‘My people are still here’: Lessons and action on Orange Shirt Day

• September 30, 2021
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Photo Credit: Downtown Parry Sound Business Association

On commemorative occasions, we’re often told to pause for reflection. Sometimes reflection isn’t enough. At North, the commitment around Orange Shirt Day, also now officially recognized as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, goes further. We believe change and positive progress require action.

While we take extra time this week to educate ourselves and remind each other of the atrocities of the past and present faced by Indigenous populations, we also renew our pledge to act in meaningful ways within our offices and within our work.

Earlier this week, we welcomed back Chrystal Tabobandung, the founder of RAISE, an Indigenous cultural awareness and competency training program. She offered advice for hundreds of North and Publicis Groupe colleagues and shared her personal and cultural history, often through tears. Tabobandung faced mental and physical abuse at Indigenous day schools on the reserve where she grew up, and at home from traumatized older generations.

Sharing her story, she said, isn’t just part of truth and reconciliation, it’s part of healing.

“I have risen above all of that and I have learned to use my story as a way to help and heal others so that they may be able to share their stories one day,” she said.

As allies and residents on the land known as Canada we must listen, and indeed reflect. But everyone can do better. Tabobandung offered some advice, noting that participation in Orange Shirt Day is a good first step. Don’t apologize and proselytize about residential schools to an Indigenous person, she said. Instead, acknowledge their perseverance today.

“If you see an Indigenous person and they are alive, well and standing, admire that,” she said. “Admire their strength and their bravery and their courage and their honour. Our people are resilient, have survived so much and continue to survive so much.”

Allies should also consider correcting those they overhear expressing something false or insensitive about Indigenous peoples, such as using phrases like “our native people” (“We do not belong to anybody,” she said).

Moving beyond reflection and education

As a PR agency, North Strategic has committed to taking action in meaningful ways through client work. Earlier this month, North launched a new campaign with retail giant Cadillac Fairview that featured Shina Nova, an Inuk throat singer in Montreal, and James Jones, a traditional Indigenous hoop dance artist in Alberta, both prominent influencers on TikTok.

It’s important to uplift Tabobandung and other Indigenous voices all year round, because, as she told us this week, she isn’t defined by her past. That’s part of the reason she doesn’t use the word “genocide” when referring to her cultural history.

“I’m still here,” she said. “I’m resilient and powerful. My people are still here.”