Radio stations across Canada will mark the end of National Indigenous History Month by coming together for A Day To Listen.
The unprecedented initiative, in partnership with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, will amplify the voices of Indigenous people across Canada.
Stories from, and interviews with, Indigenous community leaders, elders, residential school survivors and others will be featured from 6 am to 6 pm local time on June 30. Canadians will be encouraged to #DoSomething by texting “DWF” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
The Fund was named for the late frontman of The Tragically Hip and the Anishinaabe boy who died in 1966 after fleeing from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont. Downie highlighted Wenjack’s heartbreaking story in The Secret Path.
A Day To Listen reminds Canadians that more than 150,000 Indigenous children were taken away from their families and placed in residential schools, where they lost their languages, cultures, traditions and teachings. Over 4,100 of these children also lost their lives.
Last month, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C. said the preliminary findings of a specialist in ground-penetrating radar revealed the remains of 215 children on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School – sparking shock and sadness across the country.