Thousands gather at The Forks to commemorate National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Thousands gathered at The Forks Saturday morning to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by marching in a healing walk prior to an afternoon powwow.  

Saturday marks the third annual observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt day, since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021. The day honours the children who died while attending residential schools, along with the survivors, families and communities still affected by that legacy. 

"We're here because I feel visibility is important I think that every child does matter," said Laura Pott who was at The Forks Saturday morning. "In order to be able to move forward with truth and reconciliation and healing our country we need to be able to acknowledge what has happened in the past, heal from it and be able to move forward with open hearts and lots of love for each other." 

The event started at 9 a.m. with a gathering and pipe ceremony at Oodena Circle. A healing walk departed at 11 a.m. and was set to end at 1 p.m. at Canada Life Centre, where a powwow is taking place in the afternoon. 

The healing walk and powwow were both hosted by the Wa-Say Healing Centre. 

"Some of the people call it reconciliation, but we're not there yet, we're on the verge of getting close to it and starting to talk about it, but we've got a lot of work to be done," said Wayne Mason Sr., the executive director of Wa-Say Healing Centre in an interview with Up To Speed host Faith Fundal. "And this is part of it, Our Orange Shirt Day powwow, our sacred walk that we walk to the Canada Life building." 

"We encourage people to come out and celebrate, we've been through a hard time, we've still got a lot of hard times ahead of us," he added. "But every once in a while, we've got to stop and celebrate what we have accomplished so far." 

Mason's son, Wayne Jr., added that Saturday's walk is a time to recognize and remember residential school survivors, children who died and the discoveries of unmarked graves in Canada. 

"It's a time for the survivors, their families and our non-Indigenous friends to come together and support one another, mostly to support the survivors and their families in this walk," he said. "So it gives us a time to come together, to walk together, to heal." 

Gina Smoke was also at The Forks Saturday and said the amount of people that came out to support the walk made her emotional.

Smoke works for Unifor and helps teach members about Indigenous subjects. She said it was important to see Unifor members come out to support and help hand out food and water. 

"It's emotional, I cry off and on," said Smoke. "I also cry knowing that this morning we showed up here for seven and started setting up and the amount of people that showed up to help us set up and show support to me … it makes me emotional." 

Haven Stumpf said this year's walk might be the biggest one ever, since awareness around the impact of residential schools has grown.

But, she says, with the city's Indigenous population continuing to grow, it's still important to continue to call attention to the issues they face.

"We need to raise awareness of not only the future, but also what happened to the past and why are things the way they are," Stumpf, who was born in Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, told CBC during the healing walk.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery also took part in honouring truth and reconciliation by featuring artwork made by residential school survivors and hosting tours and talks at the centre.

"They're very brave artists who have honoured us by sharing their stories with us so that we can further educate the public who come through our doors," said Rebecca Claire McIvor, Indigenous learning coordinator.

"Indigenous folks have been listening to the institutions for a long time, for over 100 years, and it's our turn as Canadians to listen to their stories."

ISSA supports landfill search 

The Islamic Services Association also pledged its support to Manitoba's Indigenous communities Saturday. 

A statement from the ISSA said they "implore the current and future government of Manitoba our shared collective humanity and search the landfill. 

ISSA volunteer executive director Shahina Siddiqui said the day isn't just symbolic, but also a call to action to "learn the truth of our history," confront biases and move toward one another in a commitment to "human dignity."