September Seasonal Newsletter | Youth Leaders of YR

Many of you would have seen the masses of orange shirts a couple days ago, on Friday September 30. The last day of September is known as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a day to honor the First Nations, Métis, and Iniut survivors of the Residential Schools.

This day coincides with Orange Shirt Day, which began in 2013, when a story about Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation gained popularity. When she was a little girl, going into Residential school for the first time, her grandmother bought her a pretty orange shirt to wear. However, once she got to the school the orange shirt was torn away from her, taking much of her Indigenous culture and memories with it.

Now, we all wear orange on this day to remember the trauma that kids had to go through, and help preserve the Indigenous culture that has, and continues to face such injustice and grievance because of our actions. In 2021, this holiday was elevated to a statutory holiday in Canada.

This year, the theme was “Remembering the Children,” highlighting the many lives lost of little boys and girls in the cruel and inhumane environment of these “schools”. Last year, after hundreds of unmarked graves were uncovered, the weight of the sheer amount of lives lost became a reality for many of us, Canadian citizens, who were still oblivious to the damage of Residential schools. However, this was a fact amongst the Indigenous peoples; for years they’ve been requesting the government to search the remains of the Residential schools, telling them they’d find remains if they looked. With their own eyes they’d seen the damage and the burying of children in these sites, and it was only a matter of digging the grounds up to prove it to the rest of the nation.

It is my hope that this year’s theme, as well as the rapid gain in popularity and status of this day, that the grief and secrecy of Residential schools will be put to light and resolved as best as possible.

You can learn much more about the Indigenous peoples and their impact in the history of Canada here. From figures such as Thelma Chalifoux, who was the first Indigenous woman and the first Métis person to be appointed to the Canadian Senate, to Dr. Nadine Caron, the first female First Nations general surgeon, to Jesse Cockney, an Olympian in cross-country skiing, the Indigenous people and their contributions to Canada are truly great and products of extremely hard work. It is amazing to learn about the lives and impacts of so many Indigenous people, and I’m sure there are many more that have not been recognized yet, but will be within the coming years.

Former Senator Thelma Chalifoux

Dr. Nadine Caron

Jesse Cockney

This month, there were still many more opportunities to get involved and interact with communities around us! These opportunities include, but are not limited to:

SickKids GetLoud
OSSTF Student Achievement Awards 2023
The Loran 2023 Awards

To learn more about these great opportunities, you can click here!

There are also many events that you can attend to witness the hard work and help your community! Some of these events include:

Project 5K & Ignite Fair Level Up
Ontario Universities’ Fair
Oasis ZooRun

To learn more about these events, click here!

A special announcement, welcome to all the new members of the YLoYR! We’re so excited to have you all on board!

The new members include:

Cecilia Vong - Secretary

Megan Lee - Treasurer, Website Designer

Xiaojun Huang - Writer

Kate Tang - External Affairs

Ellie Chan - External Affairs

Matthew Tsai - Graphic Designer

Summer Tanhehco - Graphic Designer

Jia Jia He - Logistics

Yasmeen Jafarzadeh - Media and Marketing

Anika Agnihotri - Media and Marketing

Congratulations!

As youth councils start to regroup after a summer break, and schools begin to open their doors, you can always find places to socialize and have fun with people around you. There are many volunteer opportunities to help people around you, or just to gain volunteer hours, and the many events hosted offer a relief from the usual stress that comes with homework/work to exercise and learn more about the communities! Get involved in your community now, especially while the weather is still comfortable!

See you in the October newsletter!