Students across the Ottawa Catholic School Board spent Truth and Reconciliation Week hearing directly from Indigenous voices, including Residential School Survivors, Elders and artists, as classrooms from Kindergarten to Grade 12 explored the history and ongoing impacts of the Residential School System.
According to the Ottawa Catholic School Board, the learning varied from school to school but shared a common thread: the importance of listening to and learning from Indigenous peoples.
Exhibition at Notre Dame High School
At Notre Dame High School, students encountered the Legacy of Hope Foundation exhibition Generations Lost: The Residential School System in Canada, which shares the experiences of Survivors and their families and examines the lasting effects of colonialism.
To mark the exhibition's opening, students took part in a panel discussion with Gramma Jo Thomas, Elder Terry, Rob McDonald and Kyrstin Dumont. The board said one class stayed afterward to ask questions and speak directly with the guests, and the exhibition remained at the school all week so other classes could visit.
Gathering in Carp
Students from four OCSB schools gathered in Carp for a day of reflection and community. Marc Forgette, a French Algonquin member of the Apitipi Anicinapek Nation, spoke about residential schools and reconciliation, and students also heard from Survivors and their families.
The day included an interactive question-and-answer activity and a traditional hoop dancing performance by MASC artist Makhena Rankin Guerin, accompanied by music from her brother, DJ MKWA. Students were invited to join in the dancing.
Orange hearts at St. Anne and St. George
At St. Anne School, Kindergarten students and their Grade 5 buddies read a story together and learned about the meaning of Orange Shirt Day. Students across the school then painted orange hearts in remembrance of the children who never returned home from residential schools.
Following a smudging ceremony led by Indigenous educator Chantal Remo, students brought their hearts to the school garden, where they gathered them as a community. Each heart carried a message of remembrance, the board said.
At St. George School, students filled orange hearts with words about the people, experiences and things they value in their own lives. The board said the activity opened larger conversations about gratitude, education, reconciliation and challenging stereotypes.
"Not the work of one week"
The board emphasized that these activities were only a sample of the learning that took place, and that reconciliation cannot be confined to a single week or lesson. It requires continued listening and making space for Indigenous voices, histories and cultures in schools year-round, the board said.
The board notes that its schools are located on the ancestral, traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Peoples.
