Hundreds of Calgary children united in a symbolic gesture Thursday morning to illustrate what it means to walk the path of reconciliation.
Indigenous students carrying colourful eagle staffs and First Nations flags met Connect Charter School students, who carried handmade signs that read "Reconciliation starts with me," and "Treaty 7 proud" in the southwest community of Lakeview.
The students then walked together across the 37th Street interchange to Mount Royal University, where they participated in a traditional powwow with performances by Tsuut'ina dancers, drummers and singers.
The event was part of a larger project to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities together through collaboration between schools, said Phil Butterfield, principal at Connect Charter School.
"This is not just a one-day event or something that's gonna happen, and then we move on and check off that box on our list. It's very important that this be part of now a sustainable future," he said.
"We can learn a great deal from them. I know we can."
Building mutual respect
For student Lindsay Henderson, it was an opportunity to find cultural common ground and build upon it.
"They're really similar to us in so many different ways," she said.
"Our ancestors in the past, we haven't treated them very nicely, like equals," she went on.
"We've treated them more like we're more important and that we matter more than them, which isn't true; every culture matters a lot to us. We're trying to heal that wound," she explained.
Hal Eagletail, a leader in the Tsuut'ina Nation and emcee at the powwow, said it's important for children to develop an appreciation of other cultures while they're still young, so that it shapes their interactions and behaviours as they grow older.
"If they grow up to be kindhearted and humble, and genuinely knowledgeable on each other's cultural identity, they're gonna have a mutual respect for each other, and that's what it's all about," Eagletail said.