Gatherers are encouraged to wear orange and bring a drum to play during Skookum Surrey‘s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event at Holland Park on Thursday (Sept. 30).
“An afternoon of stories, tea, bannock and drumming” is promised during the rain-or-shine event, planned from 2 to 4 p.m. near the park fountain, off Old Yale Road at King George Boulevard.
Formerly known as Skookum Lab, Skookum Surrey aims to carry on “the spirit of Skookum by centring Indigenous brilliance to create a flourishing and connected Urban Indigenous Community in Surrey,” says the group’s Facebook page.
Skookum means “strong, powerful and brave.”
Surrey is home to a growing Indigenous community that is now the largest in B.C., according to Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee.
• RELATED STORY, from Sept. 17: Surrey looking for more ways to engage with city’s large Indigenous population.
Join us for National Truth and Reconciliation!
SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 pic.twitter.com/P1irV1JDOw— Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee (@SRYIndigenous) September 17, 2021
Sept. 30 marks Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, following proclamation by the Government of Canada back on July 7. It is also known as Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived Indian Residential Schools and remembers those who did not, notes a post on canada.ca.
“This day relates to the experience of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, on her first day of school, where she arrived dressed in a new orange shirt, which was taken from her. It is now a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.”
• RELATED STORY, from June: Hundreds turn out in Surrey in honour of 215 Indigenous children.
The City of Surrey is observing National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday, along with other government agencies, schools and some businesses.
Service counters at city hall will operate at regular hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with reduced service and staffing levels, and select recreation facilities will be open with reduced operating hours. Surrey Libraries, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey Archives, Museum of Surrey, and Historic Stewart Farms will be closed.
The city’s website offers some ways to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which include viewing Indigenous-made films in the National Film Board’s online collection, making future plans to check out the Indigenous Hall at Museum of Surrey and taking a self-directed tour of Surrey’s Indigenous Public Art Collection.
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Also, take a walk through Surrey Civic Plaza outside city hall where the lights will be orange, the webpost suggests.
Meantime, on Wednesday (Sept. 29), KPU’s Indigenous Dialogue Series will feature “Reconciliation with Radical Thought, Action, and Heart,” a talk by Len Pierre (Pul-ee-qwe-luck), special advisor, Indigenous Leadership, Innovation, and Partnerships at KPU, starting at noon on the Zoom conference platform.
“With a background in adult education and Indigenous methodology,” an event advisory says, “Len aims to decolonize and transform corporate systems, approaches, policies, and curriculum content in any professional discipline. Len will talk about how reconciliation can move from ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’ in higher education.”
• RELATED STORY, from 2020: Acts of racism ‘part of the lived experience of urban Indigenous peoples in Surrey’: report.
Joanne Mills, executive director of Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Center Association, recently told the Surrey Police Board that roughly 13,500 Indigenous people call Surrey home.
“This is about 2.6 per cent of the total Surrey population,” Mills noted. “Surrey has the fastest growing Indigenous population in B.C. and will surpass Vancouver by 2021 if growth trends continue. The majority of people identify as First Nations people, 56 per cent, followed by Metis at 40 per cent and Inuit, four per cent.”
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