As a company with part of our team gratefully residing on unceded traditional and ancestral lands of the Semiahmoo peoples, we would like to honour and acknowledge today as the second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Between the 1830s and late 1990s, an estimated 150,000 indigenous children in Canada were forced into predominantly government-funded residential schools. Children were stripped of their culture, forbidden to speak Aboriginal languages and forced to adopt the religious denomination of the school in which they resided. Reports from survivors describing sexual assault, abuse, racism, and isolation are abundant. The devastating effects of residential schools do not remain in the past, with ongoing identification of potential burial sites near residential schools revealing estimated remains of more than 1900 individuals.
We extend our deepest condolences to the collective and intergenerational traumas experienced by Indigenous communities across Canada as a result of the intentional acts of segregation, systemic racism, and abuse from the Canadian government and settlers.
To read more about Indigenous history in Canada:
https://www.canada.ca/en/
To read more about the Government of Canada’s efforts to advance reconciliation:
https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.
As always, we believe that brands should be more than commercial product machines. It's our goal to create a community and build connections through art, creativity, and diversity.
Thank you,
AURIC
