Canada Reconciliation Day

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The orange T-shirt symbolizes how indigenous kids were removed from their parents and sent to residential schools to be 'civilized.'

There will be a sea of orange shirts on Canadian streets today. The country is observing National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is about indigenous people. The Roman Catholic Church and the colonial government removed children from their parents, cut their hair, put them in dormitories and gave them the bible. 

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.

Today, 30 September, Canada remembers horrors of residential schools. Survivors will speak about them in varies events across the nation.

Nonqaba Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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