Every child matters

the Indigenous Cultural Alliance, explaining that the march that took place between the Bishop’s Campus and BCS was a step toward giving greater recognition to the intergenerational trauma caused by Canada’s residential school system. “It’s about recognizing the atrocities that have happened and that continue to happen today to indigenous people.”

Richard O’bomsawin, Grand Chief of the Abenaki council at Odanak, spoke both at the beginning and end of the walk about the significance of the day.

“We can learn from the past and know that history is history,” O’bomsawin said. “Our future is in our hands.”

The Chief underlined the fact that although Orange Shirt Day is a day of remembrance and sharing about the terrible acts committed at schools across the country over many years, it is also an opportunity to look ahead with hope at the legacy that residential school survivors have left by sharing their stories.

“Today in our school system we can be who we are. We can take our beliefs with us to school. We don’t have to change,” O’bomsawin said. “It is important when you go to school, never to forget your nation, never to forget who you are and where you came from.”

In helping to open the event Bishop’s Vice Principal Academic, Miles Turnbull, made a point of highlighting the important role that educational institutions have to play in the work of reconciliation with indigenous peoples and expressed appreciation to the provincial government to help fund the school’s new Indigenous Student Support and Community Liaison Officer position. He praised the work of Melissa Poirier, the first person to hold the position, noting that she helped coordinate this event in her first month on the job.

“Indigenous students continue to be underrepresented in Canadian higher education institutions and Bishop’s is committed to doing its part to close this education gap,” Turnbull said. “(Poirier) will help the university broker respectful and trusting relationships with indigenous communities, especially to establish and maintain a collaborative and consultative process to better understand the specific needs of indigenous students.”

Tyler Lewis, Head of School at Bishop’s College School, shared that BCS got involved in Thursday’s event in large part because of Poirier’s enthusiasm.

“Melissa is at the centre of all of this,” Lewis said. “I have learned, in the past week, far more about the atrocities inflicted upon the Abenaki and other First Nations people of our country than I ever knew before Melissa reached out.”

Although the head of school said he was not ignorant to Canada’s History of residential schools prior to the preparation for Orange Shirt Day, he explained that the work of getting himself and the student body the proper context for the event was emotional and very informative.

“This did exactly for me what we hope it will do for our kids or our community, which is create curiosity and raise awareness.”lewis said. “Let’s understand what happened. We can’t fix what has happened in the past but we can certainly learn from it and forge a better tomorrow.”

Closing out the day, Chief O’bomsawin shared a similar idea.

“We will survive the past to grow stronger in the future,” he said. “Today our land is your land, we share it with you; walk on it softly, there is a lesson to be learned in every step.”

More information about the history of Orange Shirt Day is available at http://www.orangeshirtday.org/