The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Foundation (DWF) program is named after Gord Downie, lead singer of the Tragically Hip, and Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe boy who was ripped away from his loving family and forced to go to Residential school 600 km away from his home, and who ultimately died from that escape and homeward journey. Chanie Wenjack was sent to the Cecilia Jeffery Indian Residential School in 1963, and ran away in 1966, in an attempt to walk back home to his home in Ogoki Post. However, Ogoki Post was 600 km away and because of the lack of food, proper clothing, and the harsh weather conditions on his journey home, he died by the railroad tracks after walking for 36 hours and making it 19 km toward his destination. He had no idea where his home was, he just new it was northward, was by lots of water, and was a very long way away. When Gord Downie read about the story of Chanie Wenjack, he decided to do something to spread Chanie’s story and educate Canadians about the true history of Canada. In his final few years, Gord created several poems that he later turned into songs about Chanie, as well as helped to create a book and animated film about Chanie’s story. He released the Secret Path project in 2016, and died from cancer in 2017.

The DWF fund was created by the Wenjack and Downie families,with the intention of continuing the legacies of both Chanie Wenjack and Gord Downie, by educating people across Canada about the true history of colonialism in the country, providing access to education for schools to teach about Indigenous history, and to help create a path towards reconciliation in Canada. Their work has involved creating the legacy schools program, which supports schools in teaching about Indigenous history, colonialism and reconciliation, through providing resources for the schools to use. DWF also has grant programs to help reconciliation events in communities across Canada, and the Youth Ambassador program. The Youth Ambassador program teaches non-Indigenous and Indigenous youth in Canada about the true history of the country and creates opportunities for them to pursue reconciliation in their own communities. The DWF helps to create opportunities for everyone across Canada to “Do Something” to contribute towards reconciliation and create a better Canada through ReconiliACTION.

The Youth Ambassador program was created in 2023 as an opportunity for Canadian Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, 16-25 years of age, to engage in reconciliation and plan and implement ReconiliACTION projects in their own communities across Canada. The Youth Ambassador program over the course of four weeks, teaches youth about the history of colonization in Canada, including Residential Schools and treaties, and engages participants in activities related to this learning. The youth ambassadors get to listen to a variety of guest speakers who teach about decolonization and Indigenous topics, and at the end of the course, participants each create group or individual projects to help contribute to reconciliation in their own communities. This project is called a ReconciliACTION project, as it emphasizes actions done towards reconciliation. This program offers youth a way to participate in reconciliation, learn leadership skills, connect with other youth across the country, find ways to contribute in their community and beyond, and strengthens their own reconciliation journeys through the learning that they do in the program. At the end of the course, youth ambassadors can receive a certificate and honorarium, and there is the opportunity to them to contribute even further to DWF’s work through joining the Youth Ambassador Committee, which is a 2 year commitment to helping with legacy school programs and ReconciliACTION projects.