Rogers Arena Lit Up Orange For the Residential School Children

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KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (AP) — The remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

More bodies may be found because there are more areas to search on the school grounds, Casimir said Friday.

In an earlier release, she called the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

 

https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-canada-7430e40bc8808410db45d08feb8fbf71

 

I can't believe there's no topic on this yet.  What a horrific, tragic discovery that was made in finding 215 children buried in a mass grave at a Residential School in Kamloops.

Children?!   I work in a school and can't imagine the vicious vile monsters who did this, along with those who stood by knowing it was happening.  It's a despicable, shameful, disgusting, deplorable, unforgivable situation.  We wore orange today in honour of these children and to raise awareness.  But I am truly mortified by it...how is it that we just never knew before?  Or, for those who did, never spoken about?  Taught about?  

 

My awareness of it all started a short while ago...I was so oblivious.  Gord Downie helped a lot with his Chanie Wenjack story/album.

It's absolutely heart wrenching to learn this stuff.  It's what nightmares are made of.

 

My heart is with all the families who were ripped apart as their history and culture were being erased.  To the families devastated by horrific acts of senselessness that deprived them of any sense of being or dignity.  And murdered their loved ones.  THEIR BABIES!   From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry.

 

I cry thinking about it.

 

 

[aGENT]

I near vomited reading that this morning. Disgusting and so bloody sad.

 

 

[PhillipBlunt]

Anyone still alive who had anything to do with this genocide should be summarily destroyed. 

[Shekky]

yeah this nearly brought me to tears hearing about this as I have family members who survived a residential school and it still affects them to this day even though this happened over 60 years ago to them. They didn't even care about getting money from the government the only thing they wanted was an apology. 

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

Glad to see the Canucks coming out with a statement and action that offers some measure of acknowledgment and recognition, both of the recent horrific discoveries in Kamloops, and the larger context of what’s one of, if not the, darkest part of our history, as Canadians.

 

I’ll leave it to my Indigenous brothers and sisters to decide whether or not the team’s statement and actions are appropriate and sufficient. 

 

But, if a white settler like myself were to respectfully offer an opinion, I’d say that while the Canucks aren’t necessarily responsible (at least any more than the rest of us) for residential schools, or for the genocide of the Indigenous community, if this team is truly committed to “truth and reconciliation,” and wishes to continue to portray itself as an organization that supports and honours First Nations, then they definitely needed to put something out, rather than remain silent on the issue, especially in the wake of these recent discoveries, and within the region this team calls home.

 

So, I’m very glad to see the organization is doing something today.

 

And I’m also glad they didn’t wait any longer, since the lack of any response from the Canucks (or any other NHL team) was very quickly becoming a story, especially on social media.

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7 minutes ago, Shekky said:

yeah this nearly brought me to tears hearing about this as I have family members who survived a residential school and it still affects them to this day even though this happened over 60 years ago to them. They didn't even care about getting money from the government the only thing they wanted was an apology. 

Shekky, I am so incredibly sorry to hear this....that you have family who had to live through this torturous period and the heinous crimes that were committed.   I'd typed acts..but no...they're crimes of the worst kind.  Residential "school" my behind...dungeons.  Torture chambers. 

 

We could have learned a lot from the people of the land who were here first...who seemed to know how to live in peace and harmony with nature.  Instead of stripping them of their culture and trampling on it, asking them to share it with us.  Learning from them.

 

Unlike the greedy sob's who claimed it as their own.  Intruded in the most callous of ways.

 

I don't know how you could ever heal from this, but I sure hope some peace is found for you, your family and all those who carry the burden of this on their hearts, minds and souls.  I am in tears as I type this. 

 

 

[Nuxfanabroad]

My wife was asking me about this the other day. She'd read a story on the Japanese Yahoo site, I'm pretty sure. So I searched a local BC paper to get the gist.

 

Although I'd identify as Caucasian, my maternal grandmother was of half Native descent. Not surprised at all by this tragedy.

