Toronto ceremonies honour ‘courage of the survivors’ of residential schools

September 30, 2024 Canuck

Toronto continued a weekend of programming to commemorate the fourth National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on Monday with a sunrise ceremony at Nathan Phillips Square.

The city is partnering with Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre to present the seventh annual Indigenous Legacy Gathering at the square.

The gathering honours residential school survivors, their children and communities through activities including workshops, presentations, stories and performances, according to the city’s website. It began on Friday and continues on through Monday.

“I want to recognize … the courage of the survivors, who carried their childhood wounds into their adult lives and have lived to tell the truth to this day,” residential school survivor Michael Cheena said during a speech at the gathering on Monday morning.

The residential school system was “a national crime and a national secret,” Cheena said.

“That Canadian flag is a symbol of prosperity and pluralism, and also of Indigenous oppression and racial injustice,” he said.

Man speaking at an outdoor event — Michael Cheena was one of many residential school survivors to speak at Monday’s event. (Paul Smith/CBC)

Several residential school survivors spoke on Monday morning. Many held up photographs of siblings and friends who were also survivors and had since passed away.

People can attend the gathering for free, the city said.

Flags at city hall, civic centres and other city facilities will be lowered to half-mast on Monday, according to the city’s website.

Free workshops on teaching lodge, teepee design

The city is opening an Indigenous spirit garden on Monday in front of city hall.

“The spirit garden is there to remind us of the residential schools [and] the children that have been lost, but [also to] … remind us that that spirit needs to be there as we seek to, every day, work for justice, truth and reconciliation,” said Mayor Olivia Chow, who attended the sunrise ceremony on Monday.

As its centrepiece, the garden has a large turtle sculpture made of limestone. Elements that represent First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures surround the turtle and include a teaching lodge, a silver voyageur canoe and an inukshuk made out of granite.

The Spirit Garden, in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, is pictured before its public debut on Sept. 27, 2024. — The spirit garden in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square includes a teaching lodge. The public can attend a workshop in the afternoon to learn about the design and building of traditional teaching lodges. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

On Monday afternoon, the public can attend a cultural workshop at Nathan Phillips Square on the design and building of traditional teaching lodges. John Keeshig Mayawaasige, a knowledge keeper, will host and guide the design of the teaching lodge inside the spirit garden.

The workshop is running at 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., according to an online guide posted by the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre.

All workshops are on a first-come, first-served basis, the guide says.

There is also a workshop on teepee design and its historical usage at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Attendees will craft their own personal teepee that they can take home with them.

Another workshop is focused on how to make sweetgrass medicine mist. Hosted by Roots + Raven, an Indigenous woman-owned bath and body care brand, the workshop runs at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Performances on Monday kick off at 1 p.m. with the Manitou Mkwa Singers, a family hand drum group from the Mississaugas of the Credit.

The square is also hosting a marketplace of Indigenous artists and artisans, featuring crafts, jewellery, clothing and paintings.