For simultaneous translation from English to French, please bring headphones and download Interprefy.

A growing movement is asking, “What does it mean to be known — to tell our own stories and to be seen, heard and recognized?” It’s a question of particular significance for those whose rights have been violated, who have too often been misrepresented and whose stories have been suppressed.

On September 10, please join us at the Museum for a large public event with guests from near and far to share in conversation about the “right to be known” and to contribute your truth to the creation of a large mosaic.

About the event and the artwork

This remarkable event will bring diverse community members together with the world’s leading advocates of “the right to be known” to explore the concept and bring it into visual focus. This is one of many events that have taken place over the past year in Winnipeg, Chicago and South Africa.

On this evening, participants will engage in a collaborative art project, creating a piece to be used in a large mosaic. The event will be facilitated by Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, an art educator based at the University of Manitoba. Examples of other community‐created murals he has worked on are showcased on this webpage.

The evening will also feature diverse conversations, food and music.

The resulting mosaic image, designed in consultation with Elders, may be displayed publicly in the future, but it will belong to all those who came together for this project. 

Please register to join us!

More about the right to be known

When people have suffered grave human rights abuses, they have the right to justice. This justice often takes the form of legal and/or economic reparations.

But the people affected need something even more basic – the right to be seen, to be heard, to be known. They want (and indeed demand) a space to share their stories and have them heard. This process – which has been coined “the right to be known” – is a process of both healing and reparations. It allows a survivor of a human rights abuse to reclaim their individual and community identity.

The right to be known is practiced in societies and cultures worldwide. But although it is not new, it’s a concept that is taking hold around the globe. Today, it is drawing attention from activists who are focusing on wrongful convictions (Chicago), Apartheid/post‐Apartheid (South Africa), and the ongoing legacy of residential schools including murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls+ and the current child welfare system in Canada.

Indigenous Elders, artists, lawyers, educators, journalists and academic experts from around the globe will take part in a gathering at the CMHR on September 11–12 to take steps to move “the right to be known” from concept into reality.