Category: Blog

Photo: Design from Indigenous artist and Arts Umbrella Board member James Harry (Nexw’Kalus)

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, on September 30, serves as a stark reminder of the injustices faced by Indigenous people, especially in residential schools. It is a significant step toward healing and reconciliation, while raising awareness about the lasting effects of residential schools and colonization on Indigenous peoples throughout the country. 

Orange Shirt Day originated from residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad‘s personal experience. A member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation and survivor of the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in Williams Lake, Phyllis has shared her story widely as the founder and ambassador of Orange Shirt Day. Her childhood experience of having a cherished orange shirt stripped from her symbolizes the broader suffering of Indigenous children whose identities and cultures were stripped away through the residential school system and underlines the resulting intergenerational trauma experienced by survivors. 

Awareness helps educate all Canadians about the history and impact of residential schools. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation allows collective reflection on past injustices, while Orange Shirt Day emphasizes individual experiences and emotional trauma. Both promote compassion by fostering dialogue and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, nurturing empathy, understanding, and unity. 

And most importantly, September 30 is a call for action. It challenges governments, institutions, and individuals to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, address disparities in healthcare, education, and justice, and respect Indigenous rights and sovereignty. 

Here’s how individuals can actively support and participate in meaningful observances: 

Educate Yourself: Take the time to learn about the history of residential schools and the experiences of Indigenous peoples. Read books, watch documentaries, and engage with Indigenous literature and art to gain a deeper understanding. 

Listen and Learn: Engage in open, empathetic conversations with Indigenous friends, family members, or community members. Their perspectives and experiences are invaluable in fostering understanding. 

Wear an Orange Shirt: On Orange Shirt Day, wear an orange shirt as a symbol of your commitment to reconciliation and raising awareness about the impacts of residential schools. Encourage others to do the same. 

Participate in Local Events: Attend local events, ceremonies, or gatherings organized by Indigenous communities or advocacy groups. These events provide an opportunity to listen, learn, and show support. 

Teach Others: Share your knowledge and understanding with friends and family. Encourage them to participate in conversations and events related to reconciliation. 

Support Indigenous Businesses: Seek out and support Indigenous-owned businesses and artists. This can help strengthen Indigenous communities and economies. 

Advocate for Change: Support policies and initiatives aimed at addressing disparities in healthcare, education, and justice for Indigenous peoples. Advocate for the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. 

Read the TRC Report: Familiarize yourself with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report and its 94 Calls to Action. Hold government officials accountable for progress on these recommendations. 

Donate to Indigenous Organizations: Contribute to Indigenous-led organizations and charities working towards reconciliation, healing, and supporting Indigenous communities. 

Reflect and Self-Examine: Take a moment to reflect on your own biases and privilege. Be open to personal growth and actively challenge stereotypes and prejudices. 

Create Safe Spaces: Foster inclusive and safe spaces where Indigenous voices are heard and respected. Promote diversity and inclusion in your workplace, school, or community. 

Participate Year-Round: While these observances have designated days, reconciliation is a year-round commitment. Continue to engage in these actions and conversations beyond these specific dates. 

Watch BC Achievement’s short films: Peruse the treasury of short films produced by BC Achievement highlighting the accomplishments of BC’s First Nations artists and Indigenous entrepreneurs. Find them on our YouTube channel. 

BC Achievement: Elevate Excellence. Share Success. Inspire Change.

Photo Credit: Yukiko Onley

By Max Wyman, Guest writer and BC Achievement Board Member 2007-2016 

Max Wyman is a Vancouver-based writer and cultural commentator. His seventh book, The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy, will be published this week. 

The days when city councillors objected to using public money to support “a bunch of galloping galoots,” as once happened when a grant application from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet came before the Winnipeg municipal council, are long behind us. But our continued lukewarm support of Canada’s cultural sector shows a widespread underestimation of the power of the arts to transform both individuals and communities for the better. 

In the prosperous and educated world of rationality and accountability that the Enlightenment bequeathed us, and which our governments claim to perpetuate, the artist is an outsider: the supplicant conjuror with his begging bowl. 

