Every Child Matters

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Canadians will be wearing orange T-shirts with the message, ‘every child matters’ on 30 September to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It was first observed in 2021.

This day is about boarding schools, a legacy of the British Empire. In Canada’s case, and indigenous kids in particular, they were called residential schools. Kids were forcibly removed from their parents, hair cut off, placed in dormitories and taught the bible. They were fed ‘civilized food’ like tea, sugar and condensed milk.

The truth is that previous governments wanted the land, which belonged to the Anishinaabe, Canada’s indigenous people. They had to be removed from it through Jesus Christ treachery and branding them as animals, in order the exterminate them.

Kids posed a future threat so the Catholic Church, with government collusion, carted them off to residential schools to be cleansed of their ‘Indianess’ which was akin to being animals.

Hidden graves of 215 ‘Indian’ children from the old Kamloops Catholic Residential School in British Columbia in May 2021, led to the creation of this day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Memories of residential schools are something indigenous people live with everyday, not just one day.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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