ontario, Canada. Filmed over seasonal years, this unscripted project unfolds entirely without narration or dialogue, instead relying on the aural textures of wind, water, animal and human life, and ceremony to tell the story of a people fully rooted in their land.
Presented in Anishinaabemowin with English subtitles.
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Blood Lines - Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 pm
🎟️https://thewestdale.ca/event/blood-lines/
Blood Lines is a lesbian romance wrapped up in a celebration of Métis culture – with dialogue in the Michif language, which has only about 1,130 speakers in the world – and centres around an upcoming Métis Day festival. Storyteller and store clerk Beatrice (Dana Solomon) is completely taken by a new woman who arrives in her Métis community looking to find her biological family. Beatrice decides to help Chani (Derica Lafrance) in order to spend more time with her. Meanwhile, a chorus of older women, collectively referred to as “The Grannies,” try to get Beatrice to mend things with her mom, Léonore. Léonore’s past drinking problem had soured their relationship and Beatrice is reluctant to repair it, no matter how many years her mom has been sober.
Presented in English and Michif with English subtitles.
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The "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation" artwork in our graphic was created by Carly Anna Billings. Please take a moment to read her artists statement below:
Boozhoo! Aaniin. My name is Carly Anna Billings and I am a multi-disciplinary artist born and based on the traditional lands of my people the Mississaugas of the Credit. A crafter by nature, my first beadwork collection (presented at both Hamilton Visual Fringe and The Westdale Lobby in 2023) was a way to push myself out of my comfort zone, to explore my artistic identities outside of performance and in turn challenge my own colonial biases.
This graphic, honouring the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at The Westdale in 2026 includes local and larger elements that speak to the importance of the ongoing engagement of Truth and Reconciliation. It is a depiction of my ideal hometown and what realized reconciliation can feel like, all held within the frames of a film reel. There are representations of the land (like our iconic local waterfalls), an eagle feather, the word truth in Anishinaabemowin (the language of my people for all to see), generations of a family and a depiction of our relations (like doves, a forest, the heartberry) including 9 and 4 straight lines representing the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of which only 14 have been fulfilled by 2026. It features the colour orange to honour Residential School Survivor Phyllis Webstad and all our children who returned, did not, or are still on the journey home.
Thank you to The Westdale, a pillar in our community for nearly 100 years, for sharing Indigenous stories, engaging Indigenous artists and carrying on important conversations with open ears and open hearts.
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1014 King Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada, Ontario L8S 1L4
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