DESI DIARY
ORANGE SHIRT DAY: HOW YOU CAN HELP BUILD RECONCILIATION
Awareness and education are just one step on the path to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Image credit: RAVI ROSHAN on Pexels.
From NEWS CANADA
The discovery of mass and unmarked graves of children at former residential school sites across Canada in recent years have highlighted the importance of education and raising awareness of the true history of residential schools in Canada.
Awareness and education are just one step on the path to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Here are four ways we can continue the conversation.
Orange Shirt Day. Every year on September 30, Canadians across the country wear orange shirts to honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and to encourage people to learn more about the history of those schools. The orange shirt was chosen specifically in recognition of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad’s experience as a residential school student in the 1970s. As a six-year-old, she arrived for the first day of school wearing a shiny orange shirt that her grandmother had bought her for the occasion. School staff took the shirt from her, and she never saw it again. Wearing an orange shirt recognizes the treatment she and others went through. September 30 is also Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Walk for Wenjack. At the age of 12, Chanie Wenjack ran away from the residential school he’d been sent to three years earlier in Kenora, Ontario, hoping to reunite with his family in Ogoki Post, 600 kilometres away. A week after he fled to escape the abuse and brutality of the school, his body was found alongside a railway track. He had died from starvation and exposure.
The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF) was formed to “build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples”. Walk for Wenjack events take place during Secret Path Week, held every year in October to remember Chanie and the more than 150,000 Indigenous children who were sent to residential schools.
Legacy Spaces. Funded by the DWF, legacy spaces are safe, welcoming places intended to inspire action by providing education on Indigenous history, furthering the journey towards reconciliation. The program helps corporations, governments and educational institutions play an important role in reconciliation in their communities. Bimbo Canada, the country’s oldest and largest bakery, has opened four legacy spaces: at its head office in Etobicoke, Ontario; its bakery in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and its bakeries in Montreal, Quebec, and Moncton, New Brunswick.
Learn our shared history. Reconciliation is an ongoing process. There are a number of organizations and online resources where you can learn about the history of residential schools and hear first-hand accounts from people who lived through them. People can also learn the land history in their area and consider land acknowledgements at important events.
More about legacy spaces at bimbocanada.com and downie wenjack.ca.