Prepping for Canada Day? Wondering how to celebrate respectfully? Here’s a suggestion that will help you become a better ally, neighbour, citizen and human being.
Don’t worry, it won’t take long – you don’t have to enroll in school or even buy a book, all you have to do is listen to a podcast. We’re not talking Smartless or Goop or My Favourite Murder, this is something else. Put it on while you’re prepping side dishes for a weekend of Canada Day celebrations. Somewhere in between the Cloud Cake and the Corn Pudding it might just change your life.
In the summer of 2021 Connie Walker, an award-winning Cree journalist, began researching her third podcast series for Spotify. This time around she planned to tell the story of her father and his childhood spent in residential school in Saskatchewan. What she uncovered went far beyond what she, or anyone, could have imagined. In telling the story of her family’s legacy she shares an entire history of the residential school system in Canada.
“This was such a personal story about me and my dad and this one single residential school, but this story could be told about every single residential school across the country. And there are stories in every single First Nations, Inuit or Metis community across the country that help tell us the truth about Canada from an Indigenous perspective, which has been sorely lacking in all media.”
She dug deep and came away with a piece of work so powerful that it would upend her life completely. Because the end product was not your everyday podcast, what she created was something extremely special. That was proven in early May, when, over the course of 24 hours, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s won both the Peabody Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Canada Day isn’t as simple as waving flags and watching fireworks, we know better now. But, at the same time, we don’t know nearly enough. Most of us were never taught even the most basic information about huge swaths of our own history. We can remedy that, in part, by taking some time out to listen to this series.
It really is that simple; the more you know the better ally, and Canadian, you can be. If you’re going to celebrate Canada Day this weekend, we can’t think of a better way to prepare.