FLR | Truth and Reconciliation | Friday Leadership Report

Happy Friday,

Today we remember Phyllis Webstad.

You may not know that name, Phyllis put on a brand new orange shirt and wore it with pride on her first day of school at Williams Lake, B.C.

Think how excited you were on your first day of a new school.

I can remember the pride I took finding the right shoes, clothes, lunch pail & new backpack for the first day.

The anticipation of new.

New school, new teachers, new friends & new adventures.

Phyllis was just like you in her desires, hopes & fears with one difference.

She was starting at a residential school.

The teacher at her school stripped her new orange shirt & cut her hair.

“The color orange has always reminded me that my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared. I went to a treatment center for healing when I was 27 and have been on this healing journey since then. I finally get it, that the feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, ingrained in me from my first day at the mission, affected how I lived my life for many years.”

Today is about Phyllis & the many other First Nations peoples who have been marginalized.

As we put on our orange shirts to commemorate the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, can we personalize the act on behalf of Phyllis Webstad?

This is the ultimate truth and our way of bringing reconciliation & healing to a broken past for a hopeful future.

For all of us.

along, the road with you.

Alan

There’s a path to truth and reconciliation | Toronto Star

Young Indigenous leaders speak on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at Senate | National Post

Opinion: We all have a role to play in reconciliation | Edmonton Journal