The Government of Canada has proclaimed Sept. 30th as National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Because this day is being observed and there is no school on Sept. 30th, students and staff at Evergreen School recognized Truth and Reconciliation week this past week culminating in a school assembly hosted by grade 4 students on Thursday, September 26th.
Between 1879 and 1996, the Government of Canada took First Nations, Métis, and Inuit kids away from their families and homes and put them in residential schools. At residential school, kids were not allowed to speak their language or celebrate their culture and were often treated badly by the adults in charge of the schools. Many of the children who went to residential schools became sick and died because the schools were poorly built and didn’t get enough money from the Government of Canada to keep the kids healthy. The kids who survived residential school returned home with a great sadness and hurt that has been passed on to current generations.
In 2008, a group called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was made. Their job was to listen to stories about residential schools and then write the stories down so we can learn from our mistakes. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced their 94 Calls to Action. These are 94 activities all governments, courts, businesses, schools, and people living in Canada can do to help fix the mistakes of the past and present so that all children – including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children – can grow up happy, healthy, safe, and proud of who they are.
In keeping with the Evergreen School’s Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation shared with you in June last year, students will be engaging in classroom-based learning designed to build intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect throughout the school year. Over the course of this week, students also participated in several whole school acts of reconciliACTION.
Classrooms read two books by author Nicola Campbell, Shi-shi-etko and Shin-Chi’s Canoe. The stories follow the experiences of siblings in residential schools. Shi-shi-etko is about a young girl whose family is trying to help her to prepare to go away to Indian Residential School. During the story, Shi-shi-etko and her family members gather items important to their culture for a memory bag for Shi-shi-etko. The story conveys, through the eyes of a child, the resilience of First Nations culture and physical survival amidst the tragedy of residential schools. Evergreen students were invited to imagine how they would feel going to school away from their families or having their clothes taken away, hair cut or not allowed to speak their language. They also reflected on what they thought best symbolized what is valued by their families and culture and what they would include in their own memory bags.
Shin-Chi’s Canoe tells the story of Shi-shi-etko’s younger brother, Shin-Chi as he accompanies her to residential school for her second year. Shi-shi-etko takes it upon herself to tell her little brother all the things he must remember: the trees, the mountains, the rivers and the tug of the salmon when he and his dad pull in the fishing nets. Shin-chi knows he won't see his family again until the sockeye salmon return in the summertime. When they arrive at school, Shi-shi-etko gives him a tiny cedar canoe, a gift from their father – a personal connection to his family during the year he is away at school. Evergreen students have learned reconciliation involves both education and action. ReconciliACTION is about creating and maintaining respectful relationships between Indigenous and settler (non-Indigenous) people in Canada. It involves acknowledging the harms and mistakes of colonization, including the devastating effects of Canada’s residential school system. It also means sharing and learning together about positive ways to move forward. Evergreen students created and signed a pledge of their commitment to reconciliACTION.
Finally, you will see orange hearts along the sidewalk into our school. Students went out and each drew an orange heart to honour Residential School survivors and those who did not survive.
In the spirit of healing and reconciliACTION our school community recognizes the many losses experienced by students, their families and communities, over several generations, including loss of family and culture, language, freedom, self‐esteem and worth, and painful experiences of abuse and neglect.
Respectfully,
Angela McPhee
Principal, Evergreen School