{"id":29449,"date":"2021-06-10T17:08:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T21:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29449"},"modified":"2021-06-17T20:18:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T00:18:40","slug":"every-child-matters-its-about-finding-a-way-to-make-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/every-child-matters-its-about-finding-a-way-to-make-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Child Matters: \u201cIt\u2019s about finding a way to make it right\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saying \u201csorry\u201d doesn\u2019t cut it unless it is followed up by \u201cmeaningful action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were among the powerful words delivered at Town Park on Sunday evening at a socially-distant vigil by the Aurora Black Community in vigil following the discovery of 215 Indigenous children in unmarked graves on the grounds of a residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 6, dozens of residents came out to Town Park, many donning orange shirts, a symbolic act of raising awareness of what happened within the residential school system, to mourn the tragic loss recently uncovered and help chart a path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here today to commemorate those 215 children that were dumped in a mass grave like garbage \u2013 that hurts a lot,\u201d said Traditional Anishinaabe Grandmother Kim Wheatley, who is Turtle Clan and carries the Spirit Name \u201cHead or Leader of the Fire Flower\u201d, who led Sunday night\u2019s event. \u201cThose children were as young as three years old. The government said they didn\u2019t take children that young, but their bodies are there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, she said, was not about the government per se, rather it was to honour the children, their families, and their nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still here and we ask for your compassion at this time. But more than that, we ask you to step forward and to do something in solidarity with us. This is not just a story \u2013 these are children; children who were denied the right to go home to their parents,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night of solidarity was an example of the community stepping forward to do something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was spearheaded by Shruti Kalyanaraman, a member of the Aurora Black Community Facebook group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a \u201crainbow mother,\u201d Ms. Kalyanaraman says when she learned about the discovery in Kamloops, she was taken back to 2013 when she lost her own child. She had the closure, she says, of burying her child, but that was not afforded to the parents of the children discovered this spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were all devastated,\u201d she says of the Aurora Black Community membership, \u201csimply as moms, if no one else. I just wanted to reach out to my community, which has been very inclusive\u2026 on how we could grieve together. You can see the response \u2013 so many people have come here to support each other, here on a Sunday night. I am sure this will all help us grieve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thread of grief was a thread woven into Ms. Wheatley\u2019s poignant words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to give thanks to the fact those bodies were found because it gives us time to repatriate them in the way they should have been in the first place,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives us time to honour and remember them. It gives us time to validate those families who said, \u2018My child is missing.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not about finger-pointing; it is about finding a way to make it right. We need to do that together. Even if you feel that you, as a single person, don\u2019t make a difference, that is not true. You are all grains of sand on the beach of change and we need you. I am so, so happy to see the number of people here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is 2021. The last residential school closed in 1996. It is not very long ago. The laws to keep our children in residential school are unique to us. Sorry doesn\u2019t cut it unless you follow it up with some sort of meaningful action. We got a public apology about this, but we haven\u2019t received the help we need to date from the Federal Government, Provincial Government, or from individuals like you. It costs money to dig up a body. It costs money to have forensics determine who that child is, who they belong to, and take them back to the communities they belong to. We need your help with that. We need your help with things like therapy, and I know communities can step forward in that way. We\u2019re waiting to see when that can happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not about money; it is about righting a wrong that shouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no words, she added, to help Canadians understand how it feels, but a good step forward is becoming familiar with the 94 recommendations that came out of the final report offered by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is strange to [all of a sudden be] standing her realizing that I am talking about our traditional ways in an open way, that I don\u2019t have to look to whether I am going to be arrested or get a ticket or go to jail. That was the way it was not so long ago,\u201d she concluded. \u201cIn the 70s, they were still arresting us. In the 80s, they were still arresting us. We\u2019re in 2021 and I feel pretty brave standing up here all by myself with my medicine (tobacco), my feather, speaking the truth. Feeling like I am being heard by all of you in a way that truly matters. That is really important to me. We have been silenced for centuries and we have offered nothing but kindness, love, care, respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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