Thunder Bay Orange Shirt Day Program nominated for provincial award
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — The Orange Shirt Day program held by the City of Thunder Bay Indigenous Relations and Inclusion Office, Thunder Bay Public Library and Boomer’s Drive-In Theatre was recently nominated for the Ontario Culture Days People’s Choice Awards.
The program featured a Sept. 30 drive-in screening of the award-winning film Indian Horse, an adaptation of the late Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel, followed by an Oct. 1 virtual film discussion led by the City of Thunder Bay’s Anishinaabe Elders Council.
“This is the first time the library has been nominated for the People’s Choice Award and it’s really exciting,” says Robyn Medicine, community hub technician – Indigenous liaison at Thunder Bay Public Library. “A lot of hard work went into the planning and organizing of this event. We had a lot of participation — we had 65 vehicles that showed up.”
The film screening participants were encouraged to wear orange shirts, to decorate their vehicles with Every Child Matters signs and to share photos of themselves on social media.
“I believe, just as the library, this is the first time the City of Thunder Bay has been nominated for such an award and it means that we’re actually reaching the community in a meaningful way,” says Tanis Thompson, Indigenous liaison – Indigenous Relations and Inclusion at Thunder Bay. “The City of Thunder Bay is really committed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action along with the Thunder Bay Anti-Racism and Inclusion Accord and reaching out and enhancing our partnerships across the city. We’re going to do everything we can to continue to strive in our efforts to make this city a city that is growing and a city that is learning together to be more respective and inclusive for everyone.”
Elders Ina Commanda and Ira Johnson, who shared their own personal experiences with residential schools, led the virtual film discussion.
“We had, I believe, 47 people registered for the film discussion [but] unfortunately we only had nine participate,” Thompson says. “It was a true reconciliation that happened within that virtual discussion. There were several people that indicated on their evaluation forms that they strongly believed their experience with the event deepened their understanding of trauma that will continue to shape their understanding of true Canadian Indigenous history in a very meaningful way.”
Medicine says one of the participants reached out to her by e-mail after the virtual film discussion for information on land acknowledgements in order to start doing land acknowledgements within their organization.
“So I shared the Fort William land protocol with him. I also shared the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action with him, which he admitted that he had totally forgotten about,” Medicine says, noting he followed up about a week later to share that his organization would be opening up a province-wide meeting with a land acknowledgement for the first time. “He said: ‘I just wanted to let you know some of this effort was directly responsible from seeing Indian Horse. I shared what I learned with the organization and they are listening.’”
The other nominees for the People’s Choice Awards were: The Vaudevillian street-side concerts by the Town of Milton, Arts Milton and Rick Imus Music Studio; the JR Marr Mural Project by Arts Milton and PFLAG Halton; The Moccasin Identifier Project by Carolyn King, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Greenbelt Foundation and Halton Hills Public Library; Music Monday (Redux) by the Centre of Ontario Hub – Hornepayne; and Lumen at Home by the City of Waterloo.