On September 30th, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, we honour the survivors of residential schools, the children who never returned home, and their families and their communities. It is a day for learning for non-Indigenous Canadians and a day for celebrating resilience and overcoming for Indigenous Peoples.
Across Canada, the remains of hundreds of indigenous children continue to be found in unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools.
We mourn with First Nation, Inuit and Mètis Communities as yet another layer of the historic evil perpetrated upon the Indigenous Peoples across this land through the Residential School system of Canada is revealed.
The first unmarked graves were found in 2021, which served as a wake-up call to our nation, our society and the Church. A necessary wake up call, shaking us from our slumber, complicity and complacency regarding the long walk and hard work of justice in our own country and our own hearts. This news again highlights our responsibilities as peacemakers and ambassadors of Christ, particularly as we recognize that these horrors occurred in God’s name.
These children were precious in the eyes of God. Their lives and the gifts that they had to offer were stolen from their communities and their families. We must lament this irreplaceable loss. We serve a God who weeps with those who have been weeping for a very long time. And this summons us to listen, to weep, and not turn away.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation can be a good place to start; although, as Christ followers, we dare not only do the work one day a year.
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