Huge march in support of reconciliation remembering residential school survivors and victims
Reconciliation walk turnout amazes organizers, as an estimated 70,000 brave downpour in Vancouver
The Truth and Reconciliation walk makes its way across the Georgia Viaduct on Sunday in Vancouver.A+BY SARAH TAGUIAM, THE PROVINCE SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
A sea of people that organizers estimated at 70,000 braved pouring rain and chanted their way through downtown Vancouver on Sunday in Canada's first reconciliation walk.
"It's amazing ... that so many people came out in spite of the rain to show their commitment to reconciliation and creating a new society that embraces all of us," said Reconciliation Canada executive director Karen Joseph.
The four-kilometre walk from Queen Elizabeth Theatre to Coast Salish lands near Science World was the finalé of a weeklong Truth and Reconciliation event in which First Nations people strove to move past their treatment in Canada's residential schools.
Organizers expected 50,000 people to attend the event, but said they were pleasantly surprised to see 20,000 more.
Some members of Aboriginal nations bands across Canada, such as the Squamish, Musqueam and Gitxsan nations, wore traditional patterned tunics, while others struck their drums and sang spiritual songs to commemorate residential school survivors.
But survivors and their relatives weren't the only ones present.
Bernice King, daughter of American civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr., delivered an impassioned speech in which she called the past treatment of First Nations people appalling.
"Struggle is a never-ending process and freedom is never really won, you earn it and you win it in every generation," King said in front of a cheering crowd.
"But non-violence is the only way. It allows you to aim against oppression but not against the oppressor because ... hate will destroy the hater more than the hated."
Members of different cultural communities from around B.C. attended the event to show their support.
"Thousands of people from all walks of life, from every colour and every culture, are all here as Canadians to share the First Nation people's pain and healing," said Navnit Singh, a survivor of the 1984 Sikh massacre in New Delhi.
Residential schools ran for more than a century in Canada under the belief that Aboriginal children should learn Canadian customs to assimilate into mainstream society.
The federal government and churches have apologized for the abuse and the depressing conditions students suffered in residential schools.
About 75,000 past residential school students have also received financial compensation as a part of Canada's attempt to address its past policies.
Following the event, Joseph said Reconciliation Canada will continue its dialogue workshops across the country.
She added that in B.C., they'll be working to build dialogue workshops in cities after the Union of B.C. Municipalities recently proclaimed 2013 as the Year of Reconciliation.
King said that steps like these are important in empowering people, but First Nations members must stay strong in their struggle to create a better future.
"Walk together, children, don't you get weary," King said, quoting the lyrics of a traditional spiritual.
"Struggle together, hold on together, don't you get weary.
"And one day, you'll be able to join hands and say ... free at last, free at last."
+++++++++++++
Residential schools reconciliation walk draws thousands in Vancouver
Feathers are thrown in the air as First Nations people in traditional dress participate in the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday September 22, 2013. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The Canadian Press
Published Sunday, September 22, 2013
VANCOUVER -- Thousands of people braved a pouring rain in Vancouver Sunday to take part in a reconciliation walk marking the sad history of residential schools in Canada, erupting in a raucous cheer as the daughter of American civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. urged all Canadians to move forward and heal.
Bernice King told the crowd not to give up on the process of progress.
"My father said something very powerful about progress. He said, human progress is neither automatic, nor inevitable," she said from a stage set up at the start of the march, which drew a huge crowd that some estimates put more than 10,000.
RELATED STORIES
PHOTOS
A First Nations woman cheers while taking part in the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday September 22, 2013. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Dr. Bernice King, right, daughter of U.S. civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks during the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday September 22, 2013. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
First Nations people are joined by supporters during the Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday September 22, 2013. ( Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
"Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle."
There is no time for apathy or complacency, said King, who gathered with tens of thousands of people last month to mark the 50th anniversary of her father's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington.
A Baptist minister herself, King inherited the gift of powerful oratory, and the crowd erupted in raucous cheers as she outlined her vision for a Canada that will "be the great nation that it's called to be."
"This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action," King said.
"This requires leadership action on all fronts in Canada, from political and government, corporate..., educational and community leadership, because, as I said, we are all in this together. We are tied in an inescapable network of mutuality, caught in a single garment of destiny and what affects one person here in Canada -- no matter their background -- directly affects all indirectly."
The four-kilometre walk through downtown Vancouver came at the end of a week of hearings by the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a fact-finding commission set up as part of the settlement between the Canadian government, victims and various churches who operated residential schools -- the last of which closed its doors in 1996.
The gathering in Vancouver is the sixth of seven gatherings across the country, and will culminate in a final event in Edmonton next year, and a final report by the commission.
The walk -- the first reconciliation walk in Canada -- and several other events were organized by Reconciliation Canada, an independent collaboration between the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and Tides Canada Initiatives Society to engage all Canadians in the reconciliation process.
The group organized the lighting of a fire of reconciliation to start the week of hearings by the commission, and held a canoe gathering of all nations last week at Vancouver's False Creek.
King said economic empowerment is part of the way forward.
"For the way moving forward, you must be determined to hang in there," she said.
"There's no single solution. It's going to be multifaceted, because we are talking about healing on many different levels and empowerment in many different ways. But one thing I can say, this is no day to pay lip service to the process. It's incumbent on everyone to pay life service. Canada cannot afford the luxury of slowing down, or cooling off."