“We want future generations to know what happened to us, but also what we did about it and the progress we made,” said survivor Jeannette Vollant.
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After a summer in which the history of Canadian residential schools stood out, communities across the country will celebrate the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day on Thursday.
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Although the Quebec government does not recognize it as a public holiday, the day will be highlighted by numerous events throughout the province, including a march and commemoration ceremony in Montreal.
For Jeannette Vollant, a 74-year-old residential school survivor in the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, near Sept-Îles, having the day recognized nationally is a “victory” and a necessary step forward.
“It’s about looking at what we’ve been through, where we are today and what we want for the future,” said Vollant, who has worked to help other survivors for years. “We want future generations to know what happened to us, but also what we did about it and the progress we made.”
The federal government passed a law this summer to establish September 30 as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a legal holiday. The date coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots effort to honor the survivors and victims of residential schools since 2013.
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Creating a holiday to honor survivors had been one of 94 calls to action featured in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The government accelerated the idea this summer after the remains of 215 children were found buried in nameless graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, prompting a national reckoning on the issue.
Although officially a federal statutory holiday, the day has not been recognized as such at the provincial level, and each province takes a different approach. In Quebec, the holiday will only apply to federal employees and most banks will be closed.
When asked about making it a provincial holiday in June, Prime Minister François Legault told reporters that Quebec has enough legal holidays and that the government is not interested in adding another, regardless of how worthy the cause is.
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At the time, Legault had pointed out that the province already marked National Indigenous Peoples Day, adding that he knows there is a lot of work to be done in reconciling with indigenous peoples.
But several towns, school boards and businesses in the province have announced ways in which they plan to observe the holiday this Thursday.
In Montreal, it will be marked by a commemorative ceremony and a march that will begin at Place du Canada at 1 pm and head towards Place-des-Arts, where there will be speeches and performances.
Organizers describe the event as an opportunity for people to reflect and “listen to indigenous leaders, learn from their experiences and traditions, and honor 6,500 children in unidentified mass graves and many more yet to be discovered.”
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A much more intimate ceremony will also take place in Kahnawake, the Mohawk community south of Montreal.
To commemorate Orange Shirt Day, survivors and their families will be invited to a birthday party themed gathering in the morning, complete with cake and gifts. The idea, organizer Helen Jarvis Montour said, is to make up for all the birthdays that survivors, including their father, Frank, were never able to celebrate while in residential schools.
Montour, 61, has been involved in planning ceremonies in the community since 2015.
When he first heard about the initiative online in 2013, he says he had a hard time even finding an orange shirt to wear. He finally settled on an old fundraising shirt, flipped it over, and wrote the words “All Boys Matter” on the front with a permanent marker.
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Much has changed since then, Montour said, with the movement growing across the country and now the legal holiday is being added. But she believes the idea behind the day remains the same: honor those who suffered and remember why they did.
“It’s comforting, but it’s difficult at the same time,” Montour said of the day.
“People often ask what they can do (to help),” he added. “And I say, ‘You can speak up and make sure it never happens again, and you can remember.’ That is what we have always said: never forget it ”.
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Reference-montrealgazette.com