Sept. 30 is the National
Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Expert worries that future drop in gov't funding could derail inquiries into the past
Acimowin
Opaspiw Society is investigating children who went missing while
attending the Blue Quills residential school, at Saddle Lake, Alta.,
between the years 1898 and 1931. (Musée Héritage Museum)
WARNING: This story contains distressing details
Leah Redcrow never went to residential school but that doesn't mean she escaped its long reach.
Three
generations of her family were sent to the Blue Quills residential
school in Saddle Lake, a Cree First Nation located 170 kilometres
northeast of Edmonton.
Her grandfather survived the institution, but 10 of his siblings did not.
One of those siblings, a seven-year-old girl named Eva, has no burial record.
"She's not even listed as deceased," says Redcrow, executive director of the Acimowin Opaspiw Society, a group investigating the school's history.
Redcrow
only learned of Eva's existence during her research. "We don't know
where her body is," she says. Like countless other children, Eva simply
never came home, vanishing from the historical record.
Correcting
that record was a key recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) report when it was released in December 2015.
Such
inquiries are now happening across the country, led by Indigenous
nations, groups and organizations trying to untangle the dark mysteries
left in the wake of Canada's residential school system while providing
some clarity and closure for survivors, families and affected
communities.
Paying for the work
Sept. 30 is the National
Day for Truth and Reconciliation, designated in 2021 to recognize the
tragic legacy of residential schools. At that time, the commission had
documented 4,117 deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools
but the actual number could surpass all estimates.
The rate of
deaths among children in residential schools was far higher than that of
the general school-aged population, and parents were rarely informed
about their child's illness, death or burial.
"No one took care to count how many died or to record where they were buried," reads the TRC's final report, summing up the need for and challenges of the ongoing inquiries.
But the first obstacle to that work is the cost.
In
2009, one year after the TRC was established, the commission asked for
$1.5 million to perform research work similar to what is now being done.
The federal government denied the request.
More than a decade
later, in June 2021, the federal government launched a major funding
program for groups to perform research. The program, which received
criticism for the slow pace at which money has gone out the door, has been funded through the first quarter of 2025.
As of Sept. 25, 150 applications had been received, with 117 approved for a total of $160 million, according to a statement from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.
Of
those not approved, three projects were deemed ineligible, two not
recommended for funding, three applications were withdrawn, and one
application was redirected to another funding program. The remainder are
still under assessment.
The
Alberta government announced its program in 2021. The $8-million fund
was created to provide grants to Indigenous communities and groups
conducting research into deaths at residential school sites. Funding was
capped at $150,000 for proposals from individual groups, with no cap
for joint submissions.
According to a spokesperson for Indigenous
Relations, the province approved grants from 43 different Indigenous
communities or organizations, paying out all $8 million in the 2021/2022
fiscal year.
Survivors are 'tough negotiators'
Redcrow's grandfather, Stanley Redcrow, went on to lead a sit-in
at Blue Quills Residential School, forcing the federal government to
the negotiating table and ultimately transferring the school to First
Nations' control in 1971.
Perhaps drawing on that hard-nosed
heritage, Leah Redcrow, alongside survivors with the Acimowin Opaspiw
Society, negotiated with the federal government to move from its initial
offer of $300,000 to an eventual $1.1 million.
"They're tough negotiators," Redcrow says of the survivors, with a laugh. "They kept rejecting and rejecting and rejecting."
Archaeologist
Kisha Supernant uses ground-penetrating radar in her work. Supernant
has been consulting with Indigenous communities on how the technology
can best be applied to search for unmarked graves. (Submitted by Kisha Supernant)
Asked
about those negotiations, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations
and Northern Affairs Canada said in a statement that "the Acimowin
Opaspiw Society and the departmental program officer responsible for the
file clarified the proposal's objectives, activities and budget and
they were able to agree on a funding amount that supported those
activities and objectives."
