Hunting Hills students taking part in National Day of Truth and Reconciliation activities. (supplied/Rachel Bysterveld)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Honouring Survivors

Central Alberta schools honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Oct 1, 2021 | 12:26 PM

Schools all across central Alberta made sure to take time and reflect on Thursday to honour the first official National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

All-day was devoted to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation at Hunting Hills High School. Each period featured a specific video or lesson, with the last period of the day being extraordinary.

Each Hunting Hills student received an orange heart and wrote a positive message as a gesture of reconciliation. Students could choose their own words, look up a quote, or write words in Cree that were given to them. Students wrote on both sides of the paper heart to see their message inside and outside the school.

School officials say the students then took the hearts and taped them to a designated area to show the school’s solidarity in creating awareness of residential schools and acknowledging the suffering of the victims of residential schools. There was traditional drumming music played over the speakers during this time.

Words were given in Cree as one of the school’s Social Studies teachers is of Cree descent.

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Through this activity, students were able to:

• create awareness of residential schools
• honour survivors of residential schools
• remember those children who did not survive residential schools
• put forth efforts to bring about healing and reconciliation
  Hunting Hills School (supplied/Rachel Bysterveld)

Meanwhile, students in the Clearview Public School district also participated in a variety of events on Thursday.

Honouring First Nations peoples, their history and their truth, is embedded in Clearview’s schools. Clearview schools are comprised of over 185 self-identified Aboriginal learner students or 8.5 per cent of the non-colony student population. For the past six years, Clearview has taken the opportunity on Sept. 30, Orange Shirt Day, to teach students about the history and legacy of residential schools.

To recognize the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30, Clearview schools hosted a variety of activities to recognize the day, reflect on the past, and look ahead to the future. District officials say Clearview believes having its teachers, staff, and students learning and talking about these issues for this year provides benefits for all concerned, and ensures that the tragic history and ongoing legacy of residential schools is never forgotten.

“Today, in honour of the National Truth and Reconciliation and also Orange Shirt Day, our Clearview community has come together to honour the thousands of residential school survivors and to remember those who are no longer with us,” said superintendent Brenda MacDonald, in a press release Friday. “We stand for hope and change.”