Saskatoon honours National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with annual walk

On Saturday, a sea of orange shirts could be seen along with traditional indigenous clothing and ribbon skirts in Saskatoon.

Hundreds of people came together for an annual walk to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Led by drumming, the walk began at the Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. (CUMFI) and ended at the Reconciliation Circle in Victoria Park.

Residential school survivor Rick Daniels said the day was bittersweet.

“Today is special in the sense that we are remembering the young people, the young children that were taken to residential school but never made it home back to their families (and) their homelands,” he said.

Daniels explained one way to honour truth and reconciliation is to take the time to learn the truth about the residential school system and acknowledge it happened.

Although truth and reconciliation is a long journey, Daniels said other steps can be taken in the process.

“The government needs to acknowledge the fact that all this trauma did in fact exist and those calls to action need to be addressed,” he said, adding that many residential school survivors are still suffering through intergenerational trauma.

Alice Petrie (right) walks with photo of her grandmother, a residential school survivor, for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

Alice Petrie also took the time to learn how to make her own ribbon skirt. She walked with a photo of her grandmother who was a residential school survivor.

“I was very close to her,” she said, adding that it’s important to honour your ancestry.