Truth and Reconciliation Day: how Airdrie will commemorate September 30th

Thursday, September 30th will mark Truth and Reconciliation Day. The federal government of Canada has mandated this day as a statutory holiday in order for Canadians to reflect upon the atrocities that Canada inflicted upon the Indigenous population. The city of Airdrie will join other cities across the country in this solemn commemoration. 

"We're going to be lighting up City Hall in orange, in recognition of the residential schools and in recognition of our indigenous neighbors and friends," said Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown.

 

Mayor Brown said that he and staff at the City of Airdrie will use this day to somberly reflect on residential schools.

 

"I think it's incumbent upon all of us because for the majority of people that are alive today, they weren't aware of in residential schools, they weren't complicit with residential schools, they weren't part of those things when those atrocities that happened," Mayor Brown said. "So our job now is to listen and learn."

 

The Southern Alberta District RCMP has also erected a teepee on the corner of Hamilton Boulevard and Highland Park Way N.E., Airdrie (across from the Airdrie RCMP Detachment). With the exception of the morning of Sept. 30, 2021, the teepee will be open for viewing until the end of September and members of the public are encouraged to visit.

 

Mayor Brown also encouraged residents to visit the Every Child Matters Footprint Memorial in Nose Creek Park.

 

The memorial was made possible in part by local artist Jaadaas Jagwa. Jagwa is part of the Haida and Nisgaa First Nations.

 

"I was looking at different memorials that were put up and I thought to myself, what can we do for a more permanent memorial?" Jagwa said. 

 

Jagwa, whose name means woman of many spirits, spoke about the personal family story behind the footprints.

 

Almost a century ago, Jagwa's clan, the Northern Eagle clan, was nearly wiped out by an outbreak of smallpox. Her grandmother was among the few survivors. The survivors walked hundreds of kilometers until they reached the village of Masset in British Columbia. Jagwa's grandmother was adopted by a local chief from the tribe there and would later be raised by Anglican nuns.

 

"[It] really started her whole journey into the residential school system," she said. "Footprints really remind me of those first steps my grandmother had to take through the [residential school] system."

 

For Jagwa, intergenerational trauma is something that she deals with every day. Her father, who struggled with addiction, dealt with homelessness as a child and was in and out of foster and day homes. 

 

"He was ridiculed and beaten then kept in the closet," she said. " [These] horrific dealings didn't equip my father to parent me to the best of his ability, so he was actually absent most of my life."

 

Jagwa doesn't know her grandmother's real name as it was changed several times throughout her life in the residential school system.
 

And while Jagwa said that while September 30th is an important step in healing, there is much work to be done. 

 

 "This is Canada's dark little secrets," she said. "I think a good first step is actually well in that kind of journey is reading through the Truth and Reconciliation records and understanding what our encounters were like with the first settlers and how we can move past that and start having real conversations to really understand, the depths of our culture versus European cultures," Jagwa said.

 

Jagwa underlined that it's not necessarily that non-Indigenous Canadians need to support the Indigenous, but that non-Indigenous Canadians need to be supported by the indigenous community and the ancestors on the lands all around them.

 

Mayor Peter Brown also encouraged people the Truth and Reconciliation reports.

 

"Most people, that are not Indigenous say, well, why do I have to feel responsible? It's not about that, it's just about listening, learning, and understanding," he said.

 An estimated 150,000 children attended residential schools and it is estimated 6,000 children died, though these numbers are incomplete and underreported, as unmarked graves continue to be discovered at various former residential school sites. The last Indian residential school, located in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996.