Hundreds of people dressed in orange shirts for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, walking from the Canadian Museum for Human (CMHR) Rights to St. John’s Park Thursday afternoon.
Residential school survivors gathered on the steps of the CMHR for an opening prayer before the sound of drumming and singing flooded the streets.
Walkers chanted “Every child matters,” danced and cheered as cars drove southbound along Main Street, honking their horns and waving in support.
Destiny Campos and her family sat on the outskirts of the massive crowd at the park. Campos said the turnout far exceeded her expectations.
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“I knew it was going to be busy, but not this busy, so that’s really nice,” Campos said.
There was one member of their family missing — Campos’s mother.
A residential school survivor, Campos said her mother wasn’t ready to attend the events of the day.
“She was taken when she was about five-years-old, they told her she was going to a barbeque,” Campos said. “The first thing they did was cut her hair.”
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Campos’s daughter, Faith, said her grandmother doesn’t talk much about her time in the residential school system, and doesn’t expect her to.
“She knows when she’s ready to open up about those stories and truly share them, you know, she’s shared a little bit with me, but I know that’s not the full story,” Faith said.
Read more: 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation draws mixed feelings from Indigenous community
Both Faith and Destiny hope the magnitude of Thursday’s events will carry forward, saying the conversations must continue past the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
“There’s no more excuses, the internet is literally at our fingertips,” Destiny said, encouraging people to listen to the stories of their neighbours, elders and friends.
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