Wednesday, October 2, 2024

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Canadians marked National Truth and Reconciliation Day across the country this week.

A day to remember the victims of Canada’s residential school system.

In Ottawa, and other major cities solemn ceremonies were held to reflect on the legacy of the schools.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, many say remembering is not enough.

There were orange shirts and ribbon skirts at ceremonies in Ottawa and across the country as people gathered to remember.

More than 150,000 Native children were forced to attend the church-run, government-funded schools from the mid 1800s to the late 1900s.

Thousands suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Many died.

Among those who spoke was Canada’s governor general Mary Simon (Inuk).

“We honor the resilience of survivors who continue to bravely share their stories so that we may learn in their stories there is unspeakable pain. But there is also tremendous courage and determination to emerge into healing and light.”

Prime minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders attended events in different parts of the country.

Many survivors of the schools told their personal stories.

Chief Bob Chamberlain is a former vice president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

“When I see so many Canadians wearing organge shirts, it shows me that the awareness is growing. But it’s time that the government step up and do more than just help build awareness. But to start making the substantive changes which were the foundation of this country that still exists today.”

Commemorating Truth and Reconciliation Day officially began in 2021. 

A totem pole was raised at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, Alaska, over the weekend.

Though it’s new to the center, the Porcupine and Beaver Kootéeyaa is almost 40 years old.

KTOO’s Clarise Larson reports.

It was carved by late master Lingít carver Amos Wallace.

For decades, it lived inside the U.S. Forest Service office in Juneau. But it was rededicated to its new home inside the visitor center.

Amos’s son Brian Wallace was at the ceremony on Saturday.

He says it means a lot to him to know that his father’s work will now live where thousands — perhaps millions — of visitors will see it.

“It was kind of a homecoming right now. So now tens of thousands of people who visit the glacier center, are gonna be able to visit it, and it’s not going to fade away, it’s going to have an indefinite lifetime.”

The pole was raised ahead of Orange Shirt Day, which recognizes the effects of boarding schools on Indigenous communities.

Amos was one of many Alaska Native children removed from their families and forcibly assimilated at government or church-run institutions.

Wallace says the trauma from that experience deeply impacted his father, who found healing through his art.

He says he hopes it can do the same for the people who will look at the totem pole in the years to come.

“I have great pride that my dad did his part to keep the artwork going, even though it was oppressed. It just shows the world that the Lingít, Haida, Tsimshian – they had a rich heritage, but they are still vibrant. We’re still here. Despite everything that happened, there’s still artwork here.”

The pole also signifies another step toward tribal sovereignty, according to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

The tribe helped make the move possible and hosted the rededication ceremony.

A year ago, the tribe and the U.S. Forest Service signed a memorandum of agreement to co-manage the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area together to better educate visitors on the Indigenous history of the area.

The tribe hired 10 tribal members this summer to work as ambassadors at the visitor center, sharing their personal connections to Lingít culture and how Lingít people are connected to the land.

 

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