Reconciliation week ends with message of hope

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This article was published 02/10/2021 (1808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After five days of spiritual healing and reflection, Brandon’s first-ever Truth and Reconciliation Week came to an end at the Riverbank Discovery Centre grounds on Friday afternoon.

The closing ceremonies were conducted by Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Elder Frank Tacan, who spoke to a crowd of 50 to100 people about the intergenerational trauma that Indigenous people have endured due to Canadian institutions like residential schools.

Even though the federal government shut the last of these schools down in the 1990s, Tacan revealed that the physical and emotional scars still remain for many Indigenous people, especially with thousands of unmarked graves of residential school students being uncovered this year alone.

“Some non-Indigenous people say ‘get over it.’ My question is: ‘how do we get over it? You come and tell me,’” he said. “Because you can’t just get over trauma.”

Despite this heavy subject matter, Friday’s closing ceremony was largely optimistic in tone.

After all, the organizers of Brandon’s Truth and Reconciliation Week seemed happy with how the last five days had transpired, especially since this inaugural event had been put together in a relatively short period of time.

Representatives from the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council still cultivated a variety of events that were designed to celebrate Indigenous culture while also acknowledging the troubling legacy left behind by residential schools.

For traditional drummer Glenn Pratt, one of his favourite moments of the week came at the very beginning, when the municipal government raised an orange flag outside city hall on Monday morning.

The colour orange has become synonymous Indigenous reconciliation in Canada, with residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad having been deprived of her orange shirt when she attended St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School near Williams Lake, B.C.

Since first sharing her story in 2013, Webstad’s orange shirt has shown up at countless events designed to show solidarity with residential school survivors, including Monday’s flag-raising ceremony at Brandon city hall.

“It made me happy, because my mother was a residential school survivor,” Platt said. “That impacted a lot of things in my life also, so to see everything come together [this week] is an amazing feeling.”

From there, Westman residents got to take part in a variety of free activities in and around the Riverbank Discovery Centre grounds, from a teepee building challenge to Kairos Blanket exercises to song and dance performances at the Fusion Credit Union Stage.

Local elders were even given some space to share their residential school experiences and talk about Indigenous traditions that have been passed down through generations.

For BUAPC vice-chair Kris Desjarlais, one of the most awe-inspiring images throughout this five-day period was the Orange Shirt Day walk on Thursday afternoon, where hundreds of people travelled from the Riverbank Discovery Centre to the site of the former Brandon Indian Residential School just outside the city.

“It’s been a difficult year, but yesterday, seeing that sea of orange marching to the school, was exhilarating,” he said to a crowd of people right before Friday’s closing ceremony. “How could you not be overcome with emotion?”

BUAPC chairperson Leah LaPlante was similarly touched by the massive turnout from Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents alike, which was something that filled her heart with “hope” for the future of reconciliation in Manitoba.

“I think, finally, we are taking a big deep breath and saying ‘it was all worth it.’” LaPlante said on Friday.

“We are on the road to reconciliation in a healthy way, because you’re all coming along with us. And I daresay, 10 years from now, things will look a lot different.”

Moving forward, BUAPC community co-ordinator Michele LeTourneau told the Sun that she is looking to turn Truth and Reconciliation Week into an annual event, with next year’s festivities hopefully offering some more night events.

But until then, Tacan warned Friday’s crowd to remain vigilant year-round, even if the Canadian government provided a new federal holiday through the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“So people, wake up! Yeah, this is a good day. But we shouldn’t have to do it every Sept. 30,” the elder said. “We should do it every day.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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