 

*What really gets my goat*  I've spent a significant amount of time poring over news clippings, these past few decades. Mostly perusing through in search of decent material for high level English classes. It really struck me the significant % of articles that were critical/judgemental of the poor treatment visible minorities(seemingly always!) received in some impoverished, far-flung, 3rd W Hell-hole.

 

It really highlights how full of sh** the MSM has become. As things get worse in the western world, we see our gov'ts/media meddling in remote locales, often using their minorities' plight to wrest control/manipulation from that respective gov't's hands. The media is 95% disgusting, wh*ring graft, aiding & abetting, replete with glossy Lip-stick(edit: had to hyphen, as it still produces that controversial player's name!).

 

Let's tell others how to live(GOOD ol' Western VALUES!!!); without minding our own back yards. & for decades we'd manage to avoid discovering what is indeed buried back there. If we had any F***ing shame, the persistence of our western media-hypocrisy would cease.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Nuxfanabroad

[Deets]

One of the first times this year I'm overly proud to be a Canucks fan.

[Nave]

What happened in the residential school was beyond shameful--it's deplorable. The attempted erasure of an entire people and their culture cannot be ignored any longer. 

As a white man with a bit of Mohawk blood, I have a weird relationship with this history. People chastise me for acknowledging my Native ancestry, saying I am "just white," but I never claim to have Native status--I only want to respect all parts of my ancestry, whether that is Irish, English, Scottish, French, or Native, etc. I remember learning about the Oka Crisis in high school, and remembering how my grandma said she would visit Oka. My best friend in elementary school was 75% Native, but he was told he was "not Native," by someone on a reserve. My best friend's girlfriend is dual status, but looks fairly white, and she is being told she cannot participate in a culture she desperately wants to be a part of. Both of these people had family members who were abused at residential schools and more recently at orphanages. Both have suffered from generational trauma, and it's harder for them to find their generational strengths with people telling them that they are "not really Indigenous." This is part of an erasure of a past led by white people, but also unwittingly by some Natives. I'm not meaning to place blame here--I'm just trying to show how many of us have a connection to this past and are being asked to ignore it. Elizabeth Warren was laughed out of office for even trying to acknowledge that she had Native ancestry. The showrunner of Trickster and director of Inconvenient Indian, Michelle Latimer, was cancelled for "not being Native enough," even though those productions had a virtually all-Native cast, and the writer of the book the movie was based on appeared in the movie. 

We live in a time fraught with political correctness. Sometimes it is appropriate, but a lot of times it is not helpful. But regardless, of your ethnicity, culture, or creed, you should be outraged at this mass-grave that was discovered.

I think of all the sensationalization we've seen, and cannot for the life of me understand why this is not being met with more outcry.

[Fanuck]

The discovery of this tragedy, sadly, will not even come close to exposing the true level of atrocities that were/are being perpetrated against the First Nations of this country.   The crimes committed against the First Nations communities are on par with the great genocides of human-kind and the legacy of devastation left behind is incomprehensible to most people.  

 

Light up the arena, that's acknowledging something happened and that is a start at least - now it's time for our leaders to take meaningful action on this! 

[Twilight Sparkle]

more of canada's dark and twisted past unearthed. figuratively and literally

[Elias Pettersson]

This is sick.  Whoever is responsible should be hung immediately...  

[Twilight Sparkle]

1 hour ago, debluvscanucks said:

 

Children?!   I work in a school and can't imagine the vicious vile monsters who did this, along with those who stood by knowing it was happening.  It's a despicable, shameful, disgusting, deplorable, unforgivable situation.  We wore orange today in honour of these children and to raise awareness.  But I am truly mortified by it...how is it that we just never knew before?  Or, for those who did, never spoken about?  Taught about? 

