While in the process of passing a resolution recognizing September 30th as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and thereby joining other municipalities across the country, Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano took the opportunity to take that recognition a little bit further.
“Council will remember when we lowered the flag upon the discovery of the first residential [school] graves and then we did it a second time and we put the flag back up after a few days the second time and I said that evening that I hoped that we could do something more permanent,” she said.
She suggested that the municipality’s land acknowledgment statement or other appropriate wording, gathered through consultation with local Indigenous groups, could be etched on a boulder in the small park planned between Trinity United Church and Town Hall “as a permanent observation of truth and reconciliation.”
Terziano said with the park currently under construction she wanted to make sure there was support for the initiative.
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” said Deputy Mayor Nancy Alcock.
In the end, council gave the commemorative initiative a green light with an update expected in the near future.
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Thank you, Karen. It’s a wonderful reminder that indigenous people were here before us and that we haven’t always treated them honourably.