Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day were commemorated in La Ronge with a two-day culture camp on Kiskinwuhumatowin Urban Reserve, Monday, Sept. 29 and Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Over the two days there was opportunity to have healing treatments, learn about medicines, paddle making, visit by the fire, and more. Monday ended with a fish fry.
“Tuesday, Sept. 30, we gathered for National Truth and Reconciliation Day to recognize and remember all the Residential School Survivors, those who did not make it home, and all the generations of families affected,” Chief Tammy Cook-Searson wrote on Facebook.
The Kikinahk Friendship Centre provided a free pancake breakfast in honour of Truth and Reconciliation Day Sept. 30.
She acknowledged the Kikinahk Friendship Centre, who hosted a Pancake Breakfast in Honour of the day.
A walk was held between the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) office and the Urban Reserve. There was time for people to come forward and share their stories of the Residential School and its impact on their lives, the stories, such as of first days: having their hair cut, being punished for speaking their language, being left without family as small children to find their way alone in a strange, lonely, harsh world.
In her speech, Cook-Searson referred to the announcement from Ile-a-la-Crosse of the Agreement in Principle between the Residential Boarding School Survivors Committee and the Province of Saskatchewan.
Northern residents in La Ronge were among the many people participated in a ealk to honour survivors of the Residential School system on Orange Shirt Day.
She announced that she had been talking with Premier Scott Moe in regard to a potential similar agreement in principle with regard to the Timber Bay Children’s Home, which has never been recognized under the Indigenous Residential School Settlement Agreement, despite much work done through LLRIB over the years to change that situation.
Lunch included fresh fish fry, duck soup and fried bannock, before the camp ended.
The name Kiskinwuhumatowin Urban Reserve means ”place of learning.” It reflects the Cree understanding of learning and teaching as a two-way action. You teach me; I teach you.
It’s the 19th Lac La Ronge Indian Band reserve and first Urban. There is a residential school memorial monument on the land, where the two former All Saints residential schools stood in the past.
Just months after All Saints residential school burned in 1947, it opened in Prince Albert. It was amalgamated with St. Albans school in Prince Albert in 1951. It became the second largest residential school in Canada. Many of the students were from the north.
Stanley Mission also honoured former residential school students with a day of events including a Walk from the Elementary School and a T-Shirt give away, Supper at the Band Hall and an Open Mic for anyone who wanted to share their experiences of the Residential School.
The day ended with Cornelius Ballantyne Memorial Talent Show.
