HOW OUR FAMILY IS TRYING TO HONOURING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE THIS CANADA DAY
North kids making our “Every Child Matters Sign for Canada Day.
It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that Pride Month and Indigenious People’s Day overlap here in Canada. Two Spirit People have always existed in Indigenous Cultures. Often seen as the medicine people, or sacred healers and seers. Only with the introduction of settlers did that change in North America. Or so I’m told. Unfortunately the truth about what happened in this country when settlers came has been twisted and contorted so many ways that the truth has been ignored by most of us for 155 years or so too long. The truth about our history of racism and genocide is no longer staying hidden below the surface.
This year it is more important than ever to approach Canada Day with the respect and reverence that it deserves. Canada Day is not a day of celebration. It should be a day of education. A day of mourning the thousands upon thousands of families shattered over hundreds of years. A day where we talk about the unthinkable things that people did to steal this country, and the effects those things have had, and continue to have on Indigenous people generation after generation.
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Canada Day is a day to hold space for those who the survived and mourn those who didn’t. It’s a day we should reconcile to make space for Indigenous people to feel the depths of their grief and rage, along side their joy, pride, and celebration of the resilience and beauty of indigenious culture.
Canada Day should not be about celebrating what was taken. Rather about educating people about what was taken, and how. Our history isn’t a pretty one, but it’s ours, ours to recover from one action, one conversation, one piece of land given back at a time.
How will you honour Canada’s First Nations People this Canada Day?
5 Ways Our Non Indigenious Family Is Honoring Indigineous People On Canada Day.
Talk to our kids about the truth behind Canada Day, the genocide that took place in this country and the way that colonial mindset still shows up today. Explain why people are asking to Cancel Canada Day, and ask how we might feel if everyone was celebrating a day commemorating the death of our family members and culture?
Celebrate & Follow Indigenious Creators, Activists, Dancers, Comedians, Athletes and their stories.
3. Create Orange “Every Child Matters” signs to put up in place of Canadian Flags. You never know what one sign of love and validation can do for someone. I feel better when I see a rainbow flag. I hope that Indigenous people feel safer seeing our support with the color orange.
4. Take the money you would have spent on fireworks and Donate funds to support residential school survivors.
5. Learn about current issues Indigenious Elders are fighting for like the Forest Defenders at Fairy Creek or teaching and protecting indigenious language and add your voice and resources to these causes too.
No this doesn’t come anywhere close to fixing the harm that we as settlers have done but it does begin a conversation, and a first step. One that should have begun a hundred and fifty years or so ago.
That’s how our Non Indigenous family is choosing to move forward with Canada Day. What about yours? How will you try to honour our First Nations People on July 1st?
