At 1:30pm this afternoon a group of people gathered at City Hall for a flag raising ceremony in honour of Truth and Reconciliation Day.
The federal statutory holiday, which takes place tomorrow, was conceived to honour the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.
Councillor Fred Neale, who is also involved with community organization One Thorold, was one of the people who got the ball rolling on the flag raising ceremony.
“It’s nice to have a national day where we can recognize the indigenous people and what they went through and that’s the reason why I brought it forward to the One Thorold group,” Councillor Neale said.
One Thorold, the City of Thorold and Michele-Elise Burnett, who is the president of Kakekalanicks and artistic director of Celebration of Nations, will be working together to invest in indigenous issues. Said councillor Neale, “The One Thorold group established a committee to come up with indigenous programs to educate the public. We all look forward to promoting indigenous issues within our city.”
After a territorial acknowledgement, Mayor Terry Ugulini started the flag raising ceremony by asking the people present to make use of Reconciliation Day, urging, “Please take this opportunity to learn more about the history of our indigenous people, understand their history, their culture and the challenges that they have faced and continue to face. Understanding is the key to reconciliation.”
Michele-Elise Burnett, also spoke at the event, saying, “It has taken a long time. I’m very grateful. These are very wonderful times to be indigenous and these are also very sad times to be indigenous.”
Tomorrow City Hall will be closed and people are urged to take a moment and pause to recognize the hurt caused to indigenous people.
Said Councillor Neale, “The City has a little program going themselves, educating the staff. The staff will go into the chambers and watch videos of the different aspects of indigenous life and what has happened over the years with them, just recognizing the day itself. More things will come along but this is a good start.”
Burnett closed the flag raising ceremony with a call for non-indigenous people to ask questions and educate themselves, saying, “Reconciliation is difficult. We all now are uncovering these horrible truths, and there’s going to be more coming, it’s still going on, and until this stops we can’t reconcile. But we can have a resurgence together and build a new Canada that’s built upon pride, respect, dignity and, friendship.”
