Students at St. Michael’s Catholic Adult School are marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. A Remembrance Tree will be on display at the school throughout the year as a reminder of the importance of remembering Canada’s residential school history. For the fourth year, students and staff will create the tree made up of hundreds of individual handprints filled with written messages. Students will add their handprints throughout the day Wednesday, and the finished tree is expected to include upwards of 1,000 hands, which will cover much of the school’s hallway between the first and second floors. Simon Clarke, a teacher at St. Michael’s, says it’s an important day to honour. “It’s all about our students understanding some of the historical part of Canada and what’s happened with the Indigenous community and residential schools and for all of the students here to have an awareness of what’s happened in the past and so they can make good decisions and appreciate everyone when they’re moving forward.” He says it’s incredible to watch how many hands fill the tree. “All the hands will start going up, so myself and one of my colleagues will be helping me as we get the hands together, and some of the students will be bringing them up. And then as they come through, we’ll just be sticking them up, and it will just grow as the day continues. So by the end of the day, we should have the tree finished.” Clarke says each hand carries its own message or reflection. “Some of them are really touching because they’re talking about their own life or their own kind of awareness of a situation as well as the Truth and Reconciliation. So it can all be really quite a powerful thing, but sometimes it’s stopping and actually reading them.” The tree’s trunk was created by a student when the initiative began four years ago and has been preserved for each year’s display. Clarke says the school’s motto - “We Are Many and We Are One” - is reflected in the project, with students coming together to learn, remember, and reflect on Truth and Reconciliation. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is observed each September 30th, providing an opportunity to remember residential school survivors and those who never returned home while reflecting on the ongoing work of reconciliation.
