The City of Calgary’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day commemorations at The Confluence Historic Site and Parkland were markedly more positive than in years past.

In addition to being a larger celebration of Indigenous culture, including a circle camp of Treaty 7 tipi holders, the day provided positive ways that Calgarians can engage in reconciliation and reconcili-action.

Otsskoipiiks’aaki, the Indigenous Relations Manager for The Confluence, who also goes by Paula Smith, said that the positive tone for 2025 is a reflection of the wider community embracing togetherness and balancing the positivity that comes from reconciliation with the negatives of Indigenous treatment and residential schools.

“We are the new ancestors of today. We are the ones building for and on behalf of the children of tomorrow, and we’re teaching each other, and we’re learning together,” she said.

“The City had been working on this day for months, and they are strict and to a T, because they want to ensure everybody is heard and that the platform is big and the showcase is big, so that the voices of Orange Shirt Day can be heard.”

Numerous times throughout the celebration, Otsskoipiiks’aaki said she was on the verge of tears from both the harrowing stories of residential schools and from the action that Indigenous youth are taking to put their culture front and centre.

Elder Ruby Eagle Child spoke about her experiences in residential school and the horrors that she faced—including cages in the basement of the school she was forced to attend to hold Indigenous children.

“The things that I saw, and the things that I was punished—I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t easy for us, but we learned from it,” she said.

“Every day we go through things, I hear kids being taken out at night. I honestly don’t know if they came back, but I cover up and I cry with the blanket next morning. I don’t know, I didn’t see nothing, but I heard the things that happened there.”

Eagle Child’s speech was bookended by a video created by two students from the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School Board.

Zoe and Hannah’s video celebrated the way their school districts have incorporated the four Rs of reconciliation into their schools—respect, relationship, responsibility, and reconciliation.

“I think Truth and Reconciliation is finally trending, and in the colonial world it has to trend, right? And so what’s trending is camaraderie, relationships, friendships, togetherness, those kinds of things for hope and generosity and honour within, within the people and for the people,” said Otsskoipiiks’aaki.

Orange Shirt Day increases in importance for City of Calgary

Lorelei Higgins, Team Lead for the City of Calgary’s Indigenous Relations, said that city leadership has made Orange Shirt Day a priority.

“A lot of the changes have been, over time, people realizing that we all have a part to play in truth and reconciliation, and then [city] leadership really taking that as leadership. So, you see that from the top down, grassroots back up,” she said.

“But everybody, I believe, is starting to really understand we need to know more about our history, and then also how do we work together to create a future that includes all of us.”

The more positive tone for 2025, which included more Métis and Indigenous dancers than in previous years, as well as singers and drumming performances from the male youth drumming group Baby Flats, was an organic change, said Higgins.

“Obviously, we take our leadership honestly from our elders. As our elders journey through the opportunity to speak truth, and we hear the stories, we also are moving into that action piece. The truth will never stop. Will never stop those more commemorative moments,” she said.

“But I think we realize we all live together here on our Mother Earth, and so we do take our leave from our elders who say ‘okay, it’s time for this now.’ And so there are different moments.”

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that she was pleased to see significant numbers of senior leaders from the City of Calgary at the event. Teams from civic partners like Tourism Calgary were also present.

“We’ve got so many people with orange shirts. We’ve got Indigenous people that work at the City of Calgary that take the time to share their experiences with all of us. This is really something that we are doing together,” said Mayor Gondek.

The continued annual tradition of the Calgary Fire Department raising the flag with the names of those children who died at residential schools, along with space for the names yet unknown, she said, was also a reminder of why Orange Shirt Day is so important to the City of Calgary.

“What they are doing today at Truth and Reconciliation Day, that flag is a reminder of who we do this for. I’m so proud of Calgary Fire Department for being literally on the front line with all of this,” said Mayor Gondek.

The mayor also praised Calgarians for taking the time to attend the morning’s commemorations.

“The fact that so many people are willing to turn up and learn more about indigenous cultures and traditions and languages and understand what happened that almost eradicated indigenous peoples and be committed to the fact that we can never let this happen again,” she said.