About 600 students and teachers from two Sarnia elementary schools dressed in orange and walked alongside a busy Sarnia street Monday to bring attention to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
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“It’s an opportunity for us to listen and to amplify the voices of our Indigenous communities,” said Queen Elizabeth II school principal Cam Gordon.
His school held a recognition walk in 2023, with members of nearby Lansdowne school’s Ojibwe program also taking part, he said.
This year, both schools did walks with banners and signs.
Queen Elizabeth II walkers headed south from the school to Wellington Street, while Lansdowne walkers headed north from their school to meet them.
Each school community walked east on opposite sides of Wellington Street, accompanied by police and Great Lakes Secondary students for safety, before splitting at Indian Road and heading back to their respective schools.
“The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a day we take very seriously because every child does matter,” Gordon said.
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“So it’s a wonderful event, not only for our students and our staff, but our entire school community.”
About 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend government-funded, church-run residential schools between the 1800s and when the last school closed in 1996.
Many suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into the schools’ legacy found a high rate of death from violence, illness and malnutrition.
“We do a lot of learning about this in the classroom,” said Lansdowne Principal Chris Mitchell.
Getting out for the demonstration is part of what he terms ‘reconciliaction.’
“We can’t engage in reconciliation without actual action,” he said, noting the awareness walk is one example.
“We’re trying to take action,” he said.
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