On the front lawn of the Falstaff Family Centre in Stratford, a sacred fire was kept burning all day on Sept. 30.
Patsy-Anne Day of Oneida First Nation explained that for the fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the sacred fire was used to acknowledge and give thanks and honour to those children who were taken from their families across generations and never made it home.
“This is a part of our shared history,” Day said. “Many of our people are still suffering what we call intergenerational trauma from not knowing what happened to those children – … it's really not a long time ago. It's still happening now. And so, we want to acknowledge and honour and give thanks for those lives and to see if we can start to heal.”
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – otherwise known as Orange Shirt Day – honours the survivors and those who never returned home from residential schools. Across the country, there were local activities, gatherings and teachings organized to remember and to commemorate.
Day hosted Indigenous teachings about the sacred fire throughout the day for community groups, students and for anyone that came onto Falstaff’s front lawn while, inside, two exhibits from the Legacy of Hope Foundation were on display in the community room and WaaPake, a film from the National Film Board, played on a projector.
Then, in the afternoon, Sallianne and Dale Patch of Aspens Ojibwe Spirit Horse Sanctuary brought their herd of Ojibwe horses onto the front lawn and taught about the once near-extinct horses that are native to North America and were essential to the Ojibwe people.
Falstaff owner Loreena McKennitt led a solidarity walk around the river for the public, closing out its ceremony.
Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma praised the Falstaff Family Centre and for the sunrise ceremony when the sacred fire was lit in particular.
“It was an amazing event where (Day) took us from the east to the south to the north to the west,” he said.
On the first Truth and Reconciliation Day in 2022, the City of Stratford hosted a flag-raising ceremony outside of city hall, however it hasn’t since.
Ritsma told the Times that is for a reason.
After that initial ceremony, he spoke with Jason Henry, then chief of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation, who said that city hall, as a government, represents an institution that was active in discrimination.
“So, he suggested, ‘We don't need this,’ ” Ritsma said that morning, explaining that Henry’s comments made him rethink the city’s involvement out of respect. “And to that end, today I went as a participant (to the Falstaff ceremony). I was invited to lead later on today and I said no … I feel it needs to be somebody that's not attached to government.”
That being said, Ritsma said he was proud that the city did partner with the Downtown Stratford Business Improvement Area (BIA) to host multiple film viewings in city hall’s auditorium. He said he feels comfortable with that involvement since it is facilitating education.
Five short, family-friendly films presented by the National Film Board entitled Urban. Indigenous. Proud., were shown at 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m. that day.
“We feel it's important to keep our education of different issues going,” BIA general manager Jammie Pritchard said. “And we just felt it was very important to us.”
The films were selected by the film board, whom he praised for sharing the films without a screening cost.
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