Looking Back and Speaking Forward How It Works

Sharing Stories Learn about the process

Looking Back and Speaking Forward is a joint project between the Canadian Museum of Human Rights and local First Nations, Métis Nation, and Inuit collaborators to collect a network of stories about the objects contained in the Truth and Reconciliation permanent exhibit and about related topics of residential schooling, Indigenous sovereignty and cultural survivance, and decoloniality.

An interior photograph of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights
Mobile Soundbooth

As part of the Looking Back and Speaking Forward project, the museum has developed a traveling exhibit containing items from the Truth and Reconciliation permanent collection. Instead of traveling to other museums, however, this exhibit travels around Canada, sharing selected items from the Truth and Reconciliation collection and inviting community members to contribute stories to be featured in the exhibit alongside these items. This traveling exhibit contains a soundbooth that can accommodate individuals and small groups.

A museum exhibit shows figures holding audiovisual screens
Recording a Story

To record a story, you can enter the mobile soundbooth on your own or in a small group. Inside, you can use a tablet to watch a short instructional video and select a topic to which you would like to respond: an object in the TR exhibit, the CD narrative, or a cultural object of your own. If you need help getting started, you can find a selection of optional prompts to start your story. When you are ready, you can record yourself telling your story, or, you can type your story using the tablet.

A gallery of photos within the Canadian Human Rights Museum
Sharing a Story

After recording or typing your story, you as the storyteller will decide how to share it:

  • with the public as part of the Truth and Reconciliation museum exhibit,
  • with only First Nations, Métis Nation, and Inuit groups collaborators,
  • or with no one at all. If you choose this option, the recording will simply be stored in the museum’s secure server or can be deleted.

    • Finally, you can use the tablet to supply relevant biographical and contact information and sign a consent form to submit your story.

    A museum visitor views an interactive audiovisual display
    Experiencing Stories

    Once you submit your story, it will be reviewed by Truth and Reconciliation team members, who include both museum staff and members of First Nations, Métis Nation, and Inuit communities. Your story will be captioned in English, French, and/or your Indigenous language for accessibility.
    If you choose to share your story as part of the museum exhibit, visitors to Truth and Reconciliation will be able to listen to your story through tablets embedded next to objects in the exhibit. Museum visitors will select a story and listen using provided headphones, with multilingual captions displayed on the tablet.
    When the traveling exhibit and mobile soundbooth end their tour, the soundbooth will become a permanent feature of the museum. We hope that visitors to the museum will continue contributing stories and connections, responding both to the objects in the exhibit and to the stories shared by others.