CDS Recognizes National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

At Monday's Middle/Senior School assembly, guest speaker Mr. Brent Johnston, our Executive Director of Advancement, shared his personal Indigenous journey to highlight the importance of observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a day to understand and reconcile our history. "I am so proud of what we are doing here at CDS; that we are learning about residential schools and willing to listen to the stories of our Indigenous people. Each story is unique."

 

Mr. Johnston shared that it wasn’t until Grade 12, when he learned his mother had regained her Indigenous status, that he realized he had no idea about his own Mohawk background. “One of the first things my mother told me when I regained my status was not to tell anyone that I was Indigenous​ for fear of racism. I later learned that my grandfather, in order to be hired as a teacher, had to move off the territory ​to Montreal and “play white.”

In 1990, while interviewing his grandfather for a life history project for an anthropology course at his home in Kanasatake, the interview was constantly interrupted by phone calls as his grandfather was considered an elder in the community. Listening in, Mr. Johnston learned that the Mohawks had created a peaceful blockade of the pines in Oka to protest the expansion of a golf course on traditional Indigenous burial lands. Shortly after, the Oka crisis began, a siege that lasted 78 days and marked the beginning of the rise of Indigenous resistance leading to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

 

In Tuesday's Junior School assembly, Ms. Suddaby's Grade 4 class shared the Seven Grandfather Teachings and Anishinaabe Stewardship principles: Wisdom, Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Humility, and Truth. Thank you, Grade 4s, for teaching us that "Together, the Seven Grandfather Teachings show us that caring for each other and caring for Mother Earth go hand in hand!"

 

Yesterday, Junior School students participated in a Seven Grandfather Teachings walk in the Back 40 to reinforce these important principles. During the walk, each student was given an opportunity to contribute their orange ribbon from Outdoor Education to a collaborative art piece at the front of the Sugar Shack. This symbolic piece is now on display along the wall of the Eversley Schoolhouse in Burns Family Hall. 

 

#EveryChildMatters #TruthAndReconciliation