December 19th

What is Orange shirt day and why is it important?

Orange shirt day is a day on which we wear orange shirts. We wear orange shirts on this day to spread awareness of the ongoing adversities that the First Nations people face. It was created in 2013 by Phyllis Webstad but the story originates in 1973 when Phyllis was 6. When she went to residential school, her grandmother gave her a new orange shirt to wear, but when she got there they took her shirt and gave her a school uniform instead. This is an example of how the people running the residential schools did everything in their power to remove any influence of First Nations culture from the children that were taken and put there. This is why it is important to celebrate Orange shirt day, not because the colour orange is cool but to remember all of the horrible things done to the First Nations children.

 

Canada’s progress towards 94 calls to action

Canada has made a lot of progress towards completing the calls to action since 2015 when they were created. They have completed 13 out of 94, which you might not think is a lot but these things take a tremendous amount of work and time to complete to everyone’s satisfaction. Along with completing these 13, they have 31 in progress, and 31 more being proposed! That is a lot of work going into these goals and at this rate it should only take another 43 years before all of them are completed! This might sound like a long time but compared to how long the First Nations have been going through the colonization of the americas, this is not very long.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

In June 2021 the Canadian Government passed a bill to make September 30th “National Truth and Reconciliation day.” It is a day to honour the victims of residential schools and the adversity they have faced throughout their lives.

British Columbia, “National Truth and Reconciliation Day.” Province of British Columbia, 2022, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/indigenous-people/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation#in-bc. Accessed 20 December 2022

What is Call to acton #63 iii

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, 2012. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf.

Call to action #63 iii is “Building student capacity for intercultural
understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.” It helps us build empathy by telling us stories about what happened to kids in residential school so we could better understand them better.

Kwiketlem Pronunciation

I learned that the name “Coquitlam” was used because the settlers could not pronounce “Kwikwetlem”

“The Story of Kwikwetlem.” YouTube, uploaded by Kwikwetlem First Nation, 4 October 2021. https://youtu.be/EanZG7DGVTo. Accessed 13 October 2022

Kwikwetlem Audio

Kwikwetlem First Nation People. “Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ Language Guide.” https://www.kwikwetlem.com/pronunciation-guide.htm. Accessed 13 October 2022.