Sharing of wampum belts, sealed the Treaty agreements. .
June is National Indigenous History month in Canada. Indigenous Peoples invite Canadians to join them on June 21 for National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, to celebrate the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis indigenous Peoples in Canada. They encourage deeper reflection and public dialogue on the relationship of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
94 days later, September 30 is a statutory holiday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, for Canadians to commemorate the history and legacy of the residential school system, to honour the resilience, dignity and strength of survivors and intergenerational survivors and to remember the children who never came home. We wear orange shirts to remember
Phyllis Webstad and all residential school survivors whose orange shirts were replaced by the colonial European uniform given to them upon entering residential schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2012), composed of Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, calls Canadians to 94 Calls to Action (2015). These Calls to Action address every sector in Canadian society to redress the legacy of the residential schools and to advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.
A fundamental step in becoming an ally in struggles against oppression, colonization and injustice is committing oneself to an ongoing process of listening, learning and critical self-reflection.
While Indigenous Peoples have asked Canadians to respect Indigenous-led struggles for healing without attempting to take control, they are also asking settler societies to actively seek to disrupt practices, policies and projects of domination and to educate non-Indigenous persons about the histories of Indigenous Peoples. www.trc.ca
