Orange Shirt Day ‘a victory for all our nations,’ powwow MC says after Winnipeg healing walk
Thousands dressed in orange in Winnipeg on Monday to remember Canada’s dark history of residential schools, with a promise to never let it happen again.
The fourth annual Orange Shirt Day healing walk, held by Wa-Say Healing Centre, left The Forks at 11 a.m. and headed to the RBC Convention Centre, where a powwow began at 1 p.m.
This year’s event almost didn’t happen due to funding issues at Wa-Say, but last-minute financial support from the province as well as the Southern Chiefs’ Organization saved the day.
Naomi Kay says she went to the healing walk to show support for those who did and didn’t make it out of residential schools.
“Making sure that they feel the love and support that they didn’t get throughout generations and as children,” she told CBC News before the walk started.
“It is a very recent thing in our history, and we want to make sure that nobody forgets.”
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, first officially observed in 2021, is meant to honour the children who died while attending residential schools and the survivors, families and communities still affected by the legacy of that system.
It’s also known as Orange Shirt Day, in honour of Phyllis Webstad, whose orange shirt — given to her by her grandmother — was taken away from her on her first day of school at a B.C. residential school in 1973.
Tribute to late grand chief
Michael Esquash Sr., the MC of the powwow, held a moment of silence at the convention centre for survivors and those who didn’t make it home.
“Today’s a victory for all our nations,” he later told the crowd as people danced.
Orange Shirt Day is being marked as a statutory holiday for the first time in Manitoba this year.
“That means that every child, every parent, every family has the time today to honour the survivors,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told the crowd at the convention centre.
PHOTOS | Orange Shirt Day events in Winnipeg:
Kinew says his father attended the St. Mary’s residential school outside Kenora, Ont., as a child.
“When he was a little boy, I don’t think he ever could have imagined seeing a sight like we’re all witnessing here today,” said Kinew, who danced in the powwow in full regalia.
Kinew also encouraged the young people in the crowd to keep their languages, minds, bodies and spirits strong, and to wear their hair long.
“When you do that, you will make the survivors proud, because you’ll be proving that the people who started residential schools failed in what they were trying to do.”
WATCH | Premier Wab Kinew speaks at Orange Shirt Day powwow:
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, dressed in full regalia, addresses the crowd at the Orange Shirt Day 2024 powwow hosted by Wa-Say Healing Centre at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg.
A video tribute of the late grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Cathy Merrick, was played following speeches. Merrick, 63, died shortly after collapsing outside Winnipeg’s law courts earlier this month.
The video included Merrick’s comments at The Forks during last year’s event.
“We have to change the way our people are thought of. We have to understand the hurt that our people have gone through and how it impacted generations of our people. Today we still feel this pain,” Merrick said.
“This is the generation where it’s going to stop,” she said, prompting cheers from the crowd at the convention centre on Monday.
‘Healing together as one’
Charlotte McDonald says it was her first time at the healing walk and she wanted to go to honour her mom, who is a Sixties Scoop survivor.
“It means a lot for my mom to be here, to be witnessing all of this and to be a part of it,” she said before the walk started.
“I never thought I would see this day happen, and it’s here.”
She says the day is a chance to hear the voices of people who haven’t always been heard.
“I just hope people understand what other people went through, and just be here to support one another.”
McDonald’s mother, Patty Crofton, says attending the walk with her daughter shows them that it’s “time to heal.”
Crofton says she has gone to each of the healing walks in honour of her dad, who went to four residential schools in his life, and says the event keeps growing and gaining traction each year, comparing it to a snowball rolling down a hill.
“We’re all healing together as one.”
Crofton, who attended a day school in Sagkeeng First Nation, said the event fills her heart with joy, but that it also hurt since it is a reminder of what she has lost.
“Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine what we went through — the pain, the hurt — and never seeing your parents,” she said.
“A lot of our parents and grandparents — when they came out of the schools — didn’t know how to show love or affection because they weren’t given that in those schools.”
Derek Nepinak, Chief of Minegoziibe Anishinabe First Nation (Pine Creek), says the day “is not a celebration.”
“It’s a commemoration, and we’re here to think about our family members and our ancestors,” he said during the walk.
Nepinak says the event opens an opportunity for people to heal, move forward and “hopefully, work towards that word that we all talk about, reconciliation.”
He was pleased with the number of non-Indigenous people attended the event, saying they’re “waking up to what we’ve survived.”
“They’re learning the true history of this land, and I’m full of gratitude to see so many different people from all over the world starting to participate.”
Nepinak says he was thinking of his mom during the walk, a residential school survivor.
“This day is for you.”
‘Our culture is beautiful,’ survivor says
Joseph Maud, a 63-year-old from Skownan First Nation, carried tobacco with him during the walk in honour of his siblings and friends who attended residential schools, who have since died.
Maud says he attended the Pine Creek Residential School from 1965 to 1969 and became part of the Sixties Scoop when he left, describing it as a “very brutal, brutal experience.”
In October 1973, Maud and his brother ran away and made a dangerous trek about 150 kilometres through swamp, muskeg and rivers.
“We just made it on adrenaline, we wanted to get to my grandmother’s,” he said,
“We were tired of getting the beatings for speaking our language.”
He says it was inspiring to see people wearing orange, including other survivors.
“Many of us will heal for the rest of our lives.”
Maud wants to see more Indigenous language programs throughout Canada, especially in urban centres, saying non-Indigenous people should also have the chance to learn songs in the language.
“We should be all given that opportunity,” he said.
“Our culture is beautiful.”
Thousands of people dressed in orange in Winnipeg and Brandon, Man., on Monday to take part in events marking the 2024 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day.
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