Warning: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.
On Saturday, Canada marks the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour the Indigenous children who were forced to attend so-called residential schools and recognise the system’s lasting effects on Indigenous communities countrywide.
The event was established as a federal holiday in 2021. Held each year on September 30, it coincides with an Indigenous-led initiative known as Orange Shirt Day.
Both aim to commemorate the more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children who were forced to attend institutions of forced assimilation between the late 1800s and 1990s.
Run by churches, but funded by the Canadian government, residential schools were rife with physical, mental and sexual abuse, neglect and other forms of violence. They created a cycle of intergenerational trauma for Indigenous people across the country.
Here’s all you need to know about Orange Shirt Day:
Article from www.aljazeera.com rnrn