Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives

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New Funding from the National Holocaust Remembrance Program

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We are pleased to announce that our funding application to the National Holocaust Remembrance Program has been successful.


From left to right: Graphic artist Miriam Libicki, Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc, and Research Cluster Co-lead Mark Celinscak meeting for interviews and the documentary film at Rose’s home in Toronto, Ontario in the summer 2023. Photo credit: Chorong Kim.

Charlotte Schallié and her team have been awarded the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program (MARP)’s National Holocaust Remembrance Program funding from Heritage Canada for their project, Developing Trauma-Informed Teaching Resources and Outreach Activities for Arts-Based Survivor Testimonies. The application was developed by Drs. Charlotte Schallié, Andrea Webb, Mark Celinscak, and Project Manager Jennifer Sauter with support from the following partners: Toronto Holocaust Museum Azrieli Foundation, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Facing History and Ourselves.

The funding totals $129,769, and will be granted over a 5-year period. It will support the development of open-access educational resources, learning activities (in-person and online) and an art exhibition to accompany two non-fiction graphic novels by award-winning artist Miriam Libicki: A Kind of Resistance (published in the anthology But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust, New Jewish Press, 2022) and Two Roses (New Jewish Press, 2025). Created in close partnership with David Schaffer (Vancouver) and Rose Lipszyc (Toronto), respectively, Libicki’s graphic narratives shed light on child survivors’ lived experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust in Poland, Germany, and Romania. The target audience for these books is students in Grades 9-12. 

An excerpt from Two Roses (New Jewish Press, 2026), the story of Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc, by Miriam Libicki.

These two graphic novels have been conceived and co-created as part of two SSHRC-funded projects: Narrative Art and Visual Storytelling in Holocaust and Human Rights Education (2019-2022; https://holocaustgraphicnovels.uvic.ca/) and our Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives (2022-2029).

The funding from the National Holocaust Remembrance Program will allow us to deepen and expand our current teaching resources (which also include two open-access short documentaries). Our goal is to create innovative evidence-based educational tools to help Canadian high school teachers apply a human rights framework and integrate Holocaust education into the secondary school curriculum.

We would like to thank all the partners who supported our vision and helped make this application a success!

Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize awarded to Barbara Yelin for ‘Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory’ – Nov 29, 2024

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We are honoured to announce that Barbara Yelin was awarded the annual Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize for children’s and young adult books by the State Office for Political Education in North Rhine-Westphalia for Emmie Arbel. The Colour of Memory. On November 29, 2024, Barbara was welcomed by Director of the Old Synagogue, Dr. Diana Matut, and the Mayor of Essen, Thomas Kufen, and presented with award by the Culture Minister, Ina Brandes, in Essen, Germany. Emmie Arbel also joined for the event, and participated in a reading with Barbara.

The Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize honors books that encourage children and young people to work for human rights, non-violent forms of conflict resolution, the integration of minorities and peaceful coexistence. It is the most important peace policy award for children’s and young adult literature in the German-speaking countries.

The prize was founded in 1982 and commemorates the former Federal President Dr. Gustav W. Heinemann, who gave special impetus to peace research and education.

For more information about the event and award, please refer to the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Nordrhein-Westfalen: https://www.politische-bildung.nrw/publikationen/heinemann-preis.

Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize awards ceremony on November 29, 2024 at the Old Synagogue in Essen, Germany (photography by MKW NRW / Meike Schrömbgens and Roland Zerwinski).

Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue awarded $57,900 Canada Council for the Arts Grant

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We are very pleased to announce Turtle Island Research Cluster Co-lead Duncan McCue has been awarded a Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) grant of $57,900 to expand the production of his graphic novel project to over one hundred pages.

McCue, an Anishinaabe journalist and professor at Carleton University, is writing the graphic novel in collaboration with acclaimed Anishinaabe artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. Tentatively titled “Indians Do Cry: A Hockey Survivance Story,” the narrative tells the true story of a father and son, George Kenny and Mike Auksi, from the Lac Seul First Nation in northern Ontario. Revolving around testimony from Kenny and Auksi, “Indians Do Cry” explores the impacts of Indian Residential Schools, intergenerational trauma, and the healing power of the game of hockey.

McCue’s successful project is entitled “Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights (Turtle Island Cluster)” and the grant was confirmed in August 2024. It is being funded through the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples program of the CCA.

The grant funds will be used to compensate Pawis-Steckley for an additional 70 pages of artwork and McCue for his extra time involved in research, interviewing and authorship of the extended text. Funds will also be used for research materials, travel and counselling, if necessary.

Initial interviews and the draft manuscript for “Indians Do Cry” are complete. Pawis-Steckley is currently in the production phase of the book’s artwork, which is expected to be finished in the summer of 2025.

Check out the Turtle Island Research Cluster Page for more updates.