National Day for Truth and Reconciliation | September 30
This year, the Government of Canada designated September 30 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
To show our solidarity and recognize that we stand with Indigenous residential school survivors and victims, HUB Cycling will observe September 30 as a day of healing, remembrance, and catalyst of change and reconciliation.
On this day each year, HUB Cycling’s office will remain closed.
Many of you might be familiar with this day as Orange Shirt Day.
If you visit one of our four Go by Bike Week Knowledge HUB stations on September 30, you will notice that our staff will be wearing orange shirts to honour residential school victims and survivors.
As part of HUB Cycling's commitment to reconciliation, we as an organization will be undertaking decolonization training, hosted by a local First Nations-led organization, Hummingbirds Rising, which will help our team learn more about Indigenous history and their current reality.
This year, we also ran our first Youth Community Asset Mapping by Bike Project with Red Fox Healthy Living Society which taught Indigenous youth how to map out the places and services they wanted to access in their community and learn how to get there safely and happily by bike.
We will endeavour to continue our consultations with local First Nations groups when planning and designing new cycling infrastructure projects.
What You Can Do:
This holiday was one of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It's a day meant to honour First Nations, Inuit and Métis survivors, their families and communities and to publicly commemorate the history and ongoing legacy of the residential schools. We encourage you to:
- read all 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada at this link.
- measure the progress of each Call to Action on this interactive CBC News page.
- read Call Me Indian by Fred Sasakamoose or The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad whose experience inspired the Orange Shirt Day movement or Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.
- watch CBC Video on Truth and Reconciliation in Canada “Namwayut: We Are All One”.
- donate to Indigenous-led organizations like Legacy of Hope Foundation or Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
- learn how to pronounce the names of the First Nations and the languages they speak. A pronunciation guide to First Nations in British Columbia is available here.
- find out whose traditional territory you live on. We acknowledge that HUB Cycling, through our various projects, operates on the traditional unceded territories of many First Nations in British Columbia. Learn more about the distinct languages, economic background, and First Nations communities in regions across British Columbia on this interactive map.
Please join us in commemorating the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
Every child matters.
Photo credit: UBC/Paul Joseph.
Reconciliation Pole, is a 55-foot red cedar pole carved by 7idansuu (Edenshaw), James Hart, Haida Hereditary Chief and Master Carver, which was raised according to Haida tradition at the south end of UBC campus.
Photo album from Reconciliation Pole installation is available here.