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how is it that we just never knew before?  Or, for those who did, never spoken about?  Taught about? 

the powers that be kept it hidden for as long as they could because it makes canada look bad, and it is. as we're learning more and more of the truth as time goes on, the government over the years have been making it up to these people and their families. very slowly, but in recent years there's been a lot more healing and understanding of first nations people, and why they ARE so angry against government

 

my mom knew people who used to go to residential schools, (or "indian schools" depending on your age and how you heard about it) when she was a kid. there was a lot of twisted things that would happen, like taking away their identity, to make them "white" and would be beaten nearly to death, for talking in their native languages, so i'm not at all surprised there was a mass purge to these people. a lot of sexual abuse to these children on top of up the physical abuse, so i can kinda see why schools wouldn't be teaching kids these things because it is such graphic subject matter... or survivors of it just wanted to keep it hidden because of how traumatizing it was

 

i was taught about it at an early age through my mom . i didn't' quite understand it at the time, but as i've gotten older and piecing things together, i'm understanding a lot more now about my culture and how they wanted to take it away from our ancestors. the sad thing about all of this, is how many more unmarked graves from these schools are still around canada

[HKSR]

I'm a full grown adult man, but I went to see a quiet ceremony in remembrance of the 215 children today by my work, and I was moved to tears.  With two toddlers of my own, I cannot wrap my head around the pain and suffering that these families would have gone through.  I hope every single one of us that lives, works, and plays on these traditional territories will put forth 110% effort for reconciliation and forgiveness from the indigenous communities.

[Gurn]

Horrible news. 

I've spent time in Alert Bay, they had a residential school there for years. The brick building is now being used for other purposes, but the memories remain.

 

 

 

 

Now, is this the final catalyst that gets actual change going?

Do we the people rise up and not just demand change, but begin changing things?

The last decade or so, has seen a lot of organizations/businesses/governments do a lot of talking about the problems we have.

How many of them have actually done something?

The last decade or so, has seen "we" the people doing a lot of talking about the problems we have.

How many of us have actually done something?

 

Turned on the Blue Jay's game last week, MLB had all the teams wearing camouflage baseball caps to show support for the troops and veterans.

How many veterans are currently working for MLB? 

Canucks- orange out the exterior  of their building today; and for years have announced how they are privileged to play on the  "unceded" land of the local native groups.

How many indigenous employees do they have?

 

I'm in no way implying that giving jobs to people will make everything better; just trying to point out that society does an awful lot of symbolism, I'd like to see us actually doing something.

 

 

I wonder if this thread gets to 30 pages, or does it fade away?

A year from now what will be different?

Anything?

Will we be different? Will we even try to be ...............?

 

 

 

 

[McBackup]

Whats the significance of the colour orange?

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6 minutes ago, Bitter Melon said:

Whats the significance of the colour orange?

https://www.techlifetoday.ca/articles/2020/why-we-wear-orange-on-orange-shirt-day-nait

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“It represents an important day of remembrance”

Phyllis Jack Webstad’s story is woven into an orange shirt lost long ago. When she was six years old, her grandmother gifted her an orange shirt for her first day of school. But her first day at residential school didn’t go as either of them expected. Phyllis’s clothes were taken away from her, including the orange shirt.

The orange shirt was never returned to her, but the colour orange always made Phyllis think of her experiences at a residential school.

“The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn't matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing,” she writes.

“All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”

Orange Shirt Day was inspired by Phyllis’s story and launched in 2013. Its goal is to educate people about residential schools in Canada and to honour and remember the experiences and loss of the First Nation, Inuit and Métis children who were stolen from their families and placed in these schools. Sept. 30 represents the time of year when this happened each year.

 

[Deets]

7 minutes ago, Bitter Melon said:

Whats the significance of the colour orange?

It's a public display of solidarity with Canada's First Nations and Indigenous peoples.

[Bertuzzipunch]

Lit up orange i was thinking this had something to do with donald trump…whew disaster averted.

[tas]

Just now, Deets said:

It's a public display of solidarity with Canada's First Nations and Indigenous peoples.

I suspect @Bitter Melonwas looking for the reason WHY orange is significant, which @debluvscanucksprovided.