After writing a preliminary report
detailing progress, particularly with church records, the group received
additional money. The almost-$6.4 million allocated to the society over
four years is the most of any Alberta group, and the fourth-highest
nationally.
The funding is crucial because costs for groups doing
historical research are considerable — and over multiple years, things
start to get pricey.
There are wages for staff, such as a project
manager and investigators, document translation and office
expenses. There are costs associated with the work of commemoration,
community engagement or interviews with elders, sometimes including
travel expenses.
And then there's the specialized work, like
the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) used to detect anomalies consistent
with unmarked graves.
Radar searches often misunderstood
The
use of GPR has resulted in headline-grabbing finds that fixed the
national gaze on the human toll of residential schools, even if they
only served to confirm what was already known.
The May 2021 news
of 215 potential unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential
School on Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation made international news,
marking something of a turning point in the use of the technology at
former residential school sites.
"I do think the announcement from
Tk'emlúps resonated nationally and internationally in a way that we had
never seen before," says Kisha Supernant, director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University of Alberta.
"Even
when other kinds of related issues have been raised — even after the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the whole chapter on the missing
children — we hadn't seen this kind of resonance and the response of
non-Indigenous people, especially in Canada."
While other
organizations do GPR in this context, Supernant has become one of its
most prominent practitioners in Canada. She says that she and her team
have done work at 12 former school sites, held over 20 engagement
sessions with interested communities, and had more than 50 nations and
other groups reach out about residential school searches.
Leah Redcrow is executive director of the Acimowin Opaspiw Society. (Francois Joly/Radio-Canada)
Supernant
says GPR has to be used in concert with other information, like
archival research or oral histories, in order to identify possible
unmarked graves of children. The many discovery announcements that
followed Tk'emlúps — including at Cowesses, Star Blanket Cree, Blue Quills
and elsewhere — and the ensuring swirl of news coverage contributed to
false expectations of what GPR can do. As Supernant notes, there were
often years of work behind those announcements.
The significance of those discoveries are often mischaracterized.
It
has long been known that the residential school system, which ended in
1997 after more than a century, resulted in significant numbers of
deaths and disappeared children. The oral histories of Indigenous
communities affected by residential schools are rife with stories of
children who were taken and never returned home. Records from schools or
parishes, while often spotty, also bear testament to these
disappearances and deaths.
"We don't need to find them to know
children died in the thousands. We have extensive records of that,"
Supernant says. "What we're trying to do is find specific locations and
provide additional information for communities who want to investigate
further."
Initiatives led by survivors, communities
What's
crucial, according to those involved in this work, is that the
communities are in control, determining what work needs to be done and
how best to do it.
Governments have provided funding within a
fairly broad set of parameters, but local groups have been left to
determine their path forward, often with survivors leading the way.
"My
big worry at this point is that people will stop paying attention,"
says Supernant. "And once that attention is no longer paid, what will
happen to the funding? What will happen to the supports?"
In St.
Albert, Alta., a city on the northwest edge of Edmonton, the St.
Albert-Sturgeon County Métis Local are part of a collaborative inquiry
with multiple First Nations and Innu groups affected by the Youville
residential school.
Archie Arcand, president of the local, says the work is important and overdue for communities.
It's also an opportunity to help others better understand what the residential school system has wrought in human terms.
Arcand recalls a story he was told.
"In
this particular instance, they'd go by boat along the river. There was
an RCMP [member] in the boat and the person from the residential school.
They'd stop at a community, isolated community, and they'd pick up
kids. No choice, gotta come," he says. "I put myself in the place of
those people and say, holy moly. How would you react?"
He adds: "You can understand why there's so much trauma."
A
national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide
support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional
and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at
1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis
support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the
Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.
Shoes left at Assumption Church on July 9, 2021 (Photo courtesy of the University of Windsor)
Windsor City Hall to light up orange for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
"Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a
challenging time for so many," said Mayor Drew Dilkens. "It provides the
opportunity for all of us to honour First Nations, Inuit, and Metis
survivors, their families and communities."
