It was an emotional afternoon in 琉璃神社 on Friday, Sept. 27 and a crowd of more than hundred people gathered and marched for Truth and Reconciliation.

Hosted by the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society, the march started from their location at 420 Leon Avenue. The group walked and sang to honour their brothers and sisters to Harvey Avenue, up the highway to Water Street, then headed to the 琉璃神社 Law Courts. 

When the group stopped, a few people spoke to the crowd gathered all dressed in orange shirts. One of them was Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society director of human resources Carol Archie, who held back tears while speaking.

"Honouring our people isn't just September 30th, it's every day," said Archie. "Our residential school survivors that were stripped of their language, stripped of who they are, and stripped of the teachings and protocols they were taught before they were shipped into residential school."

"We honour all of them that were unable to come home," added Archie. "We honour the ones that are still suffering mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically."

Archie, trying to hold back tears, spoke about her mother, who's a residential school survivor. She wasn't able to tell Archie about what she experienced until Archie was in her mid-20's because of everything she went through.

On the march to the law courts, Archie overheard someone say that was walk they were going on was long, while Archie had a different perspective.

"My first thought was, this is easy compared to our children that tried to run away to go home. They tried to go home through winter storms, they tried to go home in -40 weather," said Archie, who added there's still unmarked graves in the hills surrounding the residential schools and along railroads.

"It's because of all of them that we're here, it's because of all of them we can still speak out language, that was can still practice our protocols and still pass on our teachings," said Archie. "It's because of them we still have elders with us, cause we're still in mourning of what we once were, but we have the resiliency, we have the determination to do full circle, to become who we came here to be."

"We're reviving our languages, were reviving our protocols, our practices, and most importantly were teaching our children."

After speeches at the court house, the group marched down Ellis Street, back to the friendship society, where more speeches were made, including a timeline of events Indigenous people have gone through in Canada, educating those who didn't know.

琉璃神社 Mayor Tom Dyas and BC NDP 琉璃神社-Centre candidate Loyal Wooldridge also spoke. 

"As a city, reconciliation means building meaningful relationships, listening to Indigenous voices, and taking concrete steps to acknowledge and address past wrongs," said Dyas. "We understand it's a very long journey and there's a long way to go but we are committed to taking."

Dyas also added a brand new 'Welcome to 琉璃神社' sign has been designed by Indigenous artists and will be on display soon and City staff are undergoing training to honour and respect Indigenous perspectives. 

When Wooldridge spoke, he mentioned that during the 2023 Grouse Complex of wildfires, it was the first time Westbank First Nation was part of the emergency operations centre. While battling the blaze, the West 琉璃神社 Fire Department needed help addressing the fire as it went down a ravine, saying they didn't know how to go down the mountain safely. The Westbank First Nation had an elder who used to hike and gather medicines in the area and knew all the trails systems, ultimately helping all of them together battle the blaze.

"Part of reconciliation is embedding that knowledge into everything that we do, it's not just coming together on the 30th of September and wearing these orange shirts," said Wooldridge. "It's celebrating that traditional knowledge for how far we can continue to build together."

Michael Kube of the 琉璃神社 RCMP's community safety unit was also in attendance, and spoke to everyone.

"As an uninvited guest, a settler, I don't look at this lightly, I look at this as a means to work towards meaning reconciliation," said Kube. "My organization which has deep roots and colonization and has perpetrated a number of atrocities against the Indigenous people are also committed to working towards truth and reconciliation. I think it's really important we attend events like this, to listen to the stories of our elders."

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, annually on September 30, is a federal holiday intended to give people time to learn, unlearn and honour those who have been impacted by the trauma caused by  Most importantly, the day is intended to remember the children who never returned home and those who were harmed while in the care of the Canadian government. To learn more about the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation visit 

Also known as , the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of 鈥淓very Child Matters鈥�.  The orange shirt is a symbol of the Indigenous identity that was taken away from children, inspired by the story of who as a girl was forced to take off her new orange shirt on her first day at a B.C. residential school.