News

In preparation for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30th), the Indigenous Knowledge and Research Centre invites you to participate in a creative and spiritual learning journey this week. We will be inviting folks from the campus to paint rocks to look like child-sized moccasins. The rock moccasins will be displayed on the Schewman lawn to remember the tens of thousands of Indigenous children in unmarked graves across the country. See below for scheduled activities: 

Background: 

Since 2021, First Nation communities have begun examining former residential school sites and surrounding areas to reclaim and honour their missing children. The residential school system in Canada removed approximately 150,000 children from their families to attend church-run and federally-funded schools. These schools ran for more than a century and was a tool used for assimilating Indigenous peoples. Thousands of accounts of physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual abuse were shared at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s hearings across the country. 94 Calls to Action were published by the Commission to direct actions towards truth and reconciliation. As part of the Calls to Action, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was created to honour Orange Shirt Day and will be observed annually on September 30th. 

“80. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, to establish, as a statutory holiday, a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, 2015, Page 9

Email indigenous@concordia.ab.ca if you have questions.