Day For Truth & Reconciliation 2023
September 30, 2023 | 4 min read
What is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation?
2023 marks the third year of the official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day falls on September 30th, which coincides with Orange Shirt Day, an effort that began in 2013. Orange Shirt Day was created by former residential school survivors with the purpose of bringing survivors together, commemorating their experiences, and keeping the reconciliation process alive as they seek healing for all those impacted by residential schools.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is to raise awareness on those who have lost their lives because of residential schools, those who have never returned home, and those who are still impacted today. It is a time to listen to survivors and victims, learn, and educate ourselves.
Sources:
https://orangeshirtday.org/about-us/#story
The Library and the community’s role
As a library that resides in the home of the First Peoples of the Williams Treaties First Nations and other Indigenous peoples, we thank them for sharing this land.
Did you know that in action 69 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, libraries are called upon as a partner for educating the public on residential schools? We acknowledge our role in the Call to Action and thus invite and encourage our community to learn with us about Indigenous history, past and present, and its impacts on Indigenous individuals in Canada. While we encourage learning on the topic of residential schools, we also encourage you to learn about and celebrate Indigenous culture. We have many enlightening reads on these topics available in our library that have been written by Indigenous authors.
EGPL will have National Day for Truth and Reconciliation displays available at both of our library branches for you to browse a variety of our books in person. We also have several booklists to get your reading started, but we invite you to go beyond our library and delve deeper into the many wonderful books that are out there.
East Gwillimbury Public Library booklists:
Decolonize Yourself: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Book List for Teens and Adults. Orange Shirts & Resilience: Residential School Picture Books for Children. New and Upcoming Indigenous Picture Books for Children.
Other booklists:
By: EGPLadmin