September 30th, 2021
Today, students, staff and families across the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) will acknowledge the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and participate in Orange Shirt Day.
Crissa Hill, Superintendent of Student Achievement & Well-Being, took a few minutes to share her thoughts and hopes for this important day, and the commitment and work to be done in the coming days, weeks and months.
About Crissa Hill – In Her Own Words
“I am Mi’kmaw with roots in Sipekne’katik First Nation, in territories governed by the Peace and Friendship Treaties,” said Hill. “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams: in a position of formal leadership in education, one generation removed from a system that used schooling as a guise to try to eliminate us.”
“I challenge all of us in the WRDSB family to consider what is the truth? What is it we need to learn, unlearn, uncover, challenge, critique, and synthesize in order to come to a more fulsome understanding of the dark chapters of our history and what has led us to require a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in the first place,” asks Hill. “Only when we have that fulsome understanding can we move towards a process of reconciliation.”
Taking Action
Crissa Hill invites our community to take action. Set a calendar alert for six months from now (Wednesday, March 30, 2022) and use the time between today and then to challenge yourself to take an action towards truth and reconciliation.
- 📚 Can you read a book?
- 📺 Watch a documentary?
- 🗣 Have a conversation?
Learn more about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day.