Unceded Territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe/Ottawa, ON
The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association will honour the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th. CHRA recognizes this as a time to commit and work towards meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples across Canada while at the same time acknowledging that reconciliation should be a practice in our daily lives.
As part of this formal recognition, CHRA’s office will be closed on September 30 in honour of both Orange Shirt Day and the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. CHRA encourages our members, partners, and extended community of stakeholders to take this time to reflect, to learn, and to support Indigenous organizations in their respective communities.
A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an important step in the right direction for all Canadians to honour the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. With leadership from CHRA’s Indigenous Caucus, we call on government to center Indigenous voices and hold space for Indigenous communities to lead the development of programs for Indigenous Peoples across the country in a good way.
We are working hard to embrace reconciliation practices in all the work we do. Earlier this year, we produced a blog providing ways in which people and organizations could celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, many of these things are particularly poignant for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. You can visit that blog at https://chra-achru.ca/blog_article/10-ways-to-make-the-most-of-national-indigenous-peoples-day/. In addition, the CHRA Board of Directors has embraced a Statement on Reconciliation and Cultural Principles – we’d encourage all CHRA members to adopt a similar statement for your organizations: https://chra-achru.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CHRA-Statement-on-Reconciliation-and-Cultural-Principles_EN.pdf
Together we can strengthen our commitment to correcting the injustices of the past by improving Canada’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples.
It is important to ensure the information surrounding residential schools is shared in a culturally appropriate manner that respects the experience of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the potential retriggering of any trauma. To learn more about the history of Orange Shirt Day, please visit https://www.orangeshirtday.org/about-us.html