Join us for:
September 30 2025
2:00pm To 5:00 PM
Join us on 30 September 2025, at Beechwood Cemetery to walk the grounds for a 45-minute Reconciliation Tour, where we can learn from key historical figures who were involved in the Indian Residential Schools whilst learning about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.
There will also be an art exhibit inside the Beechwood National Memorial Centre, displaying different types of mediums — painting, photography, sculpture, textile, and mixed media — that engage with the TRC Calls to Action, reconciliation, and truth telling in respectful and thought-provoking ways
Participants will also have an opportunity to make the Calls to Action a reality with action tables.
At 2:15 PM, a short ceremony will be held to acknowledge the children who never returned home from residential schools and honour the survivors. This moment of reflection honours their memory and recognizes the ongoing impact on Indigenous communities. We pause together to show respect, raise awareness, and support the path toward truth and reconciliation.
*Please note that there will be a golf cart available to those who need assistance. We are in the process of booking an ASL interrupter, we will add that information once we finalize the details.
We will be inviting visitors to take the Reconciling History Walking tour of downtown Ottawa, each point of interest along the route is an opportunity to learn about the role of non-Indigenous peoples and the federal government in residential schools, and the lessons we can glean from history to address contemporary injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples.
For more information, please visit: fncaringsociety.com/orange-shirt-day
In honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Beechwood Cemetery Foundation has partnered with the Project of Heart, the Assembly of 7 Generations, and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (Caring Society) to host a public Day of Reconciliation education and action to learn from residential schools and other forms of colonialism so we can all implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.
The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society works to ensure the safety and well-being of First Nations youth and their families through education initiatives, public policy campaigns and providing quality resources to support communities.
Using a reconciliation framework that addresses contemporary hardships for Indigenous families in ways that uplift all Canadians, the Caring Society champions culturally based equity for First Nations children and their families so that they can grow up safely at home, be healthy, achieve their dreams, celebrate their languages and culture and be proud of who they are.
The Caring Society proudly works with our partners in Canada and around the world to promote the rights of Indigenous children.