This year, Kingston WritersFest is honoured to partner with Terri-Lynn Brennan and LodgePole Arts Alliance to offer a special series of events on Saturday, September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Terri-Lynn Brennan with Aara Macauley at the 2023 Festival Launch
LodgePole Arts Alliance will have a presence at each event on September 30th, offering their welcome, and providing inter-cultural consultation to the KWF team pre-mid-and post-festival.
We invite you to join us on September 30 for a day of stories and conversations with events featuring Indigenous author Alicia Elliott and Indigenous author/journalist Angela Sterritt, as well as other artists with important stories to share.
Saturday Stories
Experience emerging and established writers touching on the many facets of identity and history. There are stories of new arrivals, of small towns and big dreams, of sexuality, of womanhood, of fitting in and being outcast, and of the beautiful and ugly sides of humanity.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day
Every year on September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation honours the Indigenous children who never returned home and Survivors of residential school institutions, as well as their families and communities. Recognizing and educating ourselves about this tragic, shameful, and painful part of Canada’s history and its ongoing impact on Indigenous communities is an essential part of the reconciliation process.
This is a day for Canadians to reflect on what has happened, its impact, and what needs to be done moving forward. I would encourage everyone to make a commitment to learning more by reading the Truth and Reconciliation Reports and the NCTR Commission’s 94 calls to action. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a direct response to Call to Action 80, which called for a federal statutory day of commemoration.
September 30 is also Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family, and intergenerational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom, and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
