Sacred fire a sign of reconciliation

Winnipeg Police Service members lit a sacred fire outside of their North District Station in recognition of residential school survivors ahead of the upcoming Orange Shirt Day.

“We know that the relationship between policing and Indigenous communities has not always been one of trust,” WPS Chief Gene Bowers told visitors at a gathering outside of the station Sunday afternoon.

“We cannot change that history, but we can acknowledge it, we can learn from it, and we can take responsibility for how we move forward.”

The sacred fire, guided by elder Mike Calder, will burn for 24 hours at the Sinclair Street station, and then be allowed to extinguish naturally. It’s the second year the WPS has lit a sacred fire in recognition of residential school survivors — last year, the fire was lit outside of WPS headquarters on Smith Street.

Dancing, fiddling and food were also part of the Sunday’s gathering.

Manitoba is preparing to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, on Wednesday. It was first enshrined as a provincial statutory holiday on Sept. 30, 2024.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the province has “much work to do to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in our justice system.”

“The trauma that has been experienced by survivors, it continues to impact generations of Indigenous people throughout this province, and so we must recognize that pain,” said Wiebe.

“But we also must acknowledge that it was law enforcement that played an integral role in enforcing the residential school system, and by acknowledging this fact, we can start to repair the trust and rebuild the relationships with Indigenous peoples.”

A number of events are scheduled to mark Orange Shirt Day Wednesday, including the Southern Chiefs Organization’s sixth annual Orange Shirt Day Healing Walk and Powwow.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs executive director Kayla Frank called the police’s work to foster relationships with Indigenous Winnipeggers “meaningful.”

“Reconciliation cannot live in ceremonies alone. It cannot be something we acknowledge for one day and then leave it behind until next September. Reconciliation is ongoing work,” she said.

“It’s about relationships we build, how we’ve listened to one another, and how we acknowledge the past and ongoing harms, and what we choose to do with the truths that have been shared with us.”

Among those in attendance Sunday was Jennifer Wood, a residential school survivor. She told the crowd that driving into Winnipeg and seeing the state of homelessness in the city was heartbreaking, and, as she described, a direct impact of the residential school system.

She called for empathy and understanding leading up to Sept. 30 and beyond.

“I always have to acknowledge our homelessness because I firmly believe that if you went to speak to any one of them, you would absolutely be guaranteed that they are a direct descendant or a direct legacy of the residential school,” she said.

“I can guarantee it, and a lot of them probably are enduring being a children of a survivor, an inter-generational survivor. They’re carrying around that pain.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

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