Today marks Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (formerly known as Orange Shirt Day, previously), a day for Canadians to acknowledge the trauma and suffering of Indigneous people because of the genocidal atrocities of Canada’s residential school system. From the 1880s to the 1990s, approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families, forced into church-run “schools,” stripped of their culture and language, and severely abused and neglected. Cindy Blackstock, director of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society: “Approach it as you would Remembrance Day…Keep in mind that children were more likely to die in residential schools than a soldier was in the Second World War.” Tonight, across the country at 8 pm local time, there will be a national broadcast on APTN and CBC Radio, TV, and Gem honouring the day. A national crisis line for Residential Institution Survivors is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week: 1-866-925-4419.
Today, many will be thinking of the hundreds of unmarked children’s graves confirmed this year at former residential school sites across Canada (previously).
Geraldine Shingoose, residential school survivor, offers ways to honour the day.
Read the 94 Calls to Action by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation.