Dozens join city’s first Reconciliation Walk

Sunlight lit up the orange shirts and signs lining the walking path near the Indigenous Peoples Garden at Assiniboine Park on Sunday, creating a vivid ribbon of colour through the trees.

Along the circular route, signs were strung between tree trunks. Some shared snapshots of colonization and residential school history, while others highlighted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 10 principles of reconciliation.

Participants stopped at each station as elder Marilyn Sinclair of Hollow Water First Nation guided the conversations. The first annual Reconciliation Walk invited people to learn, reflect, and consider how non-Indigenous communities can help bridge the gap from Canada’s dark history and move forward ahead of Tuesday’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“When I started thinking about doing this, I was just following my heart, truly,” said organizer Ankita Soni, a pharmacist, originally from India, whose work has taken her to northern Manitoba, including Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake).

Pimicikamak Chief David Monias was on hand for the event, as was Brenda Frogg, a Pimicikamak band council member.

“It’s bridging the gap of reconciliation and the truth, and bringing different ethnic groups together to educate them on the history of residential schools, day schools — the truth,” Frogg said.

Soni, who owns the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Kenaston Village Mall, founded Hope Igniters of Winnipeg, a non-profit created to support Indigenous partnerships, spark public engagement, and promote community-driven solutions.

For the walk, she partnered with Returning to Spirit, a Winnipeg-based, Indigenous-led non-profit that has delivered experiential reconciliation workshops since 2001.

“I speak from a migrant background, and we don’t know how we fit in the journey of reconciliation,” said Brenda Arakaza, an immigrant from Burundi, a small African country tucked between the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Tanzania to the east and Rwanda to the north. “So to be able to be present and have some teachings and walk with different people, it was one of the keys for me.”

Arakaza, who came to Canada in 2004 and has worked with Returning to Spirit for the past two years, said that most people know of the genocide that took place in Rwanda, but her country also experienced genocides in the 1970s and 1980s.

“So I was drawn to the idea of reconciliation because it was bringing people together,” she said.

While studying at Université de Saint-Boniface, Arakaza joined a group focused on reconciliation initiatives.

“For me, what I felt was that we are always teaching the history, but we leave people without knowing what to do with that history,” she said. “The idea of being part of the movement of reconciliation, being able to walk toward something and not only looking at the past, and feeling a sense of things can be changed.”

More than 50 people attended the event, which opened with a sacred fire ceremony and teachings from knowledge keepers. Pipe and smudging ceremonies also took place.

“The support we received today — so many people were here — it just means we can do it, we can bridge the gap,” Soni said.

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Lisa Lewis, a member of the organizing team and advisory council, said the first walk was held Sunday as a precursor to Orange Shirt Day.

“It was really inclusive and wonderful. I love it when people do acts of reconciliation that aren’t called for,” Lewis said, noting that Soni took on the event herself and brought Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to the table, including elders, to ensure it was culturally appropriate. “The walk is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing, is reconciling, learning the history of Indigenous people.”

Soni said Sunday’s walk won’t be a one-time event, because reconciliation is not a one-time event.

“It’s a healing process, it’s a journey. Learning never stops,” she said. “I’m very fortunate to have this opportunity. I’m very grateful for the support from the community and different faith organizations, supporting the idea.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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