NCTR’s Orange Shirt Day goes virtual
Every Child Matters to livestream
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This article was published 25/09/2020 (2068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Classrooms across Canada will be tuning in for Every Child Matters, an online event in honour of residential school survivors, their families and communities, and to support and encourage meaningful reconciliation.
Ry Moran, the director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), based at the University of Manitoba, said over 300,000 students have signed up for the virtual event on Sept. 30.
The virtual event includes both a livestream online and downloadable educational resources, and is aimed students between grades 5 and 12. The move to a virtual event was made due to pandemic restrictions.
“The first half of the livestream will focus on the issues of truth and reconciliation. Residential school survivors will speak about their experiences,” Moran said in a telephone interview from Victoria, B.C. “National leaders, like Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will speak as well, along with elders and knowledge keepers.”
The second half of the 90-minute presentation will feature Indigenous youth speaking about reconciliation, according to Moran.
“It’s incredible how the communities came together in the filming of this,” he said, adding the NCTR began working on the event back in May when they knew the pandemic wasn’t lifting. “The purpose is to help tell the stories, and to talk about the longstanding gift of sharing our cultures and languages with the rest of Canadians.”
Educating Canadian youth about these issues is important because the young people are the leaders of tomorrow, Moran said, adding that Canadians of any age are invited to watch the livestream.
“As Canadians, we are called upon to take action to learn, share and celebrate, and together, build a better country,” he said.
The event will be livestreamed on the NCTR website, as well as the APTN and CBC television stations.
The event is accompanied by a magazine titled Every Child Matters: Reconciliation Through Education. Written by award-winning Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, the magazine is based on the Seven Sacred Teachings and is aimed for students in grades 5 to 12.
For more information, see https://education.nctr.ca/