National Truth and Reconciliation Day– September 30
Image: Unsplash/Aedrian
This is the second year in which we are called to remember the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or more simply known as “Orange Shirt Day”. The focus of the day is to remember the children who died at Residential Schools and those who survived those schools but continue to live with the trauma of their experiences long after the last of those schools closed.
I want to acknowledge this day and I want to say thank you to the Indigenous people who invite us in healing and friendship to learn, to seek to understand and in some cases even to dance. It is day to express that it is time to heal the hurts of the past and be allies as we walk together into the future. This will take time but this is a new moment to seek healing and reconciliation for the wrongs of the past. Also, when we gather we also learn more of the truth about our Aboriginal peoples and their rich and meaningful culture and ceremonies. We learn because these people are good storytellers and stories tell us who they are and who we are.
Such change and new understanding does not come all at once, or to each person in the same way. It a journey that involves coming to know each other, listening to each other, and walking together into a new day.
I will wear my orange shirt to express that going forward I will not forget the past, and also to express my desire and commitment to create the healing needed and do this together because together we are stronger!
-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice | Sister of St. Joseph