Sea of orange floods downtown as Londoners walk in solidarity with Indigenous people

A sea of orange flooded downtown London, Ont., Thursday morning as more than 10,000 people came out to walk in solidarity with Indigenous people on Canada Day.

The Turtle Island Healing Walk began at Victoria Park at 10 a.m. where thousands gathered wearing orange shirts with the slogan, "every child matters," wanting to honour and remember those who died and suffered abuse at Canada's residential schools.

Events across Canada were scheduled for July 1 after preliminary scans last month revealed findings of 215 unmarked graves in British Columbia and 751 graves at a former residential school in Saskatchewan. On Wednesday, 182 further unmarked grave sites were also discovered near the location of a former residential school in B.C.

Many called for the national holiday to be looked at as a day of reflection on Canada's treatment of Indigenous peoples and a day to honour the victims and survivors of these residential schools.

The event began with an opening ceremony at the park and later took off with community drummers and jingle dress dancers stopping in between to honour the victims with ceremonial songs and dances.

Joel Abram, the Grand Chief with the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, said it was really "heartening" to see the turnout and the outpouring of support from the community.

"I'm happy to see it ... a lot of eyes have opened," Abram said. "[This] is a process of educating because a lot of people didn't know about this."

Abram said he hopes for bigger change beyond this day, and for conversations around decolonization to take place in order to maintain this momentum. 

"Lets start to have those conversations about Indigenous rights and the treatment of Indigenous peoples through colonization. It's not just residential schools, it's the Indian Act, loss of lands and resources, Sixties Scoop, you could go on and on."

But Abram says this show of solidarity is a clear sign that "people are opening their minds and hearts."

One of the co-lead organizers for the walk, Kristina Zakharyan, said this event touched many peoples' hearts, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

"London will pause on Canada Day and understand and listen to Indigenous voices," Zakharyan said. "All the survivors that are here and are coming to be with us and walk with us and heal." 

Zakharyan works with Indigenous children on reserves and in the London area, and said they have received an outpouring of support from people who want to help.  

Brandon Nicholas, who was at the walk with his three daughters Madison, Ella and Emmi, said it was important for him to attend with his family.

"I hope people realize that this isn't something that happened back then," said Nicholas who is from the Oneida Nation of the Thames. "This is still going on today. We have many nations that still don't have proper drinking water."

"We're here to support our culture and our community and everyone that's been affected by it and the pain that everyone's gone through," Madison Nicholas said. "Nobody deserves what's happening to them or their culture."

"I know this [event] isn't going to take away from the years and years of what's been done to our community but it's nice to know that there are enough people and support here that you can feel that we are having some kind of justice in the way that we can stand one-and-one and walk together and show solidarity." 

Ameena Haddara, a third-year Kinesiology student, said she was pushed to attend the healing walk immediately after hearing about it.

As a visible Muslim woman who was deeply affected by the targeted London attack last month of a Muslim family, she understands just how significant showing up to stand with communities affected with any tragedy.

"Seeing everyone show up to the vigil a couple of weeks ago and the march, I know the kind of warmth and support it gave me and it was really important for me to show my support," Haddara said. "I know how hard it is."