Truth and Reconciliation Day events set for weekend, Monday
Gatherings planned across Nunavut, Nunavik and in Ottawa to mark the occasion
A parlak, or candy toss, was part of the observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Iqaluit in 2022. (File photo)
Communities across Nunavut and Canada are marking the fourth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 with educational events, community walks and other ceremonies.
Liberal MPs and Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout have issued statements commemorating the day that honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools.
The Government of Nunavut is doing long-term work to remember the residential school system by creating a “made-in-Nunavut” curriculum that will include the history of residential schools, according to a news release about this year’s holiday.
In the release, the government invited people across the territory to “wear orange to promote reconciliation, healing and to say loudly: Every Child Matters.”
All schools in Nunavut will be closed on Sept. 30, said Matthew Illaszewicz, director of stakeholder engagement at the Department of Education.
Here’s a list of events and ceremonies happening in Nunavut and across the country on Sept. 30:
Iqaluit
Qikiqtani Inuit Association will commemorate the day starting at the Igluvut building at 1:30 p.m. by handing out orange T-shirts, followed by a moment of silence at 2:20 p.m.
At 2:30 p.m., residents can take part in a community walk from Igluvut to Iqaluit Square.
There is a community parlak, or candy toss, and a prayer scheduled for 3 p.m.
Cambridge Bay
Residents can gather outside the hamlet office from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to leave a handprint mark on a white stripe that will go around the building.
Participants will get one of 1,000 orange T-shirts available and can attend the ceremony with a residential school survivor and lighting of a qulliq.
Kugluktuk
Phyllis Webstad, a First Nation author and creator of Orange Shirt Day, will visit Kugluktuk to commemorate the day. First, she will speak at Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik Elementary School on Sept. 27 and read from her book Every Child Matters.
Then on Sept. 30, she will speak at the Kugluktuk Recreation Complex. The event will start with the lighting of the qulliq by an elder at 1:30 p.m.
After Webstad’s speech, along with throat singing and drum dancing performances, community members will get the chance to share residential school experiences and take part in a community walk through Kugluktuk.
Ottawa
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa, with support from Canadian Heritage, is holding a ceremony on Parliament Hill at 3 p.m.
The ceremony includes reflections from residential school survivors and performances by Inuit, First Nations and Métis artists.
The 90-minute gathering will be broadcast live on APTN, CBC and other supporting stations.
The Peace Tower and the Senate Building will be lit in orange throughout the evening.
For people in Ottawa over the weekend before Sept. 30, an open house is planned at Rideau Hall on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. People are invited to make a heart for planting in the heart garden and learn about the significance of the qulliq, among other activities.
Nunavik
Although National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is not recognized in Quebec as a statutory holiday, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services is funding multiple events across the region.
A community feast and an evening candlelight event will be organized in Akulivik.
In Puvirnituq, there is a T-shirt painting planned and the board is working on organizing a walk with the school, said Yentl Béliard-Joseph, communication co-ordinator for the board.
The board also organized a T-shirt- and pin-making event in Kuujjuaq on Sept. 25.
Day off , 2 day work week for me.
bro works 3 days a week
Nunavut never gives a damn about other communities, there are other communities besides City of Iqaluit and Settlement of Rankin Inlet.
Just another excuse for government or others to get a paid day off! Us hard working mining employees on the hook for taxes as usual.
News flash government workers also pay taxes! Tax payers don’t pay for specific holidays it’s goes to general fund! Show respect for children that didn’t make home and children that were forced to go residential schools
How does a candy toss advance reconciliation?
This day should not have been declared a holiday. Schools could have had a meaningful experience for students by planning and delivering a day-long special event for students that would focus on why the day is important. It is important enough NOT to be a holiday. Change starts with providing information to the young. What a wasted opportunity.
Not working, having candies and tossing candies is a very Northern way of dealing with sensitive issues. We wouldn’t want to talk about what residential schools were, would we? That term is being tossed around to mean concentration camps when it encompasses really complex experiences, from federal day schools, provincial schools, people housed with families while they went to regular high schools in the South, etc. Could we even have that info defined out there in this political climate and with Bible-thumpers in positions of power?
Shut up Ken lol. They are kids and kids don’t fully grasp .. need to he engaged. Esh.
Candy Toss is for January first for Children’s First Animal Harvested.
You’re correct to be upset in what Should be a Blessed Day of Remembrance.I
Every Level of Government across Our Hallowed Canadian Soil indeed Shall Remember The Indigenous, First Nations, Metis and Inuit Children who Died. Those Children we Remember. Saimanaaping. Aakulunginna. We Bless You. We Join in Reverance.
Out of office: Currently at luxury resort in Tofino enjoying the new long weekend. Miigwich.
Dear Society,
Candy Toss is for those Dear Blessed Children who Harvested their first animal.
Imagine your Blessed Child having been Killed at the hands of Civil Government.
It is not incorrect to be upset in what Should Have been a Blessed Day of Remembrance of something as trivial, to Some, as a candy toss.
Every Level of Government across Our Hallowed Canadian Soil indeed Shall Remember The Indigenous, First Nations, Metis and Inuit Children who Died at the Hand of Civil Service, to Those blessed Children who were harvested, We Remember.
Saimanaaqpijutin. Aakulungikkua. We Bless You. We Join in Hallowed Reverence to You.
Asking for a friend…
Will there be any events at Embassy West?