Truth and Reconciliation isn’t a slogan, it isn’t something we take lightly. The “truth” part? That’s the unvarnished acknowledgment of what happened here on Turtle Island, when they came to conquer a prosperous land. What does today mean to you? Then decided we still had too much fight in us so they settled on our children instead. They legalised the taking of our children from their homes, the stripping of language, the silencing of songs, the theft of human body parts they believed to be to barbaric for a village they mistook as Kanata. Truth means dragging into daylight what governments, churches, and polite Canadian history books have tried to wallpaper over. It means saying plainly: genocide happened here. Not “mistakes were made.” Not “the past is complicated.” Children were stolen, beaten, mistreated, raped and rarely made it back home.
The “reconciliation” part? That’s the hard, gritty, hopeful work of choosing to live differently now. Acknowledging the past and wanting to do better, be better, teach better. It’s not about shaking hands, saying “sorry,” and moving on like nothing happened like at a G7 Summit. Reconciliation is about stitching together what was torn apart, what was ripped to shreds. Not in some naïve kumbaya way, but in a way that actually costs something. It’s about returning land, honouring treaties, funding Indigenous languages and schools, making space at the table for Indigenous governance. Ensuring our children grow up knowing their worth, their culture, and their God-given dignity. It means never having to hide their ancestry for fear of being ridiculed or systematically oppressed.
Why does it matter beyond Indigenous communities? Because the sickness of colonization didn’t just wound the First Peoples, the Metis, the Inuits, the Natives of Turtle Island. Some of my people don’t like to be referred to as Native. Native is what holds our Treaties in place. Without our ‘Native ancestry’ our Treaties wouldn’t stand up in governance. Those despised the term warped the soul of this entire land, because how dare they intrude in warp a household in shame and hidden blame. Turtle Island cannot be whole while her first children are still bleeding to the root and thorns that reach to vine. When one nation is crushed, every nation that shares the land is bent out of shape too. Think of it like a broken drum: you can’t expect it to keep the heartbeat of the people until you mend the skin that was split.
Truth and Reconciliation matters because it’s the only path where children can wear orange shirts in honour, remembering, not just the mourning. It matters because when Indigenous kids laugh freely in their languages, when they dance their powwow steps without shame, when they graduate from schools that celebrate them and their name.The whole Turtle’s back heals when the children rejoice and a mother’s fear doesn’t burst and a father’s anger no longer hurts. Yes, the whole land heals a little.
And yes, it matters because God sees. He saw every child taken, every tear shed, every mother left with empty arms and hollow beds. Reconciliation is us finally aligning with what He has seen all along: that every child matters, every story matters, and every voice matters in the chorus of Turtle Island.
What Does Today Mean To You?
Today I asked my son,
“What does today mean to you?”
He said, “Today is Orange Day.”
And I said, yes.
Today is Orange Shirt Day.
But Orange Day is not just the color you wear.
Orange Shirt Day is not just a shirt.
Today is Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Today is the day we remember children just like you
Children taken from their homes,
Children who did not return from school.
What does today mean to you?
Today is the day we remember
The empty seats at the supper fire,
The mothers whose arms never felt the weight again,
The fathers whose voices broke calling names
that no one answered, while shame seeped in.
What does today mean to you?
But hear me, son, hear me well.
Our children didn’t make it back to their earthly home
Doesn’t mean our Creator cared less for his children or turned a blind eye to what was done Jesus said, those that have ears let them hear. It will be easier for Sodom & Gomorrah to enter into heaven than someone who harmed a child such as these
Nothing happens without His knowing.
Nothing happens without His say-so.
Even in the silence of graves,
even in the shadows of loss,
He has not turned His face, He has never turned away.
What Does Today Mean To You I Ask You Once More?
Today is the day we remember to never forget Today is the day that we remind those that see and hear
That not every child made it home … and those that did were wrapped in fear
That this land we stand on was watered and rebirthed in sin in their innocent blood from 1831 to 1996 Today is a day we remind all
That the roots of this nation are tangled
With stories of children silenced to never make it back again.
My Friend, What does today mean to you?
Today is the day they give us
in remembrance of the children taken from us.
Today is the day they say,
The nation will remember this day.
The unmarked graves must not stay hidden.
The truth must not stay buried.
But for us whose blood runs orange and not red
For us, remembrance is not just about a single day.
It is every day.
It is in the way we inhale, exhale YHWH.
It is in the way we sing. In the way we praise
It is in the way we raise you, in the steps we dance
I asked my son, What does today mean to you? …and he said,
to know the truth of our land. Because every child matters. And to remember that the children like me, didn’t all make it home from school.
Every cry that the Creator heard.
Every life He returned home Today is the only day they gave us, but we sweat orange in our blood
What does today mean to you?
Remember that today is celebrated to remember our stolen children Wear your shirts proud with praise while I pray …that all our children make it home today.
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Stay faithful, stay quirky, and stay writing.
With love and fire,
V.S. Beals
Writer. Watchwoman. Woman of the Word.
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