To highlight the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, students in Verdun participated in a spirit walk Friday morning.
Five schools, including Montreal’s only Indigenous daycare, took part. This is the third year CPE Rising Sun Daycare has organized a spirit walk, but it’s the first time other schools are participating.
“It’s taken us three years to build enough partnerships with our local schools to actually start building this awareness,” said Rising Sun Daycare board of directors president and spirit walk organizer Katherine Bailey.
She adds that awareness is where it starts.
“If we don’t start teaching them this way, it will never be shown. We can’t rely on the institution to show what we lived through.”
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is still not recognized in Quebec as a national holiday but many schools are including Indigenous perspectives on history in the curriculum.
“We teach our kids to own their behaviours; I think we need to own our history,” said Verdun Elementary principal Lori McKergow.
Hundreds of children and teenagers participated in the walk, many of them saying it was shocking to learn that the generations before them were not taught about residential schools.
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“It’s crazy how a lot of it was ignored in the past and wasn’t taken seriously but now I am glad we are taking it seriously,” said Cevan Zaroukian, a Grade 10 student at Beurling Academy.
The students walked a few blocks through Verdun to city hall, where knowledge keeper Don Barnaby sang a sacred honour song and discussed the significance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“To show that our culture is well alive and respected and embraced by natives and non-natives…. There was a time when Indigenous people were scared to do ceremonies,” Barnaby said.
CPE Rising Sun is the only Indigenous daycare in Montreal and being able to share stories with the children at such a young age signifies hope for him.
“These children see it and they embrace it. They have a hunger for it. Because they’re not shamed on knowing their language. They’re not shamed on knowing their ceremonies. They’re not shamed on knowing their stories and their songs,” he added.
The most important part of educating the younger generation is simple, according to Barnaby.
“The truth. I would just like them to learn the truth.”