Oxford Honours Truth and Reconciliation Day
A crowd of more than one-hundred people attended today's Truth and Reconciliation event at Oxford's Wild Blueberry Corner.
Organizer Tracy Sweet was pleased with the turnout for the ceremony, which she says began as a conversation among a small group of moms from the community, arising from the discovery of children's graves in Kamloops some months ago.
Sweet, who now lives in Oxford, is a registered member of the Little Saskatchewan First Nation in Manitoba. She praised the efforts by local residents who established the "215" memorial in Oxford, reflecting the first graves discovered... a number she says is now over 6000 from further investigation.
She said, ”Imagine sending your children off to school, and not ever knowing what happened to them. And imagine then, what that does to you as a parent. And what that does to your community. And what that does to generations. This isn't ancient history that we're talking about.”
The last residential school closed only 23 years ago.
Sweet recounted the origin of the orange shirt, which has become the symbol of the victims of the residential school system. Phyllis Webstad was a six-year-old girl from the Dog Creek reserve in British Columbia, who received a new orange shirt from her grandmother to wear on her first day at the Mission School. Upon arriving at the school, the shirt was taken from her, as were all her clothes, and never returned.
This was all part of the residential school's efforts to sever the connection between Indigenous children and their culture. Webstad went on to form the Orange Shirt Society, which aims to support efforts at reconciliation, awareness of the impact of the residential school system, and spread the concept of "Every Child Matters”.
Oxford's Truth and Reconciliation Event featured Elder J.J. Bear of the Tobique first nation—whose mother was born in Oxford—who gave a short speech, thanked those in attendance, and delivered a prayer in Maliseet and English, and the Mi'kmaq Honour Song.
Bear said, "We are here to honour our past generations that were lost. We're here to honour our generations of today. We're here to honour our generations to come — to our future generations."
He encouraged people to "take this day, to learn a little bit about your history, about our history, about our combined histories.... We can move forward together.”
Members of the public were invited to paint their hands orange, and leave their mark on the white-painted riverside wall at Wild Blueberry Park. Local resident Janelle Tattrie created the artwork added to the park wall.
Sweet thanked the town for supporting the event, the fellow moms who helped bring the event together, and Oxford Home Hardware for the generous donation of paint used for the mural and by attendees who added their handprints to the memorial.
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