Truth & Reconciliation: Indigenous Legacy Gathering on Nathan Phillips Square honours residential school survivors

Today and tomorrow, the City of Toronto is joining Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre (TCFNCC) for the Indigenous Legacy Gathering event acknowledging and honouring residential school survivors and the generations of Indigenous Peoples affected.

Undertaken by TCFNCC, in collaboration with the City, the Indigenous Legacy Gathering showcases and celebrates the diversity of Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, traditions, and languages through workshops, presentations, stories, teachings, dance, film, and music. The public is welcome to attend the Indigenous Legacy Gathering as an opportunity to learn, reflect and engage.

Tipis designed by Indigenous artists and youth are once again transforming Nathan Phillips Square. Like this morning, tomorrow will begin with a sunrise ceremony, followed by featured speakers, presentations, a marketplace and food vendors. The Grand Entry will take place today, Thursday, September 29, symbolizing the strength of survivors, those affected intergenerationally, and the unity within Toronto’s diverse population.

The gathering also promotes the development of the Spirit Garden on Nathan Phillips Square as a permanent structure responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 82, for governments to commission and install a Residential Schools commemorative piece in each national and provincial capital city to honour residential school survivors and all the children lost to their families and communities. The Spirit Garden will honour residential school survivors and all the children who were lost to their families and communities as well as Toronto Council Fire’s vision on ‘Revillagizing’ Tkaronto. The Spirit Garden, which is currently under construction, is set to be completed in 2024.

More information about the Spirit Garden is available on the TCFNCC Spirit Garden webpage .

Since 2018, the Indigenous Legacy Gathering has brought together thousands of residential school survivors, their families, communities, and the public to honour survivors while celebrating their resilience and the cultural diversity of Indigenous Nations. The event captures TCFNCC’s vision of ‘Revillagizing’, a return to traditional cultural values and beliefs that honour Creation and all of its elements (The Creator, Mother Earth, the Waters, Plant Life, The Guardians, the Star Worlds, Grandmother Moon, Elder Brother Sun, Thunder Beings, the Winds, the Winged Ones and the Four-Legged).

TCFNCC is an autonomous, vibrant cultural agency that involves and serves the Indigenous community with confidence for, and commitment to, their wellbeing. The agency’s mandate is to provide counselling, material assistance, and other direct services to First Nations people, as well as to encourage and enhance their spiritual and personal growth. More information is available on the TCFNCC’s website .

More information about Toronto Council Fire and the Indigenous Legacy Gathering is available on the TCFNCC Legacy Gathering webpage .

SOURCE City of Toronto

photography by Will Emorey

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