By Mark Brett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Penticton Herald
October 01, 2022
Nearly 200 people created a sea of orange along the Penticton waterfront at the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Walk for the Children.
After a brief, beachfront ceremony at the iconic Peach, elders, many of them residential school survivors, lead the procession to the Syilx Indian Residential School Nation’s monument on En’owkin Trail five kilometres away.
“No child should ever have to go through what we did in those places, it was like a nightmare that you could never wake up from,” said Josephine Jack of Alberta who was in Penticton visiting family. “It took everything away from being a child, the abuse that we had done to us and seeing it happen to other children and friends who just disappeared. It was hell.
“What we need most is healing and for it to never happen again.”
However, according to walk organizers, that healing process has run into a roadblock with the federal government’s promises little more than not living up to its commitments, calling them “empty” commitments and “hollow” promises.
“The Province of BC and Government of Canada continue to use the term ‘truth and reconciliation as a means for political gain because it makes them look good,” said Chief Greg Gabriel of the Penticton Indian Band (PIB). “On the ground we continue to fight and are challenged every day with their colonial bureaucracy and legislation that have profound impacts on our daily lives.”
The Syilx Indian Residential School Committee has since been formed to provide direction on projects related to residential schools. It is made up of intergenerational Syilx Indian Residential School survivors.
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All Canadians must hold their government to task and ensure that paths toward both truth and reconciliation take place in a meaningful and lasting manner,” said Gabriel. “This goes far beyond wearing an orange shirt for a day.”
