PHOTOS: Hundreds in orange take part in reconciliation walk, ceremony in Chilliwack

Hundreds of people in orange took part a walk and ceremony to honour National Day for Truth Reconciliation in Chilliwack on Friday.

Organizer Rick Joe, along with Eddie Gardner and Steven Point, drummed as they led the group of about 200 people from Chilliwack Secondary School to Central Community Park on Sept. 30.

RCMP escorted them west along Yale Road and north on Young Road, as more people joined the walk along the way.

Others, including local dignitaries, were waiting at Central Community Park when the group arrived. There was more drumming and singing as well as speeches at the park, which lasted at least an hour.

People shared their family stories of residential schools.

Peggy Janicki spoke of her mother and other family members who were taken away to residential school.

“These places really were a place of genocide,” Janicki said.

She said her mother, who attended Lejac Indian Residential School, used rags to sew “secret pockets” into her petticoats so she could hide food which she stole from the kitchen.

“Our languages weren’t lost. They were actively hunted down and removed,” she added.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.

There are other events happening today (Sept. 30) and Oct. 1 in Chilliwack.

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