First Nation | Polilla Writes

Today – September 30, 2021 – is Canada’s first Truth and Reconciliation Day.

Here is the information I found about it:

“This solemn day has been established to honour the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities, and to ensure public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools as a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

The inspiration for Orange Shirt Day (also September 30) came from Phyllis Webstad who is Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band). On her first day of residential schooling at six years old, she was stripped of her clothes, including the new orange shirt she had picked out and her grandmother bought for her. She never got it back. The orange shirt now symbolizes how the residential school system took away the indigenous identity of its students.

What this day symbolizes hurts my heart. It is hard to grasp that children could be given no love or tenderness by adults, but instead were handled with cruelty and degrading, inhuman treatment – just because of who they were.

I’ve noticed that a few people around here have hung out orange t-shirts or orange somethings, so I attempted to shape a heart and hung it on my weathered deck railing.

There are many posts I want to add to my blog but this one takes priority today.

Have you done anything special for this important day?

Thanks for reading, … and keep in touch!






Book: The Power of Harmony
Author: Jan L. Coates
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Date: May 13, 2013
Genre: MG; gr 4-6; age 9-11
Pages: 260
Price: $12.95
My rating: An enjoyable and relatable read for young people.

This is a novel I purchased from its author at the children’s book fair I attended in 2016.

The Power of Harmony by Jan L. Coates is a fictional story based in the late 1960’s in Nova Scotia, Canada. This novel was an Atlantic Book Awards finalist, and for good reason, I might add. In Spring of 2017 the Nova Scotia Board of Education purchased copies for every school in the province!

The main character, Jennifer, loves to sing, but she is very afraid to sing in public. She prepares for a competition anyway, with not-so-good results, and has to deal with being ridiculed later. With her best friend having moved away, shy Jenn is now faced with being bullied by some mean girls at her school with no close friend there for her.

Recently a First Nations girl, Melody, moved into the neighbourhood. The other kids pick on her, too, because of who she is without even knowing her. Jennifer discovers Melody likes music and books, same as she does, and they become friends. There are also some strange things going on, and Melody seems to have a secret.

This is such a meaningful story of friendship, bullying, adolescent struggles and fears, acceptance, and even grief through the death of a loved one. It’s a very realistic and moving story, and a pleasure to read.

You can find my reviews of other books by Jan here and here and here.

You can find The Power of Harmony by Jan L. Coates on my BUY THE BOOK page. I also will post it on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Chapters.Indigo, and Goodreads.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