{"id":35138,"date":"2024-10-03T17:29:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T21:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35138"},"modified":"2024-10-10T17:34:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T21:34:06","slug":"power-of-change-lies-with-us-say-leaders-on-national-day-for-truth-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/power-of-change-lies-with-us-say-leaders-on-national-day-for-truth-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Power of change lies with us, say leaders on National Day for Truth & Reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The power for change in Canada\u2019s struggle towards Truth & Reconciliation lies with the individual \u2013 and stories of residential school survivors can serve as seeds towards a better future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the message delivered at Aurora Town Square on Monday evening by Traditional Anishinaabe Grandmother Kim Wheatley as she led the Town in observing National Day for Truth & Reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual observance, formerly known as Orange Shirt Day, began Monday morning at Town Hall with a flag raising ceremony, and continued into the evening with events led by Indigenous elders, speakers and performers in events hosted by the Town and the Aurora Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Ceremony and Community Gathering was held in the Town Square space with Wheatley, alongside Elder Pat Floody and Ancestral Knowledge Keeper Raiden Levesque and, later in the evening, in conjunction with the Cultural Centre, Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimeaux hosted musicians Zeegwon Shilling, Jeff Monague a.k.a. Myiingan Minanaakwhe, and Even Redsky in concert in the nearby Performance Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to nearly 200 people assembled outside, Wheatley spoke on the discovery of 215 Indigenous children buried in mass graves associated with a residential school in Kamloops, BC. While this discovery captured the nation\u2019s attention, subsequent discoveries, now topping 12,000, have merited less and less news coverage, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanadians are uncomfortable hearing the facts,\u201d she said. \u201cBodies are still being discovered. We always knew our children were missing \u2013 they have names, they have families, they have communities, and they deserve respect. A mass grave is not respect, period\u2026. Former Justice Murray Sinclair spoke about the journey; he spoke about the deaths, he spoke about the stories because the Truth & Reconciliation Commission was tasked with that role. For over six years, they travelled from place to place to place to bear witness to the stories and to collectively come together with a springboard for all of the treaty partners to begin making reparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose are complex but these 94 calls to action cover every area of your life: they are broken up by categories\u2026. How many of you have chosen one and are championing it? Just one? The government is not doing a good job. We have to go about being the seeds. I saw this beautiful saying, \u2018They tried to bury us, but they forgot we were the seeds.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the report, Sinclair said it took Canada 150 years to get to this point, but it will take \u201canother 150 years to get to where we want to be.\u201d This, said Wheatley, covers a seven-generation period. Despite that length of time, she questions what kind of change will be realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the confidence of the pace we\u2019re going, the speed that we\u2019re travelling, that I am going to see restitution and reparations fully-rooted. I do believe we\u2019re headed towards a bit of change \u2013 I don\u2019t want to sound hopeless, but at the rate we\u2019re moving, it\u2019s going to take a lot longer than 150 years. It\u2019s not just about healing, it\u2019s about education. It\u2019s about relationship-building. It\u2019s about treaty partnerships. It\u2019s about justice \u2013 and we, individually and collectively, have yet to experience justice in this country. Nine years in [from the report] we\u2019re still waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wheatley asked community members what they\u2019re willing to commit to \u2013 and, in doing so, it\u2019s important to take the time to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan you stop asking us what to do? We\u2019re already carrying an enormous burden,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve cried a million tears across this country. We\u2019re still standing in front of you as best as we can, sharing the best words we can, in the kindest of ways, and we\u2019re still being harmed. We are not safe in this country and it is our home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been here a long time and we have done our best in the time that we have been here. We have accommodated all those who have come to our great island to call it home. Even with the continuous harms, we still accommodated, but where\u2019s the reciprocity in that accommodation? Where is the consistency in that reciprocity? Where\u2019s that due diligence in that reciprocity? It is not our job to educate anybody about the cultural genocide, about genocide, period. We know that is a wrong. It is a crime. But we come to remind you tonight, to empower you to be change-makers\u2026. All of you, any age, have the power to manifest change meaningfully. I am trusting that\u2019s what you\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am trusting this message does not fall on deaf ears, but falling as seeds into your heart that are beginning to root permanently. That is what I am trusting in. Those are the kinds of seeds I am sharing tonight. They come from my heart and it is hurt. It\u2019s especially hard for me this year. I don\u2019t know what has changed but I don\u2019t feel safe enough to stand in front of you and cry \u2013 but I want to, because I\u2019m still really angry and resentful that we\u2019re not seeing the change that we need to see\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is my sincere hope that some of the seeds we\u2019ve planted, some of the truths that we have reminded you about, some of the permissions we\u2019ve given, the stories that we\u2019ve shared, will resonate strongly enough in your heart space that you will now leave here better than when you came. You might be carrying a load, you might be feeling in a very emotional, vulnerable space. We\u2019re in that space all day every day, 365 days a year. We don\u2019t get to leave that space, but we\u2019re not walking along with just our baggage of doom and gloom; we\u2019re celebrating, we\u2019re joyful, we\u2019re contributing to the Canadian economy, we\u2019re not a burden on Canadian society. We do not need a hand-out, we need hand-ups. Switch your thinking about that. We still extend that hand, so will you accept it? Will you take it? Will you join us in the journey of reconciliation? Will you draw up your personal courage to just do something today and every day moving forward? Whether we learn about it or not, we will feel that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The power for change in Canada\u2019s struggle towards Truth & Reconciliation lies with the individual \u2013 and stories of residential school survivors can serve as seeds towards a better future. That was the message delivered at Aurora Town Square on Monday evening by Traditional Anishinaabe Grandmother Kim Wheatley as she led the Town in observing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/2024-10-03-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-98K","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 14:11:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}