WARNING: This article contains discussion of residential schools. Those in need of support can call the 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.
“Without truth, we cannot have reconciliation.”
That was host Earl Wood’s final message to the audience on Tuesday as the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation took over Parliament Hill.
Throughout the event, residential school survivors shared stories, Indigenous musicians performed and spectators opened their hearts to listen.
“Today is a day that we honour the Elders, the survivors, and we keep them in our prayers and we ask this beautiful country to work with us in reconciliation,” said Métis Elder Charlotte Nolin, a survivor of day school and the Sixties Scoop.
As the crowd rolled in, large screens displayed a scrolling list of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action. This year marks 10 years since these calls to action were released as part of the commission’s final reports.
“While there has been progress in the 94 calls to action, it has been slow, and it has been uneven,” executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Stephanie Scott said to the crowd.
Scott said these calls to action are the road map for how Canada must approach Indigenous reconciliation.
“(As) our dear friend, the late Honourable Murray Sinclair Mazina Giizhik-iban said, ‘We have shown you a mountain. We have shown you a path to the top. And we call on you to do the climbing.’”
A banner with children’s names who did not return home from residential schools was unravelled during the ceremony, as children’s shoes were brought and left on a platform near centre stage.
DeeDee Austin, 19, sang her original song, “Buried Truths,” as the banner was carried through the crowd and onto the stage.
Some shed tears as lyrics like, “They tried to break the child within” and, “An open grave reveals the hidden past, buried truth revealed at last” poured over the crowd.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Governor General Mary Simon both spoke at the event.
“Truth is the foundation of justice,” Carney told the crowd. “And the truth is, for more than a century, this country ran residential schools.”
Carney said his government is moving forward with the commission’s calls to action.
“We will not fail you,” he said.
Simon, who is Canada’s first Inuk and Indigenous governor general, said for her, truth and reconciliation is personal.
“Reconciliation has never just been professional,” she said to the crowd. “It has shaped my thoughts. It has stirred my courage, and at times, my anger. It has fueled my dreams.”
Simon added that while it’s important to remember the past, reconciliation is also about building a future.
“I see a present and a future where young Indigenous people are embracing Canada without compromising their identity, where they can fully be themselves, pursue the professions they aspire to and give back to their communities, whether as teachers, doctors, nurses, plumbers, whatever you want to be — even as governor general,” Simon said to roaring applause.
While Carleton University did not pause classes on Tuesday, an Every Child Matters flag was flown at half-mast near Library Road.
Orange lights also illuminated the Richcraft Hall underpass and the bridge at the north end of campus, and Campus Safety Services held an orange ribbon campaign to collect donations for the Minwaashin Lodge Emergency Food Cupboard.
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Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan.
