Elementary and secondary schools across Windsor-Essex are learning about the importance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
At St. Pius X Catholic Elementary School in Tecumseh, close to 700 students wore orange and attended an assembly Tuesday morning in the schoolyard that included a special prayer and an Indigenous drummer.
Staff and students also collected new and gently used shoes that are being donated to communities in Northern Ontario.
215 pairs of shoes plus one were placed along a pathway in front of the school, and after the assembly, students and staff walked past the shoes as a reminder of the 215 students who were found in unmarked graves at residential schools.
Melissa Mills has two children that attend school and is also a member of the Catholic School Advisory Committee.
She helped organize the assembly and says the shoes were collected in three days.
"We came together as a school community to collect 215 plus one pairs of new and gently used shoes to represent each of the bodies found in unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school four years ago," she says.
Mills says it's important to honour the legacy of residential school survivors.
"When I was growing up we didn't have any mention of Indigenous culture or learning or residential schools in my curriculum," says Mills. "So I do applaud the Ontario government for making it sort of an important part of learning now."
She feels it's important to reflect on Canadian history and the history that was often silenced.
"I do not identify as Indigenous; I do consider myself to be an Indigenous ally, and I just wanted an opportunity to give back," she says. "I believe in truth and reconciliaction and so this is my way to act and honour a really shameful part of Canadian history."
Mills says a total of 305 pairs of schools will be donated.
Today is the fifth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — a day where Canadians reflect on the legacy of residential schools and remember the survivors and those who never made it home.
The residential school era refers to a period between 1857 and 1996 where 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools where they were barred from speaking their languages in institutions often rife with abuse located far away from their families and communities.
An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although experts say the actual number could be much higher.
— with files from the Canadian Press