Students and locals mark National Indigenous Peoples Day
Dozens gathered at Square Queen in Lennoxville Monday evening to participate in a silent march for National Indigenous Peoples Day, despite an ominous weather forecast calling for thunderstorms, heavy rain, and strong winds.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of National Indigenous Peoples Day. It was created in 1996 to recognize and celebrate the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Indigenous peoples of Canada. It also often coincides with the summer solstice.
The community event was organized by Bishop’s University’s Indigenous Cultural Alliance (ICA).
Shawna Jerome, an ICA member, told The Record she was not certain how many people would show up due to the rain. The sun broke through just in time, though.
“I don’t know exactly what it means, but it definitely means something […] the signs were with us,” Jerome, Mi’kmaq from Gesgapegiag, said. “Just Mother
Nature trying to rehydrate the land, maybe shedding a couple tears before we came here.”
She took a few minutes to speak to the crowd before leading the silent march towards Bishop’s University. Jerome set up a memorial in the quad, collecting shoes to honour the 215 children recently discovered in unmarked graves near a residential school in British Columbia.
She distributed orange shirts with the words ‘honouring residential school survivors’ written on the front. And she acknowledged the fact that everyone in attendance was standing on Abenaki land. This day is to show pride, Jerome explained, to celebrate and to learn.
“One of our main goals is to educate others of what has happened […] so just being part of that as well it means so much, and just educating your own network, your own family members, trying to remove these negative stereotypes to try to make our job a little easier,” she said.
This is not simply part of Quebec history, she continued. Residential schools haunt many Indigenous people to this day, Jerome said, adding that there is intergenerational trauma. She wants to see more allies speak up, and more support for local Indigenous artists.
Célia Dagenais, spokesperson for the Association des locataires de Sherbrooke (ALS), helped run the event, translating Jerome’s words into French. She said Quebecers, and Canadians, cannot ignore what happened to
Indigenous communities; society needs to evolve.
“We are here because we are staying on Indigenous stolen land [...] we are here because we acknowledge the fact that we are all collectively responsible for the children who lost their lives but also the children who survived the residential schools,” said Dagenais.
She added that one of the four main pillars of the ALS is tackling systemic racism, which contributes to the province’s looming housing crisis. If Quebec does not acknowledge the role systemic racism plays in handcuffing people of colour, she said, then nothing will change.
“The fact that one third of all the people who apply for a complaint at the Tribunal administratif du logement, one third of all the complaints are because of racist discrimination by the owners,” said Dagenais.
Bishop’s University Principal Michael Goldbloom was one of several presenters when the march reached its destination, as well as Manager of Student Life Annick Corbeil. Corbeil said she is taking steps to make things better, and she encourages everyone to do the same.
“Thinking of land acknowledgment is probably something that we should do every day, or that I feel I should do every day when I wake up on this land and come to this campus because it is a real opportunity to think about my own responsibility in the past and in the present,” she said.
Corbeil has challenged herself to contribute to ending the “cycle of violence and oppression.” She has a different view of the ancestral land. A few days ago, standing beside the memorial, she noticed a dozen birds high in the sky, circling above the quad.
“I don’t know what the message was but for me it meant something like don’t forget, you know, don’t ever forget the pain, the trauma, and the suffering of these children, the victims, but also the survivors of residential schools, their parents, their families,” said Corbeil.
Jerome wanted to collect at least 215 pairs of shoes. She reached 220 by the end of the event. It was a team effort with the university and the community.
But tensions have been high between the university and the ICA.
There were disputes in February over the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Task Force, and the Kwigw8mna “Our House” project, which received $5.9 million in government funding in 2017. But the ICA and Bishop’s have since reached an understanding, according to Jerome.
“There is definitely a switch in tone in our relationship, we feel better as students now, we actually feel heard, and I feel like them as well, the faculty and staff, they are starting to feel more comfortable and able to help us [...] and listen to us and our concerns,” she said.