Members of the local Native American community with support of the City of Niagara Falls observed Orange Shirt Day on September 30th.
The day recognizes and seeks to bring awareness to Native residential boarding schools that operated on both sides of the border by governments and religious institutions for over a century. Findings had been brought to light about what Native students were subjected to, including culture and language eradication, disease, malnutrition, medical experiments, and high levels of abuse.
Seneca Gaming hosted a remembrance walk from the Seneca Niagara Casino, through downtown, and to Prospect Point. It was a day filled with speakers, Haudenosaunee music, and an opportunity for survivors and their families to pay respect to those who never made it home from residential boarding schools.
“What we look to do is to bring an awareness of what happened. First, some people may say, ‘well, why would you want to be aware?’ I want people to be aware so it never happens again because, just like what we say, every child does matter,” Seneca Gaming President & CEO Kevin Nephew said, referencing the Every Child Matters movement. “Two is, while we remember it, we also need to start on the path of healing.”
That path of healing is personal for Nephew, and so many others in the regional Native community. Whether it’s the former Thomas Indian School in Cattaraugus, or Southern Ontario’s Mohawk Institute Residential School – the legacy of residential boardings schools has impacts on generations of Native families.
“My grandfather went to the Thomas Indian School, it’s not something I share very often,” said Nephew. “Part of his [mindset] was for him to be successful, you wouldn't speak Seneca, speak English. And so when we grew up, he would speak Seneca, and he would never teach us that.”
The Seneca language has been on the brink of extinction for years according to UNESCO. Speaking, let alone teaching an Indigenous language in a residential boarding school was something strictly forbidden.
With Native people and their governments now empowered to make their own policies and initiatives, Nephew sees a renewed sense of duty to protect culture and identity.
“The world's totally changed,” he said. “Where now we want to reclaim our culture, our languages, and it's like, what a change in the world. What was once a thought process at one time, is totally reversed now.”
The walk put on by Seneca Gaming wasn’t the only show of support to the Every Child Matters cause on Orange Shirt Day. The Falls themselves were lit up in orange during the night. The Niagara Parks Commission (Canada) also hosted the Strong Water Singers, a female Haudenosaunee singing group.
