person with a medal
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
A participant holding a Reconciliation Run medal after the inaugural race in 2021
A participant holding a Reconciliation Run medal after the inaugural race in 2021
Estimated Read Time:
3 minutes
Truth and Reconciliation

Tréchelle Bunn brings healing to her community through movement

A Bisons women's hockey alum founded the Reconciliation Run to help heal her community and promote truth and reconciliation.

By

Connor Boyd

Tréchelle Bunn, Bison women’s hockey alum, visited campus to speak with our community about the Reconciliation Run she founded in 2021. The Reconciliation Run is an annual 21.1km run starting at the former Birtle Residential School and ending on Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation.

Bunn started the event as a healing walk for her community in July 2021 when the recovery of the remains of 215 children at the Kamloops Residential School in May of that year reopened deep wounds in her community.

“I felt like I needed to bring healing in some way. And for me, that was movement,” says Bunn. “Movement has a deeper ability of healing things that maybe you don’t think can be healed while bringing people together and finding a way to move forward together.”

Walking together

The idea for a community walk of healing clicked into place for Bunn when she recalled how her Unkan (grandfather) Donald would say he wanted nothing more than to run away from the school and go home, something he was unable to do. 

Members of Bunn’s community of Chan Kagha Otina Dakhóta Oyáte (Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation), including her Kunshi (grandmother) Mildred and Unkan, were survivors of the residential school in Birtle or have felt its generational impact.

“For many, it was the first time they’d ever been back to school and had been able to walk away on their terms, so they were really reclaiming that space,” says Bunn. “It had a power of bringing people together.”

Tréchelle Bunn hugging a participant at the Reconciliation Run finish line
“It gives people that perspective of not only can they be part of truth and reconciliation, but they need to be a part of it to make sure there is a better future for all of us.”

Tréchelle Bunn

a couple on a couch
Tréchelle Bunn’s Unkan Donald and Kunshi Mildred

Finding strength in community

“Ever since I was young, my parents told me I can do anything I put my mind to, and they’ll be there to support me,” says Bunn, who spoke with her family, members of the community, the Chief and the council and received total support and encouragement for her idea of organizing a healing walk. “It pushed me to put my words into action.” 

“Everyone got behind it,” says Bunn. “When you have so many people who are passionate about what you’re doing, it makes it easy.”

Now in its third year, the Reconciliation Run has expanded to include a satellite run in Winnipeg and a virtual run. Bunn hopes the run continues to grow and provide healing, education and reflection for communities outside her own.

“I thought if I could be a part of administrating justice, I could provide hope in a system that feels so hopeless for so many of my people.”

Tréchelle Bunn

Words into actions

“It has a way of impacting people differently, no matter where you are on your journey of truth and reconciliation,” says Bunn. “It gives people that perspective of not only can they be part of truth and reconciliation, but they need to be a part of it to make sure there is a better future for all of us.”

Turning words into action doesn’t stop with run organizing for Bunn. Creating a better future is at the heart of everything she is undertaking. Bunn is beginning her second year in the Faculty of Law, being the inaugural recipient of the Wendy Whitecloud Bursary in Law, which Roxanne Gagné [LLB/2008] established to “give back to the community and support diversity in the legal profession as well as help forge a path towards reconciliation by making legal education attainable to such students.”

“I am quite familiar with the injustices within the justice system that my family and community faced, and I have witnessed community members face incarceration and be impacted by the system,” she says. “I thought if I could be a part of administrating justice, I could provide hope in a system that feels so hopeless for so many of my people.”

Birdtail Sioux Youth Running on the road during the Reconciliation Run
Trechelle Bunn and Joshua Gardiner at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland

Taking the next step

Bunn was also elected as one of the two youth Chiefs of the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO), representing the voice of youth across 34 communities. This role has given her the ability to share the youth perspective with the SCO. 

She was recently in Geneva, Switzerland, speaking at the United Nations about Indigenous health transformation and self-determination. 

“I’ve always set goals since I was young, and it has always been my dream to attend the United Nations. I never thought I would speak there, especially at 24 years old,” says Bunn. “Serving as Youth Chief has truly been the honour of my life.”

Moving forward the annual Reconciliation Run not only continues to provide a platform for truth and reconciliation through movement but the funds raised will be put into a new scholarship for Indigenous Bisons student-athletes as they pursue their academic and sports goals at the university.

For more information about supporting the Reconciliation Run Scholarship for Indigenous Student-Athletes, please call Jennifer Triggs, Leadership Giving Officer, at 204-299-6641 or email at Jennifer.Triggs@umanitoba.ca.