Every year on September 30th, we wear orange.
We talk about the 94 Calls to Action. We talk about truth, and about reconciliation, and about how much work is still left to do.
And every year, we make space for one voice from our own ORESTA family.
Jenny is our Hintonburg Retail Manager. She's part Mohawk. Her mother is a Survivor of the residential school system. Each Orange Shirt Day, Jenny writes a poem and shares it with all of us. It's become something we look forward to, and something we're deeply grateful for.
THE LAND REMEMBERS
Today, we remember the children.
The ones who came home.
The ones who never did.
The little hands that reached for home
and found a place that did not feel like it.
We remember the survivors -
and the generations who learned
to carry what was never theirs to carry.
But remembrance cannot end
when the candles go out.
Because these lands were never empty.
They were home.
Home to languages carried like songs,
medicines gathered with care,
ceremonies passed from one generation
to the next.
Then came the taking.
The land.
The children.
The language.
The names.
And when we say Land Back,
we are saying something much deeper
than give us land.
We are saying:
Give back the right to decide.
The right to protect.
The right to gather medicines,
to teach language,
to care for water,
to return to sacred places,
to determine what happens
on our own lands.
Land Back is about sovereignty.
It is about relationship.
It is about returning power
where power was taken.
And reconciliation?
It cannot live only in words.
It lives in what we choose
to learn,
to listen to,
to support,
and to change.
So today, remember the children, the mothers, the fathers, and the elders
But don't let them become
a story we tell once a year.
Carry their memory forward.
Let it change how you see the land
beneath your feet.
Because the land remembers.
And so do we.
~ Jenny Kenkraken-Oskenonton
CLICK HERE to listen to Jenny reading her poem in her own voice.
Here are a few ways to keep learning and showing solidarity, this week and always:
📚 With Our Orange Hearts — Phyllis Webstad
A children's book by the founder of the Orange Shirt Day movement. Maker House currently donates 50% of sales from these books to Indigenous communities and organizations, with proceeds from this title going to the Orange Shirt Society and First Nations Child & Family Caring Society. (Maker House Co.)
Purchase With Our Orange Hearts
📚 The Reconciliation Manifesto — Arthur Manuel & Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson
A powerful examination of reconciliation, land, Indigenous rights and rebuilding relationships between Indigenous peoples and Canada. (Lorimer)
Purchase The Reconciliation Manifesto
📚 Speaking Our Truth — Monique Gray Smith
An accessible introduction to residential schools, Survivors and what reconciliation requires from individuals and communities. (Royal BC Museum)
Purchase Speaking Our Truth
🧡 And consider purchasing from GoodMinds, a First Nations family-owned Canadian bookstore specializing in Indigenous authors and education resources. GoodMinds donates 5% of sales to the Supporting Indigenous Libraries Today Fund, which supports First Nations public libraries. (GoodMinds.com)
Shop GoodMinds
For showing solidarity and support:
Read the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and reflecting on how each of us can contribute to meaningful change.
Attend the National Commemorative Gathering - “Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation” on Parliament Hill, September 30 at 12PM.
Join the Reconciling History Tours in Downtown Ottawa - a 90-minute, 2km walking tour to learn about the history of residential school system and addressing the injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples, September 30, happening from 10AM to 5PM.
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Thank you, Jenny, for trusting us with your story, again this year.
And thank you, to everyone who takes a moment today to listen.
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Read Jenny's previous poems about this day below:
