Christie Residential School warrior Rose Tom says she felt like a queen on Sept. 30, Canada’s fourth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Tom journeyed on a boat from the rocky shores of Meares Island and the site of Kakawis/ old Christie Indian Residential School (IRS) with a pod of fellow warriors, some paddling a dugout canoe and others on support boats, to Tofino’s First Street Dock.
Warning: The following article contains subject matter related to child abuse and addiction, and may be triggering to some readers.
Attending residential school caused children to emotionally shut down inside, part of a survival tactic that resulted in years of silence about their experience at the assimilationist institutions.
The people of Huu-ay-aht invited the community of Bamfield to join them on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept. 30, where they were treated to a catered lunch at the House of Huu-ay-aht.
But first, Chief Councillor John Jack invited the crowd out to watch children lower the flags outside the Huu-ay-aht Government Office in honour of residential schools survivors, and to remember those that didn’t make it home.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is being celebrated across Canada today, recognized with a civic holiday and walks in communities coast to coast.
The police have arrested a man after discovering a suspicious death in Nitinaht early Saturday morning.
In a statement from the Lake Cowichan RCMP, officers from the detachment were called to a home in the Ditidaht First Nation village just before 7 a.m. on Sept. 28.
“Upon arrival, police located an adult man who was deceased,” said Corp. Madonna Saunderson in a press release from the detachment.
The RCMP have the situation under control in Nitinaht, and will be in the small community for the next few days, according to the Ditidaht First Nation in an update regarding a tragedy that unfolded early this morning.
Residents of the village were advised to stay in their homes this morning and away from a field in the community by Nitinaht Lake, as police attended to an incident that began in the early hours of Sept. 28.
Nitinaht residents are being asked to stay indoors, as police deal with a situation in the Ditidaht First Nation village on southwest Vancouver Island.
This morning a message was released by Chief Councillor Judi Thomas, telling Ditidaht members that RCMP had informed her of a “tragic situation that occurred in our community early this morning.”
Monday, September 30 is Orange Shirt Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a special day for honouring residential school survivors and to remember the children that never made it home.
In 1831, the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ontario became Canada’s first residential school to open. It was the longest operating residential school in the country and closed in 1970.
BC Hydro saw “a strong response” for its call to diversify the province’s sources of power generation, but it appears that for the time being Vancouver Island will remain heavily reliant on mainland sources for electricity.
Closing on Sept. 16, the competitive call for power was the first issued by the provincial utility in over 15 years. For the first time BC Hydro introduced the stipulation that the proposed projects have “a meaningful First Nations partnership component” through at least 25 per cent Indigenous ownership.
A woman shopping at a thrift store in Nelson, BC is intrigued by a framed painting. The thick, brilliantly coloured, oil paint brought to life a scene of a small, rugged settlement surrounded by rocks and forests. Priced at only $1, the woman took the beautiful painting home.