I thought I should take the responsibility to post this and remind everyone about what today is.
National Day For Truth And Reconciliation
Both my parents are survivors of the residential school era and my family have had to live with this horror all our lives ... whether we knew it or not.
For me the day is not to shame anyone or lay blame on those around me.
But rather to let everyone know about this history and never allow anything like it to ever happen again.
I return the hand shake my friend.
Chimeegwetch doodem .... it means "thanks very much my friend."
I wish more non native people would take the initiative instead and acknowledge commemorations like this. It normalizes things like this and makes it more significant for us native people ... it makes us realize that more of non native Canada is open to acknowledging events like this, and by extension becoming more open and accepting of indigenous people and our culture ... not that Canada doesn't already, it just makes it more so.
Something I'd like to see is the addition of regional FN languages to the school curriculum for each province. I'm a languages nerd so I'm biased, but I think that would help (not to mention also help preserve the language of those particular nations)