Truth and Reconciliation

Assembly of First Nations National Chief, RoseAnne Archibald, speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says advancing economic reconciliation must go hand in hand with helping communities heal from intergenerational trauma. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Move toward ‘economic reconciliation’ must also come with healing: AFN national chief

Archibald: government has failed to create more economic opportunities for First Nations

Assembly of First Nations National Chief, RoseAnne Archibald, speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says advancing economic reconciliation must go hand in hand with helping communities heal from intergenerational trauma. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff) Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)

Researchers hope B.C. First Nation can ride the waves to reclaim their ancestral home

Wave-powered renewable energy microgrid to power Mowachaht/Muchalaht return to Nootka Island

Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff) Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)
Drummers sing as they walk into the Sts’ailes Lhawathet Lalem (Healing House) on Friday, March 3. (Adam Louis/Observer)

PHOTOS: ‘This beautiful work’: Sts’ailes First Nation welcomes 29 baskets home

Ancestral baskets repatriated to First Nation from Kilby Historic Site

Drummers sing as they walk into the Sts’ailes Lhawathet Lalem (Healing House) on Friday, March 3. (Adam Louis/Observer)
Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News) Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

How Truth and Reconciliation Day is marked across Canada

B.C. would become the 6th province or territory to designate Sept. 30 as a holiday.

Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News) Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Senator Lillian Dyck stands outside the Senate Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Dyck, who’s now retired, says she was “stunned” when she saw questions about the Indigenous heritage of former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose career she had celebrated as barrier-breaking. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Retired Cree senator stunned by ‘facade’ of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s heritage

Lillian Dyck said a CBC investigation convinced her that Turpel-Lafond lied about being Indigenous

Senator Lillian Dyck stands outside the Senate Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Dyck, who’s now retired, says she was “stunned” when she saw questions about the Indigenous heritage of former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose career she had celebrated as barrier-breaking. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The National Capital Commission is set to provide an update on the renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. A vehicle travels along the parkway in Ottawa, Wednesday June 2, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Ottawa’s Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to get an Indigenous name

Officials will engage with Indigenous communities and the public to discuss a new name

The National Capital Commission is set to provide an update on the renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. A vehicle travels along the parkway in Ottawa, Wednesday June 2, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild and Commissioner Marie Wilson (right to left) listen to a speaker as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 in Ottawa. Seven years later, an Indigenous-led think tank says progress is moving at a “glacial pace.”THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Progress on Indigenous reconciliation calls to action going at ‘glacial pace’: report

2 of the report’s 94 calls to action completed this year — bringing the total completed so far to 13

Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild and Commissioner Marie Wilson (right to left) listen to a speaker as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 in Ottawa. Seven years later, an Indigenous-led think tank says progress is moving at a “glacial pace.”THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Paddles were installed by Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin and T’esots’en, Patrick Kelly, a member of the award selection committee, on Nov. 22, kicking off the call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards. (Courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia)

PHOTOS: Artists’ paddles hung in Victoria symbolize commitment to reconciliation

Tuesday event launches call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards

Paddles were installed by Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin and T’esots’en, Patrick Kelly, a member of the award selection committee, on Nov. 22, kicking off the call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards. (Courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia)
Jody Wilson-Raybould signs a copy of her book for Courtenay-Comox MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard during Wilson-Raybould’s induction ceremony into the Comox Valley Walk of Achievement. Photo by Terry Farrell

Reconciliation a ‘call to action to all of us,’ Jody Wilson-Raybould says in new book

Canada’s former justice minister releases ‘True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change’

Jody Wilson-Raybould signs a copy of her book for Courtenay-Comox MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard during Wilson-Raybould’s induction ceremony into the Comox Valley Walk of Achievement. Photo by Terry Farrell
The ‘Every child matters’ barricade painted at the entrance to the ‘Orange Bridge’ (Riverbend Bridge) was vandalized sometime in the evening of Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Vandals paint racial slur on Port Alberni’s ‘Orange Bridge’ hours after reconciliation walk

Tseshaht First Nation denounces act, says there is ‘zero tolerance’ for racism in community

The ‘Every child matters’ barricade painted at the entrance to the ‘Orange Bridge’ (Riverbend Bridge) was vandalized sometime in the evening of Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
People take part in ceremonies for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Provinces, territories face calls to make Day for Truth and Reconciliation a holiday

First Nations Leadership Council deeply concerned B.C. had not made Sept. 30 a statutory holiday.

