Hundreds March Downtown Ingersoll for Truth and Reconciliation Day

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Friday, 1 October 2021 12:13

Over 300 people marched in downtown Ingersoll yesterday for Truth and Reconciliation Day. (Article includes photo's and video from the event)

INGERSOLL - Over 300 people marched in downtown Ingersoll yesterday for Truth and Reconciliation Day.

The event was hosted by the Ingersoll and area Indigenous Solidarity & Awareness Network or Iisan. They started and ended the march at the Cheese museum.

The event included an Opening Prayer by Kevin Doxtator Oneida, Bear Clan, a presentation from Al Day of Oneida, Turtle clan and Executive Director of N'amerind Friendship Centre and Niki Shawana of Manitoulin Island and her daughter performed a healing dance accompanied by Warrior Womyn of the Positive Drum.

Metis Elder Suzanne Jackson closed out the event with her remarks and then a final performance from Warrior Womyn of the Positive Drum, Journey song. They also had a 215 second quiet reflection to honour the children who helped wake up the world.

You can read the opening remarks of the event from one of the organizers Patricia Marshal below:

I thank each and every one of you for coming out today, today is a day for truth and for reconciliation. Part of that is taking steps to honour the lives lost and affected by systemic attempts to eradicate these lands Indigenous people.

Today those steps are literal as we all March together, our steps beating like a drum against the bosom of the earth, our minds directed towards souls changed forever and lost too soon.

139 so called schools popped up across the land called Canada, 150 years of legal oppression, genocide and terror, over 150 000 children attended these horrific places over this time by government mandate and over 6000+ loved souls were ended and buried in both marked and unmarked graves, the last one of these places did not close until 1996 and it took until 2021 for some of these children to be recovered and there are sadly more yet to be found.

This can not be forgotten, this is the tragic history the nation we live in.

Before I continue any further however it is important for us all to acknowledge that the land of Oxford county and surrounding area are ancestral home and hunting ground of the Attawandaran, Anishinaabeg and the Haudensaunee. Three longstanding communities still call this area home the Lunaapeewak, Anishinaabeg and Haudensaunee people's along with many urban First Nation, Metis and Inuit people's. It is important to understand that Indigenous means naturally occurring species in a place or area, this is what understanding this definition looks like.

Mistreatment of Indigenous people is not a fact of distant past as it is often passed off in our history text books, but rather it is a lived everyday experience for indigenous Canadians NOW. Systems were put in place by government and religious institutions in the hopes of smothering the beautiful and free spirit of Turtle Islands first people's, it is only now that these horrific crimes against humanity are coming to light for the common eye and it is our obligation to stand, march and cry out in solidarity for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

IISAN or Ingersoll and area's Indigenous Solidarity and Awareness Network was founded with the ideal and hope that if we take active steps as a community healing for everyone and understanding can truly be reached.

Several poems were also shared which you can see below.