The following story discusses Canadian residential schools. If you are in distress, please call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society 1-800-721-0066.
The Mount Allison Students’ Union and the Indigenous Affairs office is holding a shoe memorial at Convocation Hall for the Indigenous children whose bodies are still being discovered on residential school sites across the country.
President Charlie Burke says the MASU is also collecting new shoes to redistribute throughout the local community. Orange shirts are also for sale at the Mount Allison bookstore, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Indigenous Student Support Group.
Burke says it was important that Mount Allison hold a memorial to “in support of all Indigenous students.”
“Not a lot of students have been previously educated or knew anything about residential school history,” says Burke. “We really wanted to take the onus on ourselves and make sure that students are aware, engaging in learning, and also in reconciliation. It is super important. We do land acknowledgments in everything we do, and there is a reason for that. I think it’s important that we don’t just do a land acknowledgement and recognize that we’re on unceded land, but that we also participate in the reconciliation in support of all Indigenous students. We are all treaty people, and we just wanted to continue to recognize that.”
“I realize that it is a very hard time for a lot of our students, and for many communities and across the country. It’s a shameful legacy. It’s a lot of trauma coming up right now for those students, and we want them to know, and the community to know, that we are we’re supporting them, and we’re thinking of them.”
