A series of racist videos posted earlier this month by residents of the northern Ontario town of Massey sparked shock and outrage, particularly among members of the neighbouring Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation. But last Friday, members of both communities marched together in support of unity and reconciliation.
The videos in question were recorded at a house party on Feb. 5 and show young adults dancing and drinking while making fun of an orange Every Child Matters flag – the same flag that Indigenous activists have used to raise awareness of the abuses in the residential school system.
In one of the videos, a man even admits to stealing an Every Child Matters flag from the former site of the Spanish Residential School in nearby Spanish, Ont.
"It brought a lot of pain and I thought of my grandfather, my father and the survivors, so it just brought a lot of hurt," Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation member Cynthia Owl told CTV News.
Owl was also one of the co-organizers of Friday's march. She said she wanted to use the incident as an opportunity to raise more awareness for residential school survivors and the children who never made it home.
"We thought the best thing to do to bring awareness was to have a walk for reconciliation – a peace walk -- so that everybody knows that we are a forgiving, humble nation and we want to just show love," Owl said.
On the Massey side, local high school teacher Jayson Stewart also helped co-organize the march.
"When we saw the videos ... on social media, I knew that we had to find some good out of it, something positive out of it," he told CTV News. "And so, I reached out and began to work with residents of Sagamok."
With police on stand-by, the two groups of walkers met at the bridge to signify connection and peace and marched through the town of Massey before gathering at a parking lot for a rally.
"We need to have the inclusion of this issue in our educational system," elder and residential school survivor Harvey Trudeau said at the rally. "It's the best kept secret in Canadian history."
Stewart agrees that a lack of education and awareness of what happened in the residential school system continues to be pervasive.
"As an educator myself, it's a wake up call for the amount of work that we still have to do," he said.
Across Canada, more than 1,000 potential unmarked graves have been found at former sites of residential schools. Many children from Sagamok attended the Spanish Residential School and this spring, community members plan on starting ground penetrating radar scanning at the site.
One of the individuals who were involved in the videos even participated in Friday's walk. Owl hopes that the walk could be a turning point in mending the strained relationship between the town and the First Nation.
"We've received a lot of support from Massey. We had a lot of Massey businesses supporting this walk with donations and food and water and the use of the town lots and the parking lots," said Owl.
"We want to move forward and reconcile."
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