Watch now: Gord Downie's The Secret Path

Watch The Secret Path film and Road to Reconciliation panel:

OnOctober 22, 1966 nearKenora, Ontario, Chanie Wenjack died when hewalking home to the family hewas taken from over 400 miles away. Fifty years later,Tragically HipfrontmanGordDownie has taken Wenjack's story and turnedit into the Secret Path project, which consists of a solo album, a graphic novel and an animated film. The intention for Downie who went public with his diagnosis of terminal brain cancer in May is to utilize his celebrity to draw attention to Wenjack's story and the legacy of residential schools.

"Secret Pathacknowledges a dark part of Canada's history the long-suppressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation," the project's website states.

Watch Gord Downie's The Secret Path in Concert

Downie'smusic and award-winning cartoonistJeffLemire'sillustrations also came together in an animated film that was broadcast by CBC in an hour-long commercial-free television special this pastSunday you canstillstream ithere on CBC Arts.

How can Chanie Wenjack's story make a difference? Immediately following The Secret Pathbroadcast, CBC live-streamedThe Road to Reconciliation,a special one-hour panel conversation with CBC's Jesse Wente, filmmaker Tasha Hubbard, and National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation director RyMoran, live from CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. In an engaging discussion, these Indigenous leaders will reflect on how art can help us face the past and work together to change Canada's future. The panel can be streamed in Canada and worldwide atcbc.ca/secretpath.

Read more about Secret Path here.