OASW Honours the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day

September 30, 2022 marks Orange Shirt Day as well as Canada’s second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day is intended to honour the children who never returned home from Canada’s residential schools. It is also meant to honour, recognize, and empower the resiliency and strength of the Survivors, their families, and Communities.

This important day calls on all Canadians to reflect on the traumatic and ongoing impacts of the residential school system. However, we cannot stop there. We must commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation as individuals, a collective community, and a profession.

As social workers, this means understanding the history of our profession, the significant harms contributed against Indigenous People, and the important truth contained within our national association’s Statement of Apology and Commitment to Reconciliation. It means working to dismantle ongoing practices of privilege, colonization, systemic oppression, and anti-Indigenous racism and to participate in ongoing learning and critical reflection.

The Ontario Association of Social Workers has begun an internal journey on our path towards understanding truth and advancing reconciliation. As a part of this work, OASW’s team and Board have and will continue to engage in learning to support our personal and professional growth, reflection, understanding and action on reconciliation. We remain dedicated to developing learning opportunities and resources to assist our members to do the same.

Resources

• Webinar: Building Relations in ‘Good Way’ with Indigenous Peoples and Communities, October 3, 2022 – Presented by the OASW Learning Centre and Julia Janes 

• On-Demand Webinar: Decolonizing Social Work – Presented by the OASW Learning Centre and Giselle Dias, MSW, RSW 

• National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation: On August 29, 2022, the Survivor’s Flag was raised on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Read more about the significance of the flag here

• OASW Land Acknowledgement Guide: We are pleased to share a guide to assist our members, volunteers, and the OASW Team in developing personalized land acknowledgments as one means to support continued action on reconciliation

• Canadian Association of Social Workers: Reconciliation Hub 

• Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers: Ethical and Competent Responses to Anti-Indigenous Racism: A Conversation with Cheryl McPherson, RSW 

• Circles for Reconciliation: Learn more about circles in your community

• Read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples