A towering welcome pole at Maffeo Sutton Park was officially unveilled during Truth and Reconciliation Day events in late September. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

reflect and learn

Top Stories of 2021: First Truth and Reconciliation Day draws thousands in Nanaimo

Dec 19, 2021 | 9:28 AM

NANAIMO — Canada marked its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in late September with a message of unity and reconciliation.

The Snuneymuxw First Nation lead the events on Thursday, Sep. 30 at Maffeo Sutton Park, in partnership with the City of Nanaimo and Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools.

The day’s sombre events came in the wake of announcements by First Nations all over the country regarding the discovery of unmarked graves, confirming atrocities committed at Canada’s residential schools.

“For generations now to this day Snuneymuxw people walk through life carrying these burdens without acknowledgment and denial of these violent experiences of our history,” Snuneymuxw Chief Mike Wyse told the crowd. “This history is passed down to our young people, causing inter-generational trauma within our families and community.”

Speeches and stories from Elders and survivors of residential schools were told, along with performances on the Lions Pavillion.

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A new Welcome Pole at the entrance was also unveiled, crafted by local carver Noel Brown.

Lolly Good, an SFN Elder, welled up in tears explaining how the “horrors and brutality” of her residential school experience tormented herself and her family.

Good suppressed her residential school experiences for several years before her healing journey began.

“Being a fourth generation residential school survivor I suffered mentally, emotionally, physically, abandonment and rejection. Somehow I was able to express my lost soul in writing,” Good said.

In May, 215 children were discovered in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, as well as over 160 graves on Penelekut Island.

A march in Chemainus in the summer drew over 10,000 people to the small community, most wearing now-iconic orange clothing in support of closure for countless individuals.

In June, the province announced a $12 million fund to investigate 18 residential school sites and three Indian hospital locations across B.C.

Under the program, each community could access up to $475,000 to investigate local sites.

The provincial initiative was made as hundreds of children’s remains were detected at several residential school sites in B.C., including on Penelakut Island east of Chemainus.

The Snuneymuxw First Nation also received a private donation of $77,250 in September to help conduct searches of the former Nanaimo Indian hospital site off Fifth St.

Since then, the GoFundMe raised over $157,000 for similar searches across the province.

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