#FIRSTLOOK: CBC ANNOUNCE NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION DAY PROGRAMMING 2025

CBC is marking the fifth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Tuesday, September 30 with an extensive lineup of Indigenous-led original programming showcasing First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and experiences across CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC News Network, CBC digital platforms, CBC Radio, CBC Music and CBC Listen. Also known as Orange Shirt Day, CBC’s programming will include CBC LIVE NEWS SPECIAL: NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION, hosted by CBC News Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault in Ottawa and which will feature national commemorative event REMEMBERING THE CHILDREN: NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION, plus a new original documentary from CBC and APTN, THE GOOD CANADIAN, and returning for its fourth year, musical celebration ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl COME TOWARD THE FIRE.

Select images are available here. Credit: Courtesy of CBC.

CBC’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation lineup on Tuesday, September 30 includes:

Note: Radio-Canada programming information available here.

Q WITH TOM POWER: TANTOO CARDINAL AND CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

10 a.m. (10:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

For more than five decades, and across more than 100 TV, film and theatre roles, Tantoo Cardinal has worked to bring nuanced Indigenous characters and stories to the stage and screen. She’s been in everything from Dances with Wolves to Killers of the Flower Moon…and she’s the star of the film Falls Around Her. about an Anishinaabe musician who returns to her community and tries to leave fame behind. Cardinal was recently honoured with the Equity in Entertainment Award from The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Canada, and that’s when Tom Power had the chance to sit down and talk with her about her impressive career.

Also on Q — As a kid growing up in Nipissing, Ontario, Christian Allaire dreamed of being part of the glamorous world that he saw in his mother’s Vogue magazines. Now, he’s the senior fashion and style writer for Vogue, and he writes about that journey in his new memoir From the Rez to the Runway. Allaire will speak with Tom Power about how fancy dress and powwow regalia was his very first introduction to fashion, the racism he encountered throughout his time in the fashion industry, and how he embraced his Ojibwe identity as his cool factor.

COMMOTION WITH ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD

11 a.m. (11:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

Kent Monkman is one of the most exciting Indigenous artists working today; now, the character he’s been developing his whole life – Miss Chief Eagle Testickle – is about to take centre stage in an opera in Montreal. Elamin Abdelmahmoud will sit down with some of Monkman’s peers to talk about his singular impact on the arts – and beyond.

UNRESERVED

1 p.m. (1:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

(Sunday, September 28 at 2 p.m. (2:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen)

94 calls – but who’s answering? Jolene Ashini is – she is the first lawyer to emerge from her community and is determined to change the system from the inside. And Senator Pate is giving voice to 12 Indigenous women who have been silenced by the system. In this episode we’re reminded of the 94 Calls to Action, just how far we are in addressing them, and highlight two people who are willing to do the work in spite of society’s slow progress.

ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl COME TOWARD THE FIRE

2 p.m. (2:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen and 5 p.m. (5:30 NT) on CBC Music

Celebrating Indigenous talent, creativity and brilliance with live music performances by Tia Wood and Wyatt C. Lewis from the main stage of the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia, recorded ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Hosted by Jarrett Martineau.

CBC NEWS SPECIAL – NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

2 p.m. ET on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC News Network, CBC News streaming channels, cbcnews.ca, the CBC News app and the CBC News YouTube Channel

CBC News Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault will be in Ottawa to host special live coverage of events to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, joined by University of Manitoba professor, columnist and award-winning Anishinaabe author Niigaan Sinclair. Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, co-produced by APTN, CBC/Radio-Canada and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), will be covered as part of this live news special.

REMEMBERING THE CHILDREN: NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

3 p.m. ET on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC News Network, CBC News streaming channels, cbcnews.ca, the CBC News app and the CBC News YouTube Channel

APTN, CBC/Radio-Canada and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) are once again partnering to produce Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the annual national commemorative gathering on Parliament Hill.

Hosted by Earl Wood and Melissa Mollen Dupuis, the multilingual commemorative event will share the powerful truths of residential school Survivors and pay moving tribute to the children who never made it home. There will be moving performances by First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists including the Eagle River Drum Group, DeeDee Austin, Burnstick, Julian Taylor and Susan Aglukark. Shown as part of the CBC NEWS SPECIAL, the 90-minute live event will be presented in English, French and Plains Cree.

NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILATION SPECIAL

8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

Join host Falen Johnson to mark the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This special program will feature the events of the day and focus on Indigenous content from across the country.

THE GOOD CANADIAN

8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC TV and streaming on CBC Gem

The world knows the image of the good Canadian. But what if there was a dark secret behind a national identity? THE GOOD CANADIAN explores the idea of a True North strong and free. In this unflinching and eye-opening documentary, directors Leena Minifie and David Paperny move us through the corridors of systemic inequity, from the Indian Act to residential schools, to modern-day family separation. Fusing shocking footage with detailed interviews with experts, advocates, whistleblowers and politicians, THE GOOD CANADIAN challenges national myth-making, while offering Canadians the chance to forge a new identity from the truth.

