Content & Trigger Warnings: mention of colonization, g*nocide, r*sidential schools
Today is Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.
The significance of the orange shirt comes from residential school survivor Phyllis (Jack) Webstad who wore a new orange shirt on her first day of school, a gift from her grandmother, only to have it stripped away from her.
We stand as accomplices, and in solidarity with our Indigenous colleagues, partners, and communities, as we remember and honour the generations of children who entered into residential schools and never made it back home. We acknowledge and honour the lived experience and courage of Survivors, their families, and communities who have been fighting for generations for validation, collective action, and reconciliation.
We invite you to take this day to reflect as you are called to, and to listen with open ears, open hearts, and an action-focused mind to the stories of survivors and their families. For non-Indigenous settlers and those who have been displaced to these lands through settler-colonial violence, who have benefitted from systems of colonialism, it is our responsibility to disrupt these systems to further justice and reconciliation. As an organization that works with many Indigenous partners, MakeWay has an important role to play in this work.
Resources
Events/Discussions Online:
- SEPT 29 Right To Play in Conversation: Land-Based Learning & Decolonization – Online
- SEPT 29 A Calls to Action Conversation – Online
- SEPT 30 Every Child Matters – Truth and Reconciliation Day 2022 – Montreal
- SEPT 30 Vancouver Black Library – Indigenous Movie Marathon
- SEPT/OCT Culture Days NDTR Toronto Events
- SEPT/OCT National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Events Around Vancouver 2022
- Look up the Events being hosted in your city/town and attend if you are able!
- Write to your MP and MPP and ask what steps they’ve taken, or will take, towards reconciliation: Template from Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society
- 5 suggestions for things to do on Truth and Reconciliation Day Thursday Article
Learning:
- Learn about Orange Shirt Day
- Oral History Interview – Mike Cachagee
- Oral History Interview – Shirley Margaret Horn
- What We Have Learned
- Principles of Truth and Reconciliation
- Decolonization is Not a Metaphor
- Engage with and Learn Indigenous words/languages: First Voices
- Youth Engagement
- Native-Land Digital: We strive to map Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see the history of their countries and peoples.
- Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls MMIWG2S Report
- Vancouver Public Library Indigenous Book lists
- Indiginews Podcast List
- Read The Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and ask yourself how you can contribute
- Write to your government representatives to ask what steps they’ve taken, or will take, toward reconciliation
- Support and donate to Indigenous-led organizations working for social and climate justice
- Indigenous owned businesses/orgs to support for Orange Shirt Day 2022
- Righting Relations: Turning Theory Into Practice Part 1
- Righting Relations: Turning Theory Into Practice Part 2
- Buffy – CBC Podcast
Places to Give/Buy:
- Indigenous Owned Bookstores in the US & Canada
- Native Arts Society
- BIPOC Led Giving Circle
- One Day’s Pay
- 10 Ways to Donate to Indigenous communities in Canada
- Indigenous Arts Marketplace
- 12 Ways to Support Indigenous Artists
- Strong Nations Books & Gifts & Publishing
- Board Book – Learn the Alphabet
- Copper Canoe Woman Creations
- Jamie Gentry Designs
- Manitobah
- Satya Organic Skin Care
- Spirit Works
- Beam Paints
- Skwálwen
- Wildcraft
- Resist Clothing Co
- Wabanaki Maple
- B. Yellowtail
- Shop First Nations
