Hundreds turn out to London’s Wortley Village for National Indigenous Peoples Day event
Events are taking place across the country to mark the day, including the gathering in south London, organized by the Association of Iroquois Indians, Atlohsa Family Healing Services, N’Amerind Friendship Centre, Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre and the city.
“I think, especially with Nshwaasnangong and having these children able to grow up in their culture, which is something a lot of us urban Indigenous people didn’t get the chance to do, I think it’s just onwards and upwards from here.”The day is being seen in a new light this year following the discovery in Kamloops, B.C., along with further discoveries of unmarked burial sites at other former residential school sites in other provinces.
Millions has been earmarked by the province for residential school burial site investigations, and earlier this month, the federal government appointed an independent special interlocutor to connect Indigenous communities dealing with the discovery of unmarked graves with the federal government. “It’s so crazy to think that there’s still people out there who are willing to listen and willing to learn and willing to hear our stories, hear our truth,” Jamieson said.