SEE YOU IN COURT – “The girl whose life became a battleground over Indigenous child welfare”

Three-episode story available September 30 everywhere podcasts are available

New podcast SEE YOU IN COURT delves into the messy and memorable courtroom battles that shaped how Canadians live today, one case at a time. In this three-episode story available on September 30, Leticia is just an infant when she’s taken into foster care. But by the time she’s a year old, a legal battle over who should raise her is brewing, with her birth mother pushing to take her back to her First Nation and her foster parents saying she belongs with them. Host Falen Johnson sets the stage for journalist Dawna Dingwall and Leticia Racine to travel back to southwest Manitoba — where they both grew up — and their journey to try and piece together how Leticia ended up at the centre of precedent-setting court case, and the mark it made in her life.

All day on September 30, CBC Music will highlight Indigenous artists and composers, and CBC TV will air Indigenous-led documentaries including TLATSINI: JOURNEY OF THE TAKU KWAN (6:30 p.m., 7 NT) and THE ELDERS (11 p.m., 11:30 NT).

CBC Kids News presents RETURNING TO ULUKHAKTOK: A CBC KIDS NEWS DOCUMENTARY, available now on cbckidsnews.ca and YouTube. Meet six kids from a small community in the Arctic, who felt disconnected from their Inuvialuit identity — until they went on a journey to connect with their past. The students teamed up with CBC Kids News to document the trip they took to see their ancestors’ artwork and artifacts on display in museums across the country. They discovered a connection that runs deeper than they thought. You can also check out the ever-growing Indigenous Stories section on cbckidsnews.ca.

CBC Kids presents a new music video from multidisciplinary Indigenous Oji-Cree artist Anachnid. She stopped by Joojo and Gary the Unicorn’s apartment to perform her song “Braids.”

CBC’s ongoing coverage and recognition of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation includes:

THE NEXT CHAPTER WITH ANTONIO MICHAEL DOWNING

Saturday, September 27 at 3 p.m. (3:30 NT) and Monday, September 29 at 2 p.m. (2:30 NT, 5pm MT, 5pm PT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

THE NEXT CHAPTER will air an all-Indigenous episode featuring a conversation with Patty Krawec and book recommendations from Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad.

BOOKENDS WITH MATTEA ROACH

Sunday, September 28 at 1 p.m. (1:30 NT, 3 PT) and Wednesday, October 1 at 1 p.m. (1:30 NT) on CBC Radio and CBC Listen

Mattea Roach will speak with Eliana Ramage, author of the novel To the Moon and Back, which is about a woman chasing her dreams of becoming the first Indigenous astronaut. Ramage is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and To the Moon and Back is a Reese’s Book Club Pick.

RECLAIMED presents SONGS OF OUR STORYTELLERS

Wednesday, October 1 at 6 p.m. (6:30 NT) and Saturday, October 4 at 5 p.m. (5:30 NT) on CBC Music

Thursday, October 2 at 11:05 p.m. (11:35 NT) and Saturday, October 4 at 9 p.m. (10 p.m. AT, 10:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio

There can be no Reconciliation without first telling the Truth — not just about what happened in the past but what’s still happening today. One of the clearest ways to get there is by sharing our stories. This week, RECLAIMED honours the spirit of truth that you find in the Songs of Our Storytellers.

CBC Gem’s TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COLLECTION is available now with more than 20 films, specials and documentaries honouring the history, heritage and diversity of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. Joining the CBC Gem collection on Friday, Sept. 26 is HUDSON BAY(BIES), a film exploring an untold part of Canada’s past through the eyes of Inuk artist and filmmaker Elisapie Isaac. After facing a moral dilemma, Elisapie sets out to meet others who, like her, are “Hudson Baybies,” the children born of the mixed unions between Indigenous women and Hudson’s Bay Company employees working in trading posts and general stores across the North. Also launching on CBC Gem on Friday, Sept. 26 is NINAN AUASAT: WE, THE CHILDREN, a documentary following three groups of children from three different Indigenous nations: Atikamekw, Eeyou Cree and Innu. Shot over six years, audiences witness these young people navigate the milestones of childhood through to the threshold of adulthood, along with their day-to-day routines, aspirations and the challenges they face along the way.

CBC Kids showcases award-winning programs on CBC Gem, such as ANAANA’S TENT in both English and Inuktitut, TEEPEE TIME in English and Mi’kmaq, and MOLLY OF DENALI. For more content that celebrates Indigenous Culture, visit the CBC Kids Collection on CBC Gem. The CBC Kids YouTube page features an Indigenous language series which teaches kids animal words in Cree, Ojibwe / Anishinaabemowin and Inuktitut, as well as an ever-growing library of great Indigenous content for younger kids including dance, campfire stories, food and storytime videos.

CBC Books will feature digital content centred around the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, including a reading list curated by Patty Krawec, as a companion to her conversation on The Next Chapter.

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Contributing Art Director Emily Kewageshig, an Anishinaabe artist raised in Saugeen First Nation #29, designed the CBC logo in 2021 to mark the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Her work captures the interconnection of life forms using culturally significant materials from the land.