01 October 2021 - Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
How Canada marked 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
(CBC News, 01/10/2021)
Indigenous community members and their allies gathered across the country during the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to reflect on the dark legacy of residential schools and call on Canadians to understand the impact residential schools had on Indigenous peoples.
What the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation means to this B.C. First Nation
(CBC News, 01/10/2021)
For members of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, Sept. 30 is about honouring the children and survivors of residential schools, and creating a path forward for reconciliation. The First Nation sparked a national conversation after it helped uncover what appear to be the remains of 200 children buried at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
This National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canada should commit to a Just Transition for Indigenous Peoples
Clayton Thomas-Müller (The Globe and Mail, 01/10/2021)
When Justin Trudeau first became Prime Minister six years ago, he made some big promises to Indigenous Peoples. He pledged to end boil-water advisory circumstances on over one hundred First Nations, to act on the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls crisis, and to implement all the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. But while he has made some progress, it’s been too little and too slow.
The same is true for the commitment to tackle the climate crisis. When Mr. Trudeau travelled to the Paris climate talks and declared boldly that Canada was back, he committed us to do our part to limit global temperature rise to 1.5ºC. But his climate plan has been deemed “highly insufficient” by global experts, putting us on the way to 4ºC of warming. In the midst of this climate emergency, he bought the Trans Mountain pipeline, sent the RCMP into Wet’suwet’en lands to build the Coastal Gaslink project and increased fossil fuel subsidies to $18-billion in 2020.
Reckoning with the truths of unmarked graves of Indigenous children, education systems must take action
Lisa Korteweg, Pauline Tennent and Tesa Fiddler (The Conversation, 26/09/2021)
The education system needs to help teachers address, repair and heal education towards and beyond reconciliation.
“It’s clear that there will be more unmarked graves found at residential schools, but what are we (educators) supposed to do? How are we supposed to fix this?”
These were questions posed by non-Indigenous teachers during a workshop we delivered in June on anti-Indigenous racism in curriculum to promote Indigenous cultural safety in schools.