With many New Brunswick municipalities cancelling their Canada Day celebrations out of respect for the victims of Canada’s residential school system, Indigenous groups are hoping to fill the gaps with events based around education and reconciliation.
Eastern Circle, an Indigenous-led community group in Saint John, and Hearts of Saint John will use the opportunity to host a healing walk through the trails of Rockwood Park on Thursday morning.
“The basis of a healing walk is simply to heal and coexist with each other,” said Mykayla Spinney, one of Eastern Circle’s co-founders. “There’s a lot of problems that Canadians are having from all different walks of life.”
In addition to the trauma being triggered within Indigenous communities as more mass graves are discovered at residential school sites, Spinney says white allies and people of faith are also shaken and looking for ways to help.
“Everybody is more than welcome to attend, everybody has reasons for needing to heal,” she said. “So we’re going to be walking in silence with the drumbeats, and every single provincial and territory marker we’re going to stop and read out the history of the nations that belong to every province, and then we’re going to tell the story of Turtle Island.”
Attendees are invited to arrive at the parking lot near the Rockwood Park petting zoo beginning at 10 a.m., and the walk will begin around 10:30.
Donation tables, educational materials, and water will be available on site. Eastern Circle is asking guests to wear orange, red, or black, in addition to weather-appropriate clothing.
How you can help residential school survivors
Spinney says as more people become aware of the historical atrocities caused by the Canadian government and the Catholic church, she sees more people struggling with the question of how to react in the face of the traumatic revelations.
“Every single person has the right to their emotions, and it doesn’t matter what your walk of life is, where your religion or faith is placed,” said Spinney. “You are hurt, and you are angry, and you have a right to grieve and feel upset by these things.”
She encourages those who do feel hurt or helpless to reach out to their community and friends to try and make sense of the tragedy.
“We don’t have answers, and it’s going to be a long time before we ever get answers. But we can be in this together and coexist and figure it out,” Spinney said.
For those looking for more concrete ways to help, she encouraged donating time or money to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
“Write emails, get involved with things just like this healing walk,” Spinney said. “Because not only are you walking for yourself to heal, but you’re walking with all these other people that need to heal and they don’t feel alone when they’re in such large groups like this.”
Canada Day controversy
Spinney says she personally thinks the conversation around cancelling Canada Day events, and specifically the #CancelCanadaDay hashtag has been toxic.
“They’re not saying you can’t get together with your friends, you can’t have a barbeque, you can’t celebrate. You can still do everything that you’ve been doing,” she said.
“Saint John just isn’t going to be hosting events uptown, and they’re just not going to be setting off fireworks. I think #CancelCanadaDay is almost too broad because it’s not being cancelled, it was the city’s events.”
She added that it would feel inappropriate to celebrate in the usual fashion, given the collective tragedy being felt across the country.
“If I had a child, and my child passed away tragically, the next day I wouldn’t be shooting off fireworks and partying with my friends in my backyard, and I feel like that’s where a lot of this is coming from,” Spinney explained.
Moving forward, she says New Brunswick should consider hosting cultural events instead. She cited the many cultures that coexist in the province as a better cause to celebrate than the usual Canada Day events.
“Having an event for one day to really showcase the different cultures and events that exist in Canada and coexist so peacefully would be an amazing thing to do.”
A National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former residential school students. The toll-free line can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-866-925-4419.
