The Orchard Garden (and all of the University of British Columbia) is on the traditional, ancestral
and unneeded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam people. Musqueam people have lived, and continue to live, on this land for the past 4000 years and more.
You can learn more about Musqueam culture, land, language and events from this site:
<http://www.musqueam.bc.ca>
Canada has recently completed a multi-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) national process into the horrors of the so-called Indian Residential School system, which had the explicit and shameful aim to separate Indigenous children from their culture, language, heritage and families. Judge Murray Sinclair of the TRC has recently named these policies and practices as attempted cultural genocide. You can learn more about the Residential Schools and the TRC here.
The truth is now clearly known, and reconciliation will take real and hard work by all Canadians over generations, starting now. You can read the TRC's 94 Calls to Action here. These are meant to be a positive starting point that every Canadian can begin to work on.
At the beginning of April 2017, a beautiful carved Reconciliation Pole was raised at UBC on Main Mall at Agronomy Road, a few blocks from the Orchard Garden. Here is a video of the pole raising ceremony. The head carver was 7idansuu (Edenshaw), James Hart, Haida master carver and hereditary chief, working with a team of younger carvers. One of the most moving images on the pole is the carving of a now-infamous residential school, with over 6,000 copper nails pounded in by residential school survivors. Each nail represents at least one child who died at these schools over their 150 year history up till 1996. Many of these children were buried in unmarked graves, far from home, without their parents knowing what had happened to them.
Indigenous peoples' well-being, languages and cultures are supposed to be a focus of a healing journey in Canada, but there is still a very real struggle against ignorance, stereotyping and racism that is just beginning here.
You can learn more about Musqueam culture, land, language and events from this site:
Canada has recently completed a multi-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) national process into the horrors of the so-called Indian Residential School system, which had the explicit and shameful aim to separate Indigenous children from their culture, language, heritage and families. Judge Murray Sinclair of the TRC has recently named these policies and practices as attempted cultural genocide. You can learn more about the Residential Schools and the TRC here.
The truth is now clearly known, and reconciliation will take real and hard work by all Canadians over generations, starting now. You can read the TRC's 94 Calls to Action here. These are meant to be a positive starting point that every Canadian can begin to work on.
At the beginning of April 2017, a beautiful carved Reconciliation Pole was raised at UBC on Main Mall at Agronomy Road, a few blocks from the Orchard Garden. Here is a video of the pole raising ceremony. The head carver was 7idansuu (Edenshaw), James Hart, Haida master carver and hereditary chief, working with a team of younger carvers. One of the most moving images on the pole is the carving of a now-infamous residential school, with over 6,000 copper nails pounded in by residential school survivors. Each nail represents at least one child who died at these schools over their 150 year history up till 1996. Many of these children were buried in unmarked graves, far from home, without their parents knowing what had happened to them.
Indigenous peoples' well-being, languages and cultures are supposed to be a focus of a healing journey in Canada, but there is still a very real struggle against ignorance, stereotyping and racism that is just beginning here.
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