Today is the National Day For Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It is meant to honour the memory of Canada’s residential school survivors, their families and communities, and to recognize the cruelty and trauma forced upon indigenous children who attended those schools. This day also gives us the opportunity to take a moment and think of those children who did not survive the atrocious schools after they were torn away from their families.
This is the first year where the National Day For Truth and Reconciliation has been a national holiday. As a Canadian, I will be taking some time today to reflect on the horror and oppression inflicted on indigenous children at the schools from the 1870’s to the 1990’s. I am recognizing my own privilege and ignorance of this situation that was happening for over 100 years – and why we need to reconcile this with First Nations people.
I wanted to write a post today to commemorate the courage of Canadian residential school survivors and to demonstrate that many never had a chance to go home – so many died. I would like to read more books written by indigenous people, especially those written by fellow Canadians. I have much to learn about their history and culture and I want to be their ally.
I thought I would share a clip about a young indigenous girl’s sad story. It is from the TV show Anne with E, which made a decent effort to show the reality of these disgraceful reform schools. I hope you will watch it and take a moment to reflect on what too many First Nations children had to experience in Canada.
I wish that the show was able to have a fourth season, because it could have shown more of Ka’Kwet’s story, but this end is realistic for the children who were never able to go home. It also captures the sheer ignorance of most white people during that time – notice the colonial attitudes where they think this is a good thing. It’s so sad to watch.
Now, I don’t want you to leave my blog feeling very sad. I’ve also included this sweet interview with the two actors who played Ka’Kwet and Anne. While these atrocities did happen, we can make life fair for everyone by listening to others’ experiences, empathizing with them, learning about their culture, and working together to create positive change. The future can be better.
If you would like to learn more about how to respectfully observe this holiday as a non-indigenous person, you can take a look at an article here. It has great information and I recommend you read it.
I hope you all take care and have a good day. Thank you for reading my post!