It’s a day to listen and amplify Indigenous voices.
In partnership with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, radio stations across the country are taking parting in “A Day to Listen”, dedicated to sharing stories from Indigenous leaders, residential school survivors, elders, musicians, and teachers throughout the day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Rebecca Thomas is Halifax’s former poet laureate and the daughter of a former residential school survivor.
Thomas added her voice and talents to ‘A Day to Listen’ by writing a poem. It was written soon after 215 children were discovered in unmarked graves in Kamloops to not only honour their lives but to focus on all that those children lost out on.
“I wrote this poem because the discovery of these children are being used to mark a moment in history…and it’s stripping away the fact these were little kids,” Thomas explains. “Little kids that got excited over butterflies, they had a favourite doll or a favourite pair of shoes and had friends and birthday’s….and all of that got stripped away.”
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, approximately 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were separated from their families and forced to attend boarding schools. It’s believed between 4,000 and 6,000 children died amid abuse and neglect while in the residential school system – which ran until 1996.
Thomas served as Halifax’s poet laureate from 2015-2018.
Below you can listen to her read her poem called “What Are Their Names?”
