A new flag has been raised outside of City Hall in Fort Saskatchewan.
This flag – called The Survivor’s Flag – will be raised at City Hall for all of September to recognize the impact that residential schools had on Indigenous Peoples across the country.
“By raising this flag, we are reminding ourselves of the truth of residential schools, and honouring the survivors who carry these impacts with them to this day,” wrote the City of Fort Saskatchewan in a release.
Each element on the flag was selected by residential school survivors across Canada, who helped with the flag’s creation.
For example, the dots along the bottom of the flag represent ‘The Seeds Below Ground’, the spirits of children who never returned home from residential schools.
“As Survivors we have carried the memories of our fellow students who died at residential schools for entire lifetimes. We now acknowledge these little ones woke up the Nation,” said Garnet Angeconeb, an Ojibway survivor who attended Pelican Residential School. “What is our responsibility to these children now and how do we prevent the world from falling asleep again?”
You can read up more about the flag and its symbolism by visiting the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s website here.
