Commemoration Initiatives
September 30 marks Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Over the past few years, several commemoration projects have been unveiled with more being announced every month. These projects include monuments, sculptures, parks, legacy projects, multi-media projects, education curriculum, special archives, and Survivors initiatives. These memorial projects will ensure that the truth and history of the Indian Residential Schools will never be forgotten.
**Truth and Reconciliation Commemoration Projects Map
An Interactive map identifying current IRS commemoration projects in Canada
https://residentialschoolsatlas.org/index.html?module=module.trcp
Memorials and Commemoration Projects
COMMEMORATION PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
Commemoration is an important component of the process of reconciliation. It will allow former students, their families, and their communities to pay tribute to, honour, educate, remember, memorialize, and acknowledge the systemic impacts and the intergenerational effects of the Indian Residential School system on Indigenous peoples and communities.
The objectives of Commemoration are to:
- Assist in honouring and validating the healing and reconciliation of former students and their families by acknowledging their experiences;
- Provide supports in an effort to improve relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people;
- Provide an opportunity for former students and their families to support one another and to recognize/celebrate their strengths, courage, resiliency, and achievements;
- Contribute to a sense of identity, unity, and belonging;
- Promote Indigenous languages, cultures, traditional values, and spiritual beliefs;
- Ensure the legacy of Indian Residential Schools, former students and their families’ experiences and needs are affirmed; and,
Memorialize the Indian Residential School experience in a tangible and permanent way.
Anishinabek Nation Memorial
https://www.anishinabek.ca/irscphome/
Orange Shirt Day
http://www.orangeshirtday.org/about-us.html
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Website
https://nctr.ca/memorial/
Shubenacadie IRS Commemoration Project
https://www.facebook.com/IRSCommemoration/
The Children Remembered: Residential School Archives Project
https://thechildrenremembered.ca/
Project of Heart: Canada’s National Cemetery exhibits 57,000 Project of Heart tiles as part of National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
https://projectofheart.ca/
Mount Elgin IRS Monument
https://anishinabeknews.ca/2021/11/04/the-story-of-the-chippewas-of-the-thames-indian-residential-school-monument/
Upcoming Commemoration Projects