Orange Shirt Day honours the story of Phyllis (Jack) Webstad, a
residential school survivor, who wore a bright orange shirt on her first
day of school. The shirt was a gift from her grandmother. It was taken
from the six-year-old but became a symbol of remembrance for all
Indigenous children who were forced to attend the schools where
Indigenous language and culture were repressed, and many suffered abuse.
The
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a call to action for all
levels of government, institutions and Canadians to consider how the
Indigenous were and continue to be treated in Canada. It came out of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which chronicled the experiences
of residential school survivors.
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 11, 2023
September 30 is the National
Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It is a time to recognize
and commemorate the intergenerational harm that residential schools
caused to Indigenous families and communities, and to honour those who
have been affected by this injustice.
We urge our members,
staff and allies to take this opportunity to learn about, and reflect
on, our past and how we can meaningfully participate in reconciliation
in Canada.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its Calls to Action
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
ran from 2008 to 2015, providing those directly or indirectly affected
by the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools policy with an
opportunity to share their stories and experiences. The Commission
released its final report detailing 94 calls to action. The National Day
for Truth and Reconciliation responds to Call to Action 80 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, which reads:
80. We call upon the federal
government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, to establish, as a
statutory holiday, a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to
honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that
public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools
remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
(NCTR) has become the permanent archive for the statements, documents
and other materials the Commission gathered, and its library and
collections are the foundation for ongoing learning and research.
Our 2023 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation artwork was created by Anishinaabe Onyota’a:ka artist, Tsista Kennedy (https://hotdogwaterart.com/.)
When I first read
the theme of "healing and care", as well as the theme of "remembering
the children" being worked into this art, the image of this first draft
immediately came to mind.
The bison is a common image I
use in my artwork, and I often use it to portray healing, resiliency,
and strength, and wellness. When the buffalo were brought to near
extinction, we as Indigenous people struggled due to our diverse
relationships with these animals, and the nourishment, shelter, and
tools they provided us. Since colonization began, both the bison and we
as Indigenous people have maintained our strength and resiliency, and
now we both are growing in numbers once again. Because of this, I wanted
the bison to be a place for the past generations, the children and
elders, to rest upon.
The elder and children on the
bison fit the theme of "remembering the children", but also represent
the children and elders of the present day who will pass on and
receive the traditional knowledge our ancestors succeeded in passing
down to us. The individuals on the far right looking at these children
and the elder represent those that support the children and the elders
in any way they can, ensuring that they are doing their part in the
passing down of our culture, wellbeing, and way of life. This is all
connected by a medicine wheel, and some floral patterns in the top right
corner, which to me represents new life, and continuity.
Tsista Kennedy, Anishinaabe Onyota’a:ka artist
Orange Shirt Day
Orange Shirt Day
is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School
(1891-1981) Commemoration Project and Reunion events that took place in
Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in May 2013. The events were designed to
commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the
healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to
the ongoing process of reconciliation.
Each year on September 30,
people across Canada wear orange shirts to raise awareness of, and start
a conversation around, the history and legacies of the residential
school system in Canada. Watch the video at right to learn more about
how Orange Shirt Day came to be and to listen to Phyllis Webstad's
story.
Share your Orange Shirt Day photos with the ONA community. Submit them via email to digital@ona.org.
Learn More
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
is the permanent archive for the statements, documents and other
materials the Commission gathered, and its library and collections are
the foundation for ongoing learning and research.
Indigenous people in Canada and the U.S. are recognizing September 30 as “Orange
Shirt Day”, or “Every Child Matters Day” to raise awareness and educate
about the harms of Indian schools in North America.
