Stratford residents from different walks of life came out to show solidarity for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Earlier this morning, roughly 60 to 70 people attended a Sunrise Ceremony at the Falstaff Family Centre, including city councillors Geza Wordofa and Jo-Dee Burbach, and Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae.
Oneida First Nation Elder Patsy Day said the ceremony focused on four sacred medicines: tobacco, sweet grass, sage, and cedar.
“They’re particular to giving thanks,” said Day.
“The sunrise ceremony starts in the east. You look towards the sun, and you give thanks for the sun, and the tobacco expresses our thankfulness for newborns, for spring-time, and for new beginnings.”
Day said they then go to the south, where they give thanks to the land with sweet grass, which represents the youth.
For the west, they give thanks to the water and the nation-builders using sage.
The north represents the elders, the winter-time, and night-time using the cedar.
The ceremony saw attendees put these medicines into a fire pit, where Day said it’s an action for reconciliation.
“Everyone in their own heart has to come to some way they can express how they feel with regard to what’s happening and how they can help heal,” said Day.
“It’s a compassionate action. They’ll pick up a bit of the tobacco and say thank you to the creator, the sunshine, and the newborns, and put it into the fire. The fire represents our life, our life fire, a fire within, the source, and we can’t live without the source.”
Day added that on an individual basis, everyone is responsible for their own education, encouraging people to learn more about Indigenous communities and to attend workshops.
An exhibit called We Were So Far Away from the Indigenous-led Legacy of Hope Foundation is on display in the FCC’s Community Room throughout today.
The foundation said this exhibit shares the stories of eight Inuit residential school survivors.
The centre will also showcase regional Indigenous artifacts, on loan from the Stratford Perth Museum, and a nine-minute film called The Legacy of the Residential School System: An Event of National Historic Significance from Parks Canada.
6 p.m. will see a Solidarity Walk leave the FCC Tipi, where founder and director of the Family Centre Loreena McKennitt said it’s important for people to see their solidarity.
“Sometimes we’ll have it privately in our houses and in an unnoticed way, but I think there’s something impactful and meaningful to gather together to show solidarity around this subject,” said McKennitt.
“When one reflects on the harm occurred to Indigenous people across Canada, the walk is one way of being visible in our solidarity.”
She said the walk will be one lap around the lake, running for 15 to 20 minutes before returning to the Centre.
After the walk, residents can watch a National Film Board screening of the film Birth of a Family, which focuses on the reunification of four siblings, among the 20,000 Indigenous Canadian children taken from their families from 1955 to 1985.
The screening starts at 7:00 p.m. at the centre community room.