Our political masters mouth all the platitudes. They make sure the cultural sector gets resources sufficient for basic survival. During the pandemic, they even coughed up a little extra to help those in the arts sector counter the crippling effects of the economic shutdown. 

But none of them have grasped the central nettle, which is the need to see the arts and culture not as a frill, nor an outlier, nor a tool – but as a central and necessary element of our nationhood. 

It is time for a new cultural contract between the government of Canada and the people it serves – a policy that affirms art and culture as the humanizing core of our civil society. 

Getting governments to understand why they should support art and culture has always been a challenge. Typically, if you can’t value the outcome in dollars, it doesn’t count. And it’s hard to show the value of art and culture on a cost-benefit graph. Even when they do come up with more cash, it’s usually for economic reasons. Just recently, for instance, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a new investment of £50 billion ($84 billion) to “grow the creative industries,” in the name of adding a million extra jobs in the country’s cultural sector by 2030. 

Professional arts groups thus become forced to try to prove their value in economic terms, and so they have become adept at showing how investment in culture pays rich dividends in spinoff effects. A thriving creative community attracts innovators to a city or region, they argue, and cultural activities create work for a broad range of other workers. 

Many studies also show how engagement with art reduces demands on the health care system and is an effective tool in dealing with mental health. The Publishers Association in Britain has found that reading is more popular than going to the movies or browsing social media, with one in three people saying books offer them the best form of escapism when they’re having a bad day. 

A recent U.S. study  even managed to put a figure on the personal benefits of going to an art gallery. The Oregon-based Institute for Learning Innovation asked just under 2,000 visitors to 11 U.S. art museums to assess the way their museum experiences improved their well-being in four categories – personal, intellectual, social and physical – and to put a price on those benefits on a sliding scale from US$0 to US$1,000. They came up with an average cash value, per individual visit, of US$905. When the study’s authors extrapolated this information on a national scale, they calculated an annual economic value of US$52 billion in public well-being for museum visitors. 

I know, I know: small sample, based on entirely personal valuations. But in an interview with The Art Newspaper, Will Cary, the chief operating officer of the Barnes Foundation (which took part in the study), said the research gives funders and policy makers “a compelling, quantitative argument that thriving, well-supported cultural institutions are not ‘nice-to-haves,’ they are ‘need-to-haves’ and that the return on their investment is significant and multifaceted.” 

But what if we didn’t have to focus on the economic imperatives? 

Of course, new money for culture will always be welcome. But our leaders need to be able to see culture in more than these quantitative, economic terms; they need to see it as a central, vital public good and – as I argue in my new book – as a unique means for us to reawaken our sense of decency and empathy toward one another in our increasingly splintered society. 

What kind of Canada might we make if we were to embed art’s unique and deeply human properties of imaginative exploration and emotional and spiritual enrichment in the heart of public policy making? What if we liberated the power of the collaborative imagination by giving the visionary ferment of Canada’s diverse creative community a place at the decision-making table as we seek solutions to the stark challenges of our time? 

What if we returned the arts to a central position in our education systems, affirming the role of the arts and humanities alongside the sciences in educating the whole person, and thus shifting the emphasis to STEAM rather than only STEM? 

What if we were to put a little spine into our pious words about reconciliation and ensure that Indigenous ways of knowing and creating are integrated into our decision-making and funding processes? 

What if we were to design a far more equitable spreading of the cultural wealth, in the form of expanded granting programs and new ways to empower all Canadians to enjoy the richness of our cultural expression? 

It is time to jettison outdated ideas about exclusiveness or connoisseurship. Art belongs to everyone, and it is neither a frill nor an indulgence: It is an integral part of our shared humanity, and a way we find meaning and connection and understanding in an increasingly chaotic and morally compromised world. 

This piece was originally published in the Globe and Mail, July 1, 2023. 

The Compassionate Imagination: How the arts are central to a functioning democracy, Cormorant Books, Toronto, $19.95. ISBN 978-1-77086-699-7. Available to order online and wherever good books are sold. Here’s a guide to its availability at independent retailers near you: Shop Local (bookmanager.com) 

BC Achievement: Elevate Excellence. Share Success. Inspire Change.