•• Note: Date of Sunrise Ceremony corrected from original article: Correct date is Friday, September 29.
Portage College staff and students will be hosting a sunrise ceremony at the Lac La Biche campus on Friday, September 29 as a lead-up to the observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30.
Robert Rayko, the Community and Cultural Facilitator at Portage College, says the Friday morning's ceremony, which begins at 7 a.m., is being held to recognize, grieve and honour children who were sent to government and church-run residential schools. The ceremony is also meant to show reconciliation moving forward.
It is the third year that the college has hosted the event, with the first in 2021, the year the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was officially proclaimed through federal legislation.
In traditional Indigenous culture, sunrise ceremonies are spiritual events linked to the rising of the sun and the pure release of the Creator’s energy to begin a new day. Across the country, ceremonies are held to express appreciation for life and nature, and to purify the body, mind and spirit of negativity. While the foundations of the sacred ceremony are similar across Indigenous culture, content can be respectfully adapted to address localized issues.
“The Sunrise Ceremony at Portage College is in recognition of all the children who went to residential school, for those who made it home and for those that didn’t make it home,” said Rayko, recognizing a need to move forward while never losing sight of the tragic and lasting legacy of the residential school system. "So, this day is about hearing the truths, acknowledging the children and reconciling the future in how Government and agencies work for, and with, Indigenous people.”
Friday morning agenda
There will be several guest speakers at this year’s sunrise ceremony, including Beaver Lake Cree Nation Chief Gary Lameman. Band councillor Leonard Jackson and Health Director Marylin Gladue will also represent Beaver Lake at the ceremony. Students from Beaver Lake’s Amisk School will recite a special poem to recognize the day.
As with previous years, the ceremony will be live-streamed and available through the Portage website.
All welcome
Rayko and college organizers encourage any community members to attend Friday's special ceremony. Showing the greater community more about of the Indigenous culture and history that is around them — but is often not known — is part of the path to reconciliation, he said.
“It's important to remember and honour those who never returned home after attending residential schools and the survivors and their families who carry the burden of this painful part of our shared history,” he said.
For anyone attending who has not been to a sunrise ceremony before, Rayko said attendees are welcome to take photos and video during much of the event, but recording is not permitted during the smudging ceremony that will take place before the ceremony begins.
*With files from Rob McKinley
