Portage la Prairie MLA Jeff Bereza is taking steps to prepare the community for the upcoming National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Bereza recently announced the presentation of two one-time Orange Shirt Day Fund Grants on behalf of the Government of Manitoba to the Portage la Prairie Community Revitalization Corporation (PCRC) and Long Plain School.
"The grants that come from the Province of Manitoba are to help observe the inaugural provincial Orange Shirt Day. It shows the work that these two organizations are going to do to honour the survivors of residential schools, the parents that are left behind and the children who didn't return home."
The PCRC plans to utilize the funds for an initiative to paint the town orange, while Long Plain School intends to allocate it to an Orange Shirt Day Project.
"To move forward, you have to learn from the past and not make those mistakes again. And to learn from those who have been through it," he continues. "It's an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and never to make those mistakes again and to understand what the survivors of the residential schools went through."
The MLA recommends that everyone in the community attend the National Indigenous Residential Museum as part of this month's observance.
Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.