Orange Shirt Day 2022 at Camosun
September 27, 2022
Orange
Shirt Day will be commemorated at Camosun on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022
with a ceremony at Na’tsa’maht. The open-sided structure inspired by
Coast Salish designs, and designed by lək̓ʷəŋən artist Butch Dick, will
host this year’s event.
Camosun
encourages students to wear an orange shirt on Sept. 29 and 30, and to
take the time to learn and reflect as an act of reconciliation.
“Orange
Shirt Day is an important day to honour Indian residential school
survivors, as well as those who didn’t survive or died, often, young and
tragically as a result of the horrors they experienced in these
schools,” says Ruth Lyall, Chair of Indigenous programs at Eye? Sqa’lewen: The Centre for Indigenous Education & Community Connections (IECC) and Orange Shirt Day spokesperson.
Elder Dr. Barney Williams, Nuu-chah-nulth Nation from
the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, will be emceeing the gathering. Hosted
by Eye? Sqa’lewen, the event will include invited guests from Quilts for Survivors, a poetry reading by Beth Mills, as well as drumming and music.
Wawa, Ontario | September 30th – Orange Shirt Day has been recognized by the Federal
Government as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a new
statutory holiday. The Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action #80
states that the federal government will work with Indigenous people to
establish a statutory day to “honour Survivors, their families, and
communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and
legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the
reconciliation process”. There are 94 Calls to Action.
In Wawa, the Town Hall and all municipal facilities will be closed
and staff is encouraged to continue to expand their education as part of
their individual reconciliation efforts.
Municipal Council notes that anyone who is interested in developing a
better understanding can visit the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
of Canada’s website, or use the Libby App to access digital books by
Indigenous authors, such as “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian
Act” by Robert P.C. Joseph.
Other books that residents may find educating are:
Clearing the Plains – James Daschuk
The Inconvenient Indian – Thomas King
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City – Tanya Talaga
Residents may wish to visit these two websites:
Orange Shirt Day (www.orangeshirtday.org). Orange
Shirt Day originates from the story of Phyllis Webstad from the
Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. In 1973, on her first day at St.
Joseph’s Residential School in Williams Lake, BC, Phyllis’s shiny new
orange shirt was stripped from her, never to be seen again. 40 years
later, on September 30th, 2013, Phyllis spoke publicly for the first
time about her experience, and thus began the Orange Shirt Day movement.
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (https://nctr.ca).
From September 27th to October 1st the NCTR will provide historical
workshops, exclusive video content, and activities for students — all
supported by artistic and cultural performances by First Nations, Métis,
and Inuit artists.
A new broadcast special, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,
in partnership with APTN, CBC/Radio-Canada, Insight Productions and
Canadian Heritage. In recognition of the new federal statutory holiday,
also known as Orange Shirt Day, this unique one-hour, commercial-free
primetime special honours the stories and perspectives of Indigenous
Peoples affected by the tragedies of the residential school system in
Canada, with musical tributes and ceremonies in Indigenous communities
across the land. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will broadcast and stream live Thursday, September 30 at 8 p.m. ET on APTN, CBC, CBC Gem, ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV.
Additionally, the Wawa Goose Monument will be illuminated in orange
on September 30th, to honour survivors of residential schools, along
with their families and communities.
“Council has prioritized relationship building with our Indigenous
neighbours,” said Mayor Rody. “We will continue to work with local
Indigenous leaders to best determine how we can support their efforts
and find opportunities to learn and highlight the First Nation roots of
the community. Thank you to municipal staff for having the orange lights
illuminating the Wawa Goose in honour and recognition of the
residential school survivors and their families on September 30th. This
is only a small part of recognition, and we have much more work to do.”
In June, the federal government passed legislation recognizing Sept.
30 as a federal holiday, a paid day off for federal workers and
employees in federally regulated workplaces. On Sept. 9, the Ontario
government confirmed that the day will not be a holiday for the
province.
In June, Ottawa declared it a federal statutory holiday that is meant
to give public servants an opportunity to recognize the legacy of residential schools.
