September 30th is known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This is a national holiday to honour the indigenous children that were taken away from their families, scolded, tortured and punished for speaking their language and practicing their customs. This all took place with the government knowing what was happening and turning a blind eye to the situation. It was in conjunction with the Catholic church, which ran these residential schools and whose leaders brutally tortured and killed these innocent children. Many survivors of these horrible atrocities faced physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.
This painful legacy of assimilation into the Christian doctrine is still felt today by survivors and family members. For this reason the Orange Shirt Day was established as an indigenous-led grass roots commemorative day to raise awareness of the inter-generational trauma caused by the Canadian Government and the Catholic Church with residential schools. Every Child Matters is the slogan that was chosen to represent the survivors, the families and communities that were impacted with these atrocities.
Please join us to recognize that that there is still work to do in this reconciliation process and that is the responsibility of every Canadian to listen and learn from our past.
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