Welcome to Confederation Park

At this stop, we will learn about the Confederation park, which is named for an event- Confederation- which was essentially the birth of Canada as a country as may people know it. But in order for Canada to come into being, the Indigenous Peoples of the land would have to cease to exist. Thankfully that’s not the case!

Confederation and the creation of Canada, which is celebrated by some on July 1, Canada Day, can also be seen as a celebration of colonialism and the attempted erasure of Indigenous Peoples.

Confederation Park is located on Elgin Street, which is named after Lord Elgin, Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847-1954). Lord Elgin supported the Bagot Report, which was one of the first in a series of policies designed to aggressively eliminate all that is Indigenous from our Peoples. The Bagot report specifically recommended that separating children from their parents by replacing the day school system with residential schools, as the best way to achieve that erasure.

Step 1: Learn

Watch the video below to learn more about Confederation Park.

Step 2: Honour

1. Write a card to a survivor. Cards can be mailed to: Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, (Attention Jay Jones), Room EW 202, Shingwauk Hall, Algoma University, Sault-SteMarie, ON P6A 2G4

Step 3: Act

1. In order to honour the survivors of Residential Schools, and those who never made it home, we call on all Canadians, our allies, to contact politicians at federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, urging them to build a permanent monument to remember the children that attended these schools so that we can let the TRUTH be told and learn from past mistakes while addressing the ongoing inequities and injustices.

Step 4: Keep Learning

Residential School Survivor Stories

Forgotten: The Métis Residential School Experience

We were so far away: The Inuit Experience of Residential School

Where are the Children?

100 Years of Loss Timeline