September 30th marks Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day that asks us to pause, reflect, and remember. We honour the children who never returned home from residential schools, the Sixties Scoop and Millennium Scoop through the child welfare system, and the Indian hospitals. 

For over a century, Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and placed in institutions designed to strip away their cultures, languages, and identities. The wounds from this systemic attempt to erase Indigenous ways of life continue to impact communities today, particularly in how Indigenous peoples experience and access healthcare. 

Established through Call to Action #80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this National Day of Remembrance represents more than commemoration. It’s a call to action that challenges each of us to examine our role in reconciliation and to move beyond acknowledgment toward meaningful change. 

Our journey toward reconciliation 

At the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc), reconciliation is relationship-based. It is grounded in truth, trust, humility, and respect. In practice, that means acknowledging historical and ongoing injustices, dismantling barriers, and walking alongside First Nations, Inuit, and Métis partners to co-create meaningful, lasting change. 

We hear from communities how historical injustices intersect with geography to create compounded barriers to care. Recent research led by Dr. Terri Aldred, a Dakelh family physician, provides concrete evidence of this ongoing challenge through her study published in the Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine. Based on over 380 interviews across 107 rural BC communities, the research documents how Indigenous people continue to face systemic racism in healthcare settings, with participants describing being “racially profiled as drunk Indians” and having critical health issues overlooked or dismissed. This Indigenous-led study, rooted in RCCbc’s Rural Site Visits Project, also shares practical, community-driven solutions and introduces the “5Rs” framework (Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Relationship) to guide culturally safer care. 

Guided by Indigenous leadership and the TRC Calls to Action on health (18–24), with United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), our role is to listen, learn, and support Indigenous-led solutions. Our commitment is to concrete action. In practice, we: 

• Listen and learn: support Indigenous-led education such as Nawh Whu’nus’en – We See in Two Worlds and gatherings like the Indigenous Medical Education Gathering. 
• Strengthen cultural and psychological safety in teams and systems, applying community-driven tools and evaluation frameworks. 
• Co-develop solutions in areas such as rural transport, hybrid care, and Real-Time Virtual Support to improve equitable access. 
• Advocate for change so policies and practices reflect Indigenous rights and rural realities. 

Moving forward together 

Reconciliation requires humility and sustained effort. We do not have all the answers. We will keep listening to Indigenous communities and people about what healing and justice look like, act in good relation, and report openly on progress and gaps, knowing reconciliation is never complete.  

Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters 

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots day of remembrance. The orange shirt symbolises how identities, cultures, and families were taken from Indigenous children through residential schools. Wearing orange is one small act of solidarity among many needed to ensure every child is valued and safe.   

On this day and every day, we honor the resilience of Survivors, remember those who never came home, and commit to building a healthcare system—that serves all people with dignity, respect, and justice. 

To support your ongoing learning, we’ve assembled a list of resources: 

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action  
• Watch this video: Reconciliation: What does it mean? 
• Orange Shirt Society 
• RCCbc’s Commitment to Reconciliation: Find resources to support your reconciliation work and read more about Indigenous-led Health Initiatives at RCCbc 
• Compassionate Leadership Course: The Compassionate Leadership Community of Practice and its training program is led by Shawn and Heather Atleo. In sharing their teachings, Team Atleo hopes to inspire curiosity and spark interest in the value and practical application of Compassionate Leadership in the health care system. Read their achievements last year. 
• UBC Learning Circle, provides educational and informational opportunities to health care workers and professionals in First Nations communities  
• Native Land, a living resource to help identify territories, languages, and treaties 
• First Voices: web-based tools and services designed to support Indigenous people engaged in language archiving, language teaching and culture revitalization 
• University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies is offering a free online course on Indigenous Canada. 
• Support is available 24 hours through the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) toll-free crisis line at 1-800-721-0066.