N.S. students plant orange flags on the site of former residential school ahead of Truth and Reconciliation Day
CTV
More than 500 students from four schools joined the Sipekne’katik community to place orange flags in the shape of a heart on the site of the former Shubenacadie Residential School.
More than 500 students from four schools joined the Sipekne’katik community to place orange flags in the shape of a heart on the site of the former Shubenacadie Residential School.
Students from Shubenacadie District Elementary, Riverside Educational Centre, Hants East Rural High School, and L’nu Sipuk Kina’muokuom school joined with community members at the Shubenacadie Hillside and placed 15,000 orange flags, reclaiming the solemn ground where the residential school once stood.
The event that coincides with the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Day is aimed at offering the community a beacon of healing on the ground that’s tied to Canada’s residential school history.
For students like Sydney Mason, each flag she planted in the soil is for everyone who experienced life with residential schools, she said.
“I was thinking about all the people who have passed, who didn’t get to keep on going [and] who didn’t see this happening. This is a very emotional time for everyone, especially in my community and my family,” Mason said.
Mason said while she is fortunate to have her grandparents with her, they do not speak about their personal experiences at residential schools.
“It’s important to remember that people who have survived this, that was a part of their life. This is not history. This happened, and our grandparents can remember it,” she said.
