National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrated across Canada

Wednesday marks National Indigenous Peoples Day, a time to celebrate the contributions and culture of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people across Canada.

Sylvia Halifax attended residential school in Ontario in the 1960s. She says it’s inspiring to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day with other survivors.

“To be able to talk about what happened to everyone. Not everybody wants to talk about it, but some people do,” said Halifax.

Tracy Mentuck says both her parents were forced to attend residential school, and she still continues to grieve from the inter-generational trauma she experienced as a child.

“I broke that cycle when I had my nine-year-old son. It’s difficult. It’s very difficult to live,” explained Mentuck.

Mentuck says days like these are extremely important for her healing journey.

“My kids don’t know their language, their culture, I don’t know my language. It put a big impact on me.”

On Wednesday, the 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada hosted a walk from Memorial Park to The Forks in Winnipeg. Mentuck’s nine-year-old son Tatum was one of the leaders in the campaign walk.

“Since I heard about residential [schools] I wanted to learn about it and know stuff about it. That’s why I started doing stuff like this,” said Tatum Mentuck.

It’s been two years since the discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops, British Columbia – a discovery that launched searches across the country. Katherine Strongwind says Canadians have been more open to learn about residential schools since that time.

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“The climate in Canada has really changed in the last few years, for myself, I feel like there is more willingness to work together, to have these tough conversations but also to come out and celebrate some of these really important days,” explained Strongwind.

“I think we will continue to take steps toward reconciliation. There’s still some hard work that needs to be done.”

Survivors and their families gathered at The Forks for a line-dance and Pow-Wow. Wayne Mason the executive director of Wa-Say Healing Centre, says a very important custom for Indigenous people is to come together and celebrate.

“A lot of medicine, a lot of healing and that’s the biggest part – coming together. As we all know, the history for indigenous people here in Winnipeg and Manitoba is quite sad. To come to celebrate and heal. That’s the number one thing is to come together and heal together,” says Mason.

Halifax is sending a simple message to the next generation.

“They could learn from the elders so that they don’t have similar experiences not exactly the same as we had, but just to be positive and move forward.”