Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation of residential schools in Canada. The date is sponsored by the Nechi Institute of Alberta, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Presbyterian churches in Canada.
In October of 2005, this Assembly formally recognized the day by a motion in this House. We are still the only Legislature in Canada to officially recognize this important annual event. We passed this motion in support of our communities, our families and individuals who attended our residential schools and who continue to endure the impact of the residential school system and to recognize the seriousness the impact of the residential schools had on aboriginal people of the North. I thank all my fellow Members for your commitment to this.
The objectives of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation are to create a positive collective healing and reconciliation movement within our families, communities, churches and our government on May 26th of each year; to educate ourselves and other Canadians about our collective history of our government policies, which impacted aboriginal communities and other groups, and to develop commemoration sites and encourage communities to join in the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.
Mr. Speaker, families continue to be affected by the effects of the residential school experience on the former students and their families. We all want the best for our families. At times that means getting on the healing path.
Communities have taken initiatives to deal with impacts of residential schools and with the support of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, we have heard of many projects that will happen in our communities. The government needs to continue to support these people, so they can hold more healing wellness workshops, have access to cultural counselling and have traditional healing camps.
In preparation of this day, I reread the Hansard from 2005 and when the House passed this motion to support the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation, and I was moved when reading the many statements of that Assembly about their own experience and the experience of their family members in the residential school systems. Many of the Members of that Assembly, of course, are in the House today.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Government of Canada has yet to begin its work. Hopefully this will happen in the next month. It has taken too long. As a country, we need to heal. As a Territory, we need to heal. As individuals and families, we need to heal. One way we can do this is the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I understand the Bishop of the Mackenzie Diocese is meeting with the Dene leadership this afternoon in Inuvik and will ask for forgiveness and to say that the church is sorry for its role in displaying…
Mr. Yakeleya, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to continue.
---Unanimous consent granted.
…the church is sorry for its role in its attempt at assimilation of aboriginal people of the North. This is one more step in the healing journey, but more and more and more must be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