People take part in ceremonies for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
“A Mother’s Cry” is so revered in Nisga’a culture that only the Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society dancers are permitted to perform musical narration, as seen at Salmon Fest in June 2022.

‘A Mothers Cry’ heard across B.C.’s northwest captures the pain of separation and loss

Hallowed Nisga’a song shares the anguish of stolen children and mothers’ arms left empty

“A Mother’s Cry” is so revered in Nisga’a culture that only the Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society dancers are permitted to perform musical narration, as seen at Salmon Fest in June 2022.
John Prevost uses art in his own healing journey and to help others. See story on page A6. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)

From residential school to prison, B.C. man has come a long way in healing journey

Decades of addiction led Vancouver Island artist John Prevost to help others

John Prevost uses art in his own healing journey and to help others. See story on page A6. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)
AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks at a Miyo-wiciwitowin Day event at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says today’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is about the survivors who suffered in Canada’s residential schools and the children who never made it home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell

Canadians reflect about residential schools on Truth and Reconciliation Day

Speeches and events happen even as the grim work that helped inspire the day continues

AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks at a Miyo-wiciwitowin Day event at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says today’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is about the survivors who suffered in Canada’s residential schools and the children who never made it home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell
Sasha Perron ran 216 kilometres in just 18 days last year – one for each child found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, plus an extra one for all the children who weren’t found. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)

Next generation looks to take some of the burdens from residential school survivors

Greater Victoria’s Sasha Perron highlights survivors’ strength and resilience

Sasha Perron ran 216 kilometres in just 18 days last year – one for each child found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, plus an extra one for all the children who weren’t found. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)
Shaylene Lakey grew up in Vernon in foster care and continues to live here. (Contributed)

B.C. woman shares journey to reclaim Indigenous heritage after losing it in foster care

Shaylene Lakey may have found a safe place growing up, but felt robbed of her culture

Shaylene Lakey grew up in Vernon in foster care and continues to live here. (Contributed)
Janet Hanuse (left) with her youngest child Elleanna Hunt. Their family is working on breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma from residential schools. (Photo by Nicole Crescenzi)

Breaking the cycle: How one B.C. woman’s healing journey is being passed to her children

Janet Hanuse talks about intergenerational trauma and how it’s impacted her family

  • Sep 30, 2022
Janet Hanuse (left) with her youngest child Elleanna Hunt. Their family is working on breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma from residential schools. (Photo by Nicole Crescenzi)
Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation lives in Williams Lake, B.C. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Orange Shirt Society founder hopeful for future of Indigenous families

B.C.’s Phyllis Webstad will be at Niagara Falls for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation lives in Williams Lake, B.C. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)
Elder May Sam at her home in Tsartlip First Nation. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)

Decades of silence: Elder May Sam shares the abuse she endured at a B.C. Indian day school

Beaten and humiliated, Sam never told her children or husband about her experiences

Elder May Sam at her home in Tsartlip First Nation. (Arnold Lim/Black Press Media)
Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald addresses delegates at the conclusion of the AFN annual general meeting, in Vancouver, B.C., Thursday, July 7, 2022. The road to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada remains a long one, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, who estimates it will take 40 years at the current pace to achieve the more than 90 calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

National chief says Canada’s reconciliation actions taking long road; 40 years away

Archibald: ‘Progress toward addressing many of the calls to action remains slow’

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald addresses delegates at the conclusion of the AFN annual general meeting, in Vancouver, B.C., Thursday, July 7, 2022. The road to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada remains a long one, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, who estimates it will take 40 years at the current pace to achieve the more than 90 calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck