Ottawa, June 17, 2002 - The exhibition Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools will be opened at 5 p.m. today by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.

Co-produced by the National Archives, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the Aboriginal Healing Charitable Association, the exhibition is a step towards raising awareness of the effects of the residential school system on First Nations, Métis and Inuit children who attended the schools from the 1880s to 1969.

Today's Aboriginal youth want to know what happened to their elders and to understand how the fallout has affected them. Yet many of the older generations are reluctant, or unable, to talk of their experiences.

"This chain of silence must be broken," says Georges Erasmus, President of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. "The history of the residential schools must be documented. For healing to take place, the story must be told."

According to National Archivist Ian E. Wilson, "Archivists, as custodians of social memory, cannot be spectators, we take part in the creation of memory by the records we preserve. We are active participants."

Curator Jeff Thomas, Iroquois photographer and researcher, tells the story mainly through historical photographs. The National Archives, ten cultural and religious institutions and the curator have contributed to the exhibition's content. A travelling exhibition and a virtual exhibition are in development.

The exhibition will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the National Archives at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa from June 18, 2002 to September 1, 2003. Admission is free. For general enquiries call 996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777.