Unlearning To Centre and Excuse Yourself In The Conversation

With this upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Day I’ve been seeing way less orange and more excuses compared to past events. Even at school where there usually is a general announcement to wear orange days prior and some sort of video is played for the class where a Residential School survivor talks about the long lasting impacts of the abuse they faced, it was all missing this go around. In its place were waves of non-Indigenous people spouting out some sort of excuse as to why they suddenly forgot a day that’s been repeating annually since 2013. And one pattern that I’ve seen arise especially when the topic of Residential Schools is brought up around middle aged non-Indigenous people is the whole “Oh well when I was in school I had not a clue that it was going on!”. Which of course you didn’t know because it was still happening after you graduated, the last residential school that closed was Kivalliq Hall in the year 1997. It feels like Truth and Reconciliation Day has become an afterthought for non-Indigenous people, while Indigenous people are expected to be out there educating, volunteering, and organizing all by themselves. The way I think more people should be treating Truth and Reconciliation Day as is with the same seriousness and grief as they do for Remembrance Day. We should take a moment to think about and remember the names of the kids that never came home from the schools, we should watch documentaries from survivors sharing their experiences, there should be a stand to get an orange shirt via donating to an Indigenous grassroots organization at every store you visit. With Remembrance Day, veterans or grieving family members aren’t expected to organize a whole event and answer difficult questions that may bring them pain. Nor do people interrupt the conversation to talk about their unrelated experiences or their white guilt, they talk about the tragedy of the event and make an attempt to learn.

Image Credit: Kokum Scrunchies

Instead of immediately trying to think of an excuse for your actions, try to think of what actions you can do to move forward and make things right. If you don’t know the full story of why orange shirts are so significant to Truth and Reconciliation go out and research it, because a whole explanation on how nobody ever taught you what was happening due to how society was “back in your day” doesn’t do anything. A whole ramble of excuses only shifts the spotlight of the conversation on to you which in some cases can take away the opportunity to discuss the true issue at hand. Additionally when you make an effort to reroute your train of thought to be what steps you’ll take next, you can get a better chance to genuinely listen and perceive what you are being told by the person who is guiding you to correction. Which in turn, listening and perceiving information from Indigenous voices is a huge part of Truth and Reconciliation Day.

Some great ways to get involved with some ReconciliACTION is to: educate yourself through books and documentaries made by Indigenous people (Local libraries, The National Film Board of Canada’s website, and CBC Gem are all great free resources for accessing Indigenous film and literature), you can also get out in the community by attending Indigenous events and ceremonies that are open to the general public (Visiting your local friendship centre and staying updated with the local news is a good way to start), lastly supporting Indigenous artists and donating to Indigenous organizations is a tremendous way to help out (Collecting business cards from Indigenous markets and researching various foundations can get you the info you need).

Works Cited

“Orange Shirt Day.” CSSSPNQL, 11 Sept. 2025, cssspnql.com/en/orange-shirt-day/.

Beaudry, Mya. Orange Kokum Scarf. 2025. Canada.