BONNYVILLE – At H.E. Bourgoin Middle School, recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation spanned over the last week.
And the significance of the day matters all year long, Tracy Casselman, principal of H.E.B. told her students.
Replying to the rhetorical question of why Sept. 30 and the new national holiday matter, Casselman explained to her students, “It matters because it continues to affect our First Nations, Métis and Inuit families. Many of our H.E.B. students are from these cultures. Many students in your classes right now may know someone who went to a residential school.”
Pointing out the proximity to a former residential school in St. Paul, she said, “It matters because it happened right here. In a country we call our own... It matters because the residential school system is one of the major causes of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse and violence among aboriginal people.”
Throughout the week, students at the Northern Lights Public School stood and listened to the national anthem in different Indigenous languages. Moving forward, these versions of O’ Canada will be added to the school’s rotation of national anthems, said Casselman.
On Wednesday, all staff and most of the students at H.E.B. wore orange shirts as an act to show remembrance for students who were forced to attend residential schools.
During the rest of the day, classes were filled with activities that ranged from watching accounts of residential school survivors, mapping where residential schools were located across the Canada, to writing messages of hope and remembrance on orange shirt cutouts that will be displayed in the school's windows.
Various classes also incorporated relevant and Indigenous-focused content in their studies.
“The Grade 8 classes are doing a film study of the documentary ‘We Were Children’ and reading selections of The Residential School Diary of Violet Pesheen,” Casselman told Lakeland This Week.
An online repository of First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) content has also been created by H.E.B. staff to continue the inclusion of Indigenous content into curriculum activities for students, she says.
To wrap up the school day before National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, staff and students took turns signing a large "Every Child Matters" banner made by Grade 8 students that featured the names of all residential schools in Canada.
Signing the banner became a pledge to act in the spirit of reconciliation, explained H.E.B.’S principal.
“Truth and reconciliation isn’t just about one day.”
