The first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is today here in Canada. The day honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
For me it is the knowledge that life did not change for these children through that entire residential school period. They were forced to go to a school away from home; boarded for 24 hours a day and there wasn't a loving mother to tuck them into bed at night and siblings were not permitted to be together if they wanted to be. The rules of the school room extended to the 24 hour period and that was just not right. Children need love not a ripping away of their culture and family. That that continued in Canada long after the strap and smacking was banned in the school room in Canada is a painful reminder that life for those children was so unfair and wrong.
Today on this day we need to remember all of those children who were lost attending residential schools and all of those who survived the residential school system.
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