Hundreds of people gathered in Jackson Park Wednesday for Orange Shirt Day Honour Walk and Community Gathering.
Orange Shirt Day and the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a day to recognize the harm that residential schools had on the Indigenous community.
"It's important to realize that this is not something we should just get over because it happened in the past. The hurts from residential schools live on in the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of residential school survivors," said Melanie Grant, a granddaughter of a survivor.
The community gathering included storytelling from survivors and their families as well as drumming, dancing, and food.
Event organiser Kat Pasquach said it's important to her to see students and everyone in the community show up.
"The responsibility of reconciliation doesn't lie with Indigenous people; it lies with the rest of our community to be able to go and look at how they're going to be able to reconcile what happened in the past," said Pasquach.
She said reconciliation can and will look different to each person.
"In that learning process of coming to experience Orange Shirt Day you're going to find a way that works best for you and how you show up," said Pasquach. "Sometimes it's as simple as being able to make a donation to one of the charities that are across Canada that do work with Residential School survivors; sometimes it's making space for Indigenous voices and spaces."
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued 94 Calls to Action for the Canadian government and people in Canada. To date, the federal government reports more than 85 per cent of the 76 calls requiring the federal government's sole or shared leadership have been completed or are well underway.
