M’CHIGEENG—At Lakeview School on Thursday, September 26, a sea of orange shirts spilled out of the school as children and teachers lined up to walk in honour of residential school survivors.
“This walk today is in honour of those people who are here and suffer from mental health issues, and for those who didn’t make it back. We honour them and we walk for them,” explained Grade 7 student, Michael Taukei, when asked what the significance of the walk was for him.
In addition to students and teachers, parents and grandparents joined the walk, UCCM Police were there, Indigenous-led community support workers and the fire chief, Andrew Corbiere, all came to march with the children and show their support.
Teacher Michelle Taukei organized the event. In addition to the walk, the students have been learning the significance of Truth and Reconciliation. “The younger students understand the story behind Orange Shirt Day,” Ms. Taukei said, “and our older students are learning more about the cultural genocide that took place in the residential schools, and also understanding those connections to generational trauma.” Ms. Taukei spoke of the difficulty of teaching the topic, and what is age appropriate, there being no curriculum presently in which it’s included.
At the end of the walk, after soup was served to the guests who took part, Ms. Taukei expressed one final thought: “As proud Anishinabek people we continue to advocate for equal funding in comparison to our provincial counterparts, for funding for elementary schools; we continue to advocate for the necessary funding to not only revitalize but preserve our indigenous languages, and we also call upon resources to support the healing of generations of intergenerational trauma that still impacts us today. This school has children whose great-grandparents, grandparents and even parents are residential school survivors. That’s when the real reconciliation will take place, when those things can be fully addressed.”
by Margery Frisch
