Hundreds gather for Calgary’s 15th annual Walk for Reconciliation
Press Release
Calgary – June 21, 2024 – More than 400 people registered to march along the Calgary RiverWalk today for the Walk for Reconciliation.
2024 marks the fifteenth anniversary of The Walk for Reconciliation. Taking place annually on National Indigenous Peoples Day, this community event is an opportunity to reflect on the difficult history and atrocities of residential schools in Canada, the legacies of survivors, and steps to move forward in the healing process.
“Fort Calgary operated to, among other things, enforce the residential school system,” says Lindsie Bruns, Director of Creative Experience at The Confluence. “The Walk for Reconciliation brings community together on the very land where the fort stood to share and learn about the harms that residential schools caused and continue to cause today.”
Each year on the Walk for Reconciliation participants carry these 25 walking sticks that represent all the recognized residential schools that operated in Alberta. Photo credit: Ron Janert
The crowd of Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies walked eastward alongside the Bow River, starting from the Harry Hays Building and ended at The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland where participants gathered for an outdoor program.
Speeches were delivered by Blackfoot Elder Maurice Manyfingers and Charlotte YellowHorn McLeod, followed by a roll call of the 25 recognized residential schools in Alberta to honour survivors and the memory of those who never returned home.
The event closed on a hopeful note as drummers and dancers took the stage, and the crowd took part in a vibrant round dance. Participants also enjoyed a morning snack of traditional fry bread catered by Soopz Kitchen.
An aerial view of the round dance held in Marking, the art installation that marks where Fort Calgary was originally built. This is a site of historic significance, as there is recorded evidence that NWMP stationed here partook in taking children from their families and bringing them to residential schools, and tracked down children who tried to run away and brought them back the schools. Photo credit: Yellowhouse Aerial
After the walk, community stayed to enjoy free admission to The Confluence Cultural Centre and a the premier screening of the film RECONC?L?AT?ON presented by Native Counselling Services of Alberta (NCSA). The film follows two women from the Piikani Nation and their efforts to engage — or not — in reconciliation in southern Alberta.
The screening was followed by a 30-minute talk and question period with Wendy English and Marilyn North Peigan, who were both featured in the film.
Marilyn North Peigan speaking at the premier screening of RECONC?L?AT?ON. Photo credit: The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland.
“Premiering it on a day like today is a powerful event, because you know that the film is going to leave you with more questions than what you’re coming in there with,” says North Peigan, who works for the NCSA as the Calgary Indian Residential School Regional Manager.
The Walk for Reconciliation began in 2009 as a partnership between Trellis Society and the Aboriginal Friendship Center of Calgary to commemorate Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s formal apology to the survivors of Indian Residential Schools. Originally held on June 11, the walk was later moved to June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day, to acknowledge the larger conversation and active movement towards Reconciliation.
The community walking along the RiverWalk towards The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland. Photo credit: Janis Isaman
“I think we all need to start understanding that reconciliation, Truth and Reconciliation have to walk side by side together, you can’t have one without the other. And that that truth and reconciliation actually starts with the self, if it’s going to expand out to the community,” says North Peigan.
The official Calgary Walk for Reconciliation logo designed by Piikani artist Kristy North Peigan.
To commemorate the fifteen-year milestone of the event, a logo was commissioned from Piikani artist Kristy North Peigan, featuring orange children’s moccasins and the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers.
The walk this year is presented in partnership by The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland, Trellis Society, Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary, and Bow Valley College. This is the first year Bow Valley College has partnered on the event.
The Walk for Reconciliation is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
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