{"id":33615,"date":"2023-09-28T19:43:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33615"},"modified":"2023-10-05T18:07:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T22:07:51","slug":"canada-still-needs-to-address-its-historic-amnesia-says-elder-ahead-of-national-day-for-truth-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/canada-still-needs-to-address-its-historic-amnesia-says-elder-ahead-of-national-day-for-truth-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada still needs to address it\u2019s \u201chistoric amnesia,\u201d says Elder ahead of National Day for Truth & Reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saturday, September 30, marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a time to remember victims of residential schools, those who did not come home, the survivors and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past two years, the annual observance has been led in Aurora by Traditional Anishinaabe Grandmother Kim Wheatley, whose poignant story, and the history she has curated, moves and inspires everyone able to hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are words, she says, that come from the heart, \u201cnever prepared, transmitted as they arrive,\u201d and although they are not prepared, the message remains remarkably consistent \u2013 and deliberately so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe message I share is a consistent message that will be shared until this no longer requires healing, until this is no longer part of Canada\u2019s historic amnesia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s third-annual observance of National Truth & Reconciliation Day will take place at Town Park this Saturday, September 30, beginning with an interactive Reflective Activity from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, before a formal ceremony and community gathering led by Wheatley and elders starts at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be a welcome return to Aurora for Wheatley, who says she is always struck by Aurorans\u2019 eagerness to walk on the road of reconciliation with her and all Indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFresh out of COVID was our first year and we had huge attendance with the restriction of still being six feet apart. The entire park was filled because we had to accommodate that space restriction. What I have found between the first year and the second year is the number of community members who come out is quite diverse and consistent. I don\u2019t know what preconceived notion I had about the Town of Aurora and its citizens, but their interest level in showing up surprised me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I am a little bit jaded about Canadians\u2019 response to the atrocity that we have endured as native people and people really don\u2019t care because I don\u2019t see many meaningful strides forward where the government is concerned; I hear a lot of talk, I hear a lot of promises, we have heard a lot of apologies, but nothing has really changed in terms of movement forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Town Park, however, Wheatley says \u201cpeople listen respectfully, interact with us, with care and compassion that doesn\u2019t feel like pity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey show their solidarity visibly,\u201d she says, underscoring the sea of orange shirts in the audience that have become a potent symbol of Truth and Reconciliation across Canada. \u201cIt is validating and healing to see there is some sort of understanding\u2026 they show up and they bring their whole families, bring little ones, their babies, toddlers, children and teens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Wheatly speaks at events like these, she does not shy away from addressing what she describes as the \u201celephant in the room,\u201d and that is the application of the word \u201cgenocide\u201d to what happened to Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with that term, she says, \u201cbut that is what happened\u201d and is still happening, in her view, with the penal system, child care system, and the ongoing issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key part in collectively addressing \u201cCanada\u2019s historic amnesia,\u201d she says, is working through the 94 Calls to Action that were part of Canada\u2019s Truth & Reconciliation Commission\u2019s final report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are all change-making nudges for any business, individual, citizen, corporation, church, school to embrace,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is no area in Canada where these cannot touch, be absorbed and have life breathed into them. The intention behind this is not to have pity; it is to have meaningful action moving forward that is not diminishing, divisive, and colonial in its approach. It is not decolonizing a colonial country, but it is asking people to be a bit more expansive in how they think about things, that is more in tune with what our values and needs are. We don\u2019t need Canadians to tell us how to heal; we need to reclaim our healing through our ways of knowing, being and doing. Our way of life. That is connected to our lands, it is connected to our territories, it is connected to Canadians having some sort of cultural sensitivity and awareness to allow that to happen and to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are undernourished seeds at this point that really need an opportunity to thrive and survive because Canadians have read it, have accepted it as the truth, and are doing their little bit. Nobody is expected to do them all but every citizen in this country is expected to champion at least one of those calls to action as much as possible \u2013 consistently and deliberately with the mindset that they can and they will \u2026 all those efforts collectively become the change we need to see and happen. It is not going to happen in a short amount of time. It took 150 years to get here and according to Justice Murray Sinclair he said it might take 150 years to actually manifest true healing. It started in the school system and maybe that\u2019s where we need to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that \u201cbasic truth\u201d hasn\u2019t been accepted by Canadians, it\u2019s impossible to move forward with the calls of action, she cautioned. They were based on the witness testimony of thousands impacted, but there are thousands of more stories that have not been told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about stories that will never be told because those children died in care, or were killed, starved or raped to death or beaten to death, buried in these mass graves where they are forever silenced. I think about all of this when I come to Aurora. I hope Aurorans will come out with the same good hearts and minds they have in the last two years, bringing perhaps new people and bringing people who perhaps are a little bit resistant to learning so they can have an immersive experience in a public, invitational ceremonial remembrance and gathering that allows them to hear an authentic voice, to participate in an interactive way, and to stand in visible solidarity with us as potential allies or already are allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe in the grassroots change rather than the kind of government funnel-down waiting games of change. The government will never get it right as far as I\u2019m concerned, but people can \u2013 people do things with their hearts, from their hearts, by their hearts, that are sustainable. It comes from a place of great care and that is how we make change. People need to care about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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