Hundreds of people participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Walk in the Ktunaxa Nation community of Aq'am on Monday, Sept. 30. to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The walk began at the St. Eguene Golf Resort and Casino — itself a former residential school site — and ended at a viewpoint known as 'Crying Hill' overlooking the Aq'am community. It is so named because it was the first place where Indigenous children travelling from outside the region who were forced to attend the school, would first glimpse the building and begin to cry.
In front of the St. Eugene building, Nasukin (Chief) Joe Pierre Jr. welcomed the crowd and acknowledged the sea of orange shirts and the history behind Orange Shirt Day.
Orange Shirt Day was a movement led by Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor who had her brand new orange shirt taken away from her on her first day attending St. Joseph's Mission in Williams Lake when she was a child.
She shared her story as part of a commemoration project in 2013, which eventually led to a movement designating Sept. 30 as Orange Shirt Day as a way to facilitate conversations about the legacy of the residential school system and take meaningful actions to address anti-racism and anti-bullying ahead of the new school year.
"Education got us into this mess, and education will get us out of it," said Pierre, echoing a quote from Indigenous Senator Murray Sinclair, who led Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
"That's what today is all about, this is a day of learning, our National Day of Truth and Reconciliation," said Pierre. "And so I just want to let you know as part of your learning journey, that the residential school and the story of the residential school system in our country is really just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more to colonialism, to being colonized, than just the residential school. I'm not trying to minimize what happened here at all; it was disgusting and it happened in so many other schools across this country. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
"If we start to look at the policy of assimilation that this country held onto for so long — and I would argue still holds onto to this day — the policy of assimilation has so many more things to it than residential school. I'm so glad that we're gathered here today to honour those who survived the residential schools, but I also want to be thinking about our veterans today and the way they were treated. When they came home from those world wars, they were told that the veterans benefits didn't extend to them because they were Indigenous.
"Before they went to those wars, they had to enfranchise themselves. They had to sign a piece of paper so that they could fight for this country and that piece of paper said they were willing to renounce their Indigenous status from that time forward."
Pierre also acknowledged the Sixties Scoop and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
""I'm so glad that we're here gathered with our orange shirts and we're thinking about Phyllis and thinking about the residential school survivors, but it goes so much farther," said Pierre. "And so I'm asking each and every one of you to commit yourselves to learning. I love the fact that you've come here to walk with us today, but this day really is about learning and the story of colonization here in our country. It's not a good read if you're Indigenous. It's not a good read, but it's a read we all must do and we all must understand for our country to be able to move forward in a good way."
Following Ktunaxa prayers and songs to honour the children, drummers got the group started on its way, which headed down Mission Rd., across the bride spanning the St. Mary's River, and up the Mission Wasa Upper Rd.
At the top of that ridgeline, at Crying Hill, the group rested and gathered to hear more speakers shared their experiences in the residential school system and it's legacy of cultural genocide.
Cheryl Casimer is a former Nasukin of Aq'am and is currently serving her fourth consecutive term with the First Nations Summit Task Group as an elected Political Executive, which also includes, as part of that role, serving with the BC First Nations Leadership Council.
A residential school survivor who attended the St. Eugene school, she noted the closure of the last residential school in Canada was not that long ago, in 1996 — the same year her son was born.
Truth and reconciliation is not about assigning blame or making people feel guilty, she said.
"We're not asking you to feel bad about the history and what has happened to us," Casimer said, "What we're asking you to do is be our partner as we dismantle those archaic and colonial structures that still continue to be a part of our lives. That's all we're asking."
Casimer described her experience of being taken away from her home where she lived with her grandmother, who was trying to teach her to tie her shoelaces just before a truck arrived. It had a wooden canopy on the back which was full of children who were crying.
"That was the beginning of that chapter of my life. As horrible as it was to be taken away from my grandmother like that without knowing what was going to happen, I know there are other people who have endured much more pain and horrific treatment in that school before I came along," Casimer said.
While known now as the St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino, the building historically was the Kootenay Indian Residential School, which opened in 1912 with funding from the Canadian government, according to the resort’s website.
It operated as a farm school, first by the Sisters of Providence until 1929, and then by the Sisters of Charity of Halifax in 1936, who remained until the school closed in 1970.
It was flooded and abandoned for over 20 years until the Ktunaxa developed a vision to reclaim the building and transform it into a resort. That journey began to take shape in 1992, after all Ktunaxa Nation bands approved a referendum to restore the building.
The St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino, which fully opened in 2003 after 10 years of restoration, is now wholly owned by the four Canadian Ktunaxa bands and the Shuswap Indian Band.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an opportunity to learn and reflect on the 94 Calls to Action that culminated from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as those recommendations focused on Indigenous child welfare, health, education, justice, language and culture and more.
Additionally, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls made recommendations through 231 Calls for Justice to address the root causes that sustain violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people.
Progress on adopting recommendations from both has been slow.
