Wednesday marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. The day is meant to reflect on the experiences of residential school survivors, who were taken as children from their communities and barred from speaking their languages in institutions rife with abuse. “It’s bringing people together more often than not, and it gives us a time to reflect and actually get to know each other,” says Pam Glode-Desrochers, executive director of the Mi’kmaw Friendship Centre in Halifax. She describes the friendship centre as offering “wraparound services,” including child care, education, youth programming, housing and homeless, family resource and mental health services. Glode-Desrochers told CTV’s Todd Battis on Tuesday the centre is close to 10,000 people reached this year through all of its different programming. In the five years since the first national Truth and Reconciliation Day, she says racism is still alive today. “But we’ve moved the mark a great deal because we’re started to actually talk together,” says Glode-Desrocher. “I do have great faith that we continue to grow together and that we have opportunity to look at building long-term relationships and I think if we stay focused on that we can make a real difference.” She says her team is busy preparing for events this week. In Halifax, city hall will be lit up in orange until Friday, the Mi’kmaw Friendship Centre will be hosting a salmon dinner for Treaty Day on Thursday, and Mayor Andy Fillmore is slated to read a proclamation for the commemoration at 1:30 p.m. at Peace and Friendship Park on Hollis Street. The centre is partnering with East Coast Lifestyle for orange T-shirt sales, with proceeds going to the new location under construction along Gottingen Street. “It’s going to be a beautiful spot,” says Glode-Desrochers. Ticket sales for an annual fundraising gala on Saturday, called the Kjipuktuk Wije’winen Gala, are also set to contribute to the new development. “Our goal this year was to raise $300,000, and we’re very close to that,” says Glode-Desrochers. “Our current facility no longer meets the needs of our growing, diverse urban Indigenous community. We need a space where we can expand vital programs, strengthen cultural connections, and create a welcoming home for all Indigenous people in the city,” the organization states on its website. Glode-Desrochers says the development of the new 70,000 sq. ft. facility is moving along. “I was down there last week and to see the mass timber going up in the great room was very emotional. It’s real now, whereas before it was this thing we talked about and now you can actually physically touch it,” she says. “It’s exciting.” Tickets are still available for the gala, with more information available on the organization’s website. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
