HERITAGE OTTAWA
On Saturday, September 30, Canada will mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It honours the survivors and lost children of Canada’s residential schools, along with their families and communities.
Here is a listing of the many commemorative activities available on September 30.
- The federal government’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation website includes details of events on Parliament Hill.
- At Beechwood Cemetery, Saturday events will include a screening of the new short film Spirit Bear: Honouring Memories, Planting Dreams!; a 45-minute Reconciliation Tour, when visitors can learn about historical figures involved in residential schools and about the 94 Calls to Action; and the unveiling of The Children’s Sacred Forest at the cemetery. The events are free but Beechwood requests that visitors register in advance online.
- At the Canadian Museum of Nature (240 McLeod Street, Ottawa), Pinock Smith, an Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Nation near Maniwaki, Quebec, will be giving a birch bark canoe crafting demonstration (free with museum admission).
- The Canadian Museum of History has a page on its website highlighting museum exhibitions, movies and other resources (both in the museum and online) related to Indigenous history, and special activities related to this week’s commemorations. Admission to the museum is free on Saturday, September 30, but you should reserve a timed ticket in advance on the page linked above.
- Seven Ottawa Public Library branches will be open on Saturday, and they will be offering programming for all ages related to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Library activities will include helping to plant a heart garden, painting remembrance rocks, screenings of films about residential schools, and bilingual activities related to Phyllis Webstad’s book, Every Child Matters.
- The National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre presents We are So Far Away: The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools.
Orange Shirt Day, also taking place on September 30, is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
On September 30, Canadians are encouraged to wear orange to honour the thousands of survivors of residential schools.
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