UW students, staff, and faculty came together on the BMH Green on Sept. 30 to recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, in honour of the lost children and survivors of Canadian residential schools.

The day’s program, organized by the Office of Indigenous Relations, began with a 7 a.m. sunrise ceremony led by Elder Myeengun Henry, Indigenous Knowledge Keeper within the faculty of health and former Chief of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. Attendees were each given tobacco, a sacred plant often used for ceremony and prayer, before placing it in the ceremonial fire at the centre of the circle. At sunrise, attendees turned to the east for a moment of silence and reflection.

At 10 a.m., president Bill Rosehart and the deans of UW’s six faculties joined Elder Henry and other Indigenous elders to reaffirm their commitments to truth and reconciliation. “It’s not a commitment that I bring alone,” Rosehart said. “It’s a commitment that I’ve seen in just about everyone that I’ve talked to at this university, and that commitment together is what will allow us, in partnership, to do some really incredible things.”

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established in 2021 as a federal statutory holiday in response to Call 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. These demands called on the federal government, in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, to create a statutory holiday that would publicly recognize and commemorate the survivors, families, and communities impacted by the history and ongoing legacy of residential schools.

The day is also known as Orange Shirt Day, after residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, whose new orange shirt was taken from her on her first day of school at age six in 1973 and never returned. The orange shirt represents the stripping of language, culture, and family ties, and the continued neglect and abuse of children at residential schools across the country.

More than 10 years after the commission released its Calls to Action, Canada is “still lingering behind,” said Elder Henry. He approximates that only 14 or 15 of the 94 Calls have been completed. Indigenous Watchdog, a non-profit dedicated to Indigenous issues, reports that as of September 1, 2026, only 14 Calls have been completed.

UW aims to polish said commitment each year. “The reason we do it every year is because, in our original treaties, we didn’t [reaffirm] them every year, and then it got less and less known. So the next generation didn’t know about these commitments,” explained Elder Henry. “We’ve learned from that; we have to come back every year to recommit to them.”

At 11 a.m., hundreds of students, staff, and faculty walked in solidarity along Ring Road, led by Gladwyn Badger, a member of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran, and carrier of the campus eagle staff. “We’re going to do what our children can’t do, the ones who died in residential schools, to walk on Mother Earth,” said Elder Henry.

The day closed with attendees joining hands in a large circle for a traditional round dance, accompanied by a drumming circle.

Elder Henry and Rosehart said that members of Renison, St. Jerome’s, Conrad Grebel, and United College are set to join the 2027 ceremony.