(Photo credit: North Okanagan Friendship Centre Society)

By Pete McIntyre

National Aboriginal Day

Friendship Society launches Orange Hearts to honour Indigenous children and families

Jun 21, 2021 | 5:10 AM

The North Okanagan Friendship Centre Society (NOFCS) is using National Aboriginal Day to hold an event and launch an important fundraiser.

Today, June 21, the society will initiate ‘Orange Hearts’ to generate funds for a memorial bench and mural to honor Indigenous children and families impacted by the Kamloops Residential School, and to expand its services to infants, children, youth, and their families.

NOFCS is working on plans to build an Indigenous childcare facility, and they are seeking a suitable site in Greater Vernon.

“During this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, NOFCS has strived to continue our outreach programs to keep our families safe, strong, and supported. NOFCS continues to be short staffed, yet fully committed to offering our outreach services as they are vital,” Patricia Wilson, NOFCS Executive Director, said.

On National Aboriginal Day, the society’s main office at 2904-29th Avenue will be open for the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to drop by to visit, and to write a message on an Orange Heart that will be displayed in their courtyard and delivered to Kamloops, where ongoing ceremonies are occurring.

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Contributions to the fund can be made at nofcs.ca, via Pay Pal services, or by mail or drop off via cheque payable to NOFCS and note the donation to “Orange Hearts.”

The Friendship Center Society is offering its sincere and heartfelt condolences to individual, families, and communities of the 215 children recently found on the site of the Kamloops Residential School. It’s also extending condolences to all of those impacted by the Canadian Indian residential school and day school systems.

“The large-scale discovery is extremely disturbing and shocking to all of us,” Wilson said. We honor the work of those whose efforts were successful in finding our Indigenous children. We respect and uphold the stories from the survivors who told us that there were more of their friends, family members, and schoolmates to be found.”

Wilson said the stories were conveyed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but fell on deaf ears until the discovery of the mass burial of 215 Indigenous children.

“On behalf of the North Okanagan Friendship Center Society, we want to acknowledge the personal and collective grief that we, as Indigenous peoples, are dealing with in our own way through cultural ways and supporting one another. The sad truth is that this is not just a chapter of Canadian history, it is ongoing through the systemic removal of our Indigenous infants, children, and youth from our communities,” Wilson added

Wilson said the terrible legacy of Indian residential schools permeates our everyday life as they help the four generations of survivors of a system that took away the Indian children from their families’ cultural lifestyle to a foreign system that served to abuse, denigrate, and strip our Indian children of their innocent lives.