By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir said today is bittersweet, noting she had hoped Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would have been there on Sept. 30, the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Continue reading Prime Minister visits Tk’emlúps te SecwépemcBy Kelsie Kilawna, The Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Canadians getting ready to cozy up with family over the Thanksgiving weekend should question exactly what they’re celebrating, says Secwépemc hereditary matriarch Miranda Dick.
Continue reading Food for the frontlines — honouring Indigenous ingenuity during a colonial holidayBy Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Mona Jules recalls the Kamloops Indian Residential School sounding like a beehive when she arrived at the age of six in the late 1940s.
Being fluent in her own Indigenous language, Jules said she couldn’t understand anyone.
“The buzzing and the noise. I just looked form face to face. I couldn’t understand anything,” she said.
Leona Thomas remembers her first day, entering that school at the age of six in 1958, and being pried from her brother’s back and split up.
Continue reading Kamloops Indian Residential School Survivors share their storiesWarning: This story contains details that may provoke distress or trauma in some readers.
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Jody Wilson-Raybould endured a salvo of emotions as news broke confirming the unmarked graves of 215 children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School at Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.
The Independent MP for the riding of Vancouver Granville, former justice minister, and member of the We Wai Kai Nation was in her home community on Quadra Island, B.C., when she heard.
The initial surge of incredible sadness was pursued by increasing anger and a fixed sense of frustration.
Continue reading Jody Wilson-Raybould tells Ottawa to take responsibility for reconciliationthe Discourse, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Sage Thomas recalls the first birth she witnessed as a doula in training, using the traditional ways of her people.
“When I walked into the room, they had some juniper burning on the stove and they had the lights low and it was just really quiet and calm,” she says.
This is what birth can look like, Thomas says, when it is supported with culture and traditional knowledge. Thomas speaks of the importance, and necessity of reclaiming Indigenous birth practices.
Continue reading The necessity of reclaiming Indigenous birth practises
