STU Turned Orange For Truth and Reconciliation Day
This year the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was classified as a national holiday in Canada. Many establishments and schools, including St. Thomas University, closed their doors on Thursday 30th to commemorate this event.
One day before, St. Thomas University hold the Orange Shirt Day to show their respect and support for the Indigenous communities. They held different events including an information booth, a reflection craft activity, a reflection ceremony, and a student panel discussion.
Many students wore orange shirts and had pin-back buttons to honor the survivors impacted by Residentials Schools in Canada.
“The orange shirt itself is from a story from a residential school survivor. She was taken to a residential school wearing an orange shirt and was stripped down naked,” said Rachel Burke. “Her brand-new orange shirt was taken away from her because it made her stand out.”
Rachel Burke is the Indigenous Experiential & Community-Based Learning Coordinator at STU. She, being an indigenous student part of the St. Mary’s First Nation in Fredericton, is grateful the university is taking action by raising awareness for these communities. Particularly, by including students in info sessions where they can learn more about indigenous communities and their impact on society.
Burke said there was a meeting where indigenous and non-indigenous faculty staff unanimously decided to close the university because it is a day for everybody to reflect, not just for indigenous.
“It is a day to reflect, especially for non-indigenous people or people that might not have a direct connection to this history,” said Burke. “As an indigenous person, it’s rediscovering what being indigenous means to me.”
Burke said this day helps her to find the strength to keep going and move forward with her position. She wants to help other youth to reduce the barriers that divide our society.
During the panel discussion, students could ask any questions about indigenous communities and their importance, not only on campus but in society.
Student Union President Ty MaGee and Indigenous Representative Stevie DeMerchant were two of the main speakers who encourage students to open up and approach indigenous leaders, educators, and students to ask for more information.
MaGee said it’s very powerful and encouraging to see the university taking the necessary steps to provide a platform for everyone on campus to access and learn more about these topics.
“I come back to the idea of political correctness. We need to dismantle that and understand that we need to look towards reconciliation,” said DeMerchant. “We need to ask questions and educate ourselves.”
Both agreed on the importance of students participating and engaging in these types of events. MaGee specified that everyone has different schedules and most of the time we don’t have any free time because of school, work, and other activities. However, we should take into consideration that what we learn at these events could turn out to be influential in our studies. We can discover different perspectives of a topic, challenging situations which will help us to develop critical thinking, a variety of options for schools projects, the way we interact with others, and more.
“It is important to see how interconnected all of these things are,” said MaGee. “Remember you are always actively learning, and those things can manifest in many different ways.”
The panel ended up with the indigenous representatives inviting all the participants to be part of the future projects and to share them with everyone in or off-campus since this topic is not only a matter of students but of society in general.
