Backgrounder: New role at UVic Libraries, first of its kind

Today the University of Victoria is announcing the appointment of Ry Moran, a proud member of the Métis Nation, a UVic alumnus and the founding director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), as UVic’s associate university librarian – reconciliation. Moran will begin his new role at UVic in October 2020. It is the first position of its kind in Canada. 

Ry Moran

Moran has been director of the NCTR since its inception nearly seven years ago. Starting out as the sole person at the NCTR, he moved to the University of Manitoba directly from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) where he had served as Director of Statement Gathering and the National Research Centre since 2010.  

His work over the past decade of service to truth and reconciliation has brought him across all regions of the country. He has spent countless hours working alongside Elders, traditional knowledge keepers and residential school survivors.  

With a passion for education and teaching, Moran has taught at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, was a major contributor to the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada and directly assisted in the development of a national reconciliation research strategy through work with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Moran has placed significant focus on educating public servants working closely with the Canada School of Public Service on a variety of executive training and learning initiatives.  He is a sought-after speaker and has delivered countless keynote presentations. 

Through the NCTR, Moran was instrumental in sharing experiences of Canadian truth and reconciliation processes with Truth Commissions from around the world. 

He has maintained particular focus on honouring the wishes of Survivors to remember and honour the children that never returned home from the residential schools. This included a special national broadcast to unveil the names of thousands of missing children on September 30, 2019 and work with Gord Downie on the Secret Path.  

Before joining the TRC, Moran was active in many areas including Indigenous language revitalization and the arts, and he has a constant and deep engagement with areas related to Indigenous health, healing and well-being.  As a musician, Moran has written and produced original music for children’s television and received a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award in 2007. 

Moran’s professional skills and creativity have earned him many awards, including a Governor General’s Meritorious Service Cross and a National Aboriginal Role Model Award. He was named a UVic Distinguished Alumnus in 2018.  Moran was recently featured in We Are Canada, a six-part CBC series in 2018 about Canadian ground-breakers, innovators and visionaries. 

Moran is an adventurer and after having canoed some exceptional whitewater in Manitoba, is looking forward to a return to Vancouver Island to resume his passions for kayaking, climbing and all the coast has to offer.