A Day Off to Reflect Truth and Reconciliation, Sept. 30

This year, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation holds a different weight for me. When I turned on the TV today, I had to turn it off. The screen was filled with the faces of Indigenous survivors recounting the trauma they lived through in residential schools.

​Hearing their voices brought my own family's history rushing back. I remembered my mother, aunt, and uncle talking about what happened to them. They were only small children when they were sent away. Their story is one of resilience; at just 11, 12, and 13 years old, they found the strength to run away from the school, hitchhiking together all the way to Calgary.