September 30, 2021 is significant because it was the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. In a Windsor Star news article entitled “Hundreds Gather for Healing Walk on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,” Mona Stonefish is quoted as saying: “I am here with an empty cradleboard because I want you to be responsible for what is happening and what has happened to us in this province of Ontario and all across Turtle Island.”^1(footnote)

The Windsor Star article explains that the Ontario government did not recognize the important day as a statutory holiday. Mona Stonefish’s response to the provincial government is quoted in the article: “In this province we cannot be honoured for one second, one minute.”

The article continues;

“Stonefish said Thursday she encourages First Nations children and families to learn their languages and reclaim their cultures.

For non-Indigenous people attending Thursday, Stonefish said simply donning an orange shirt wasn’t enough.

‘I stand here as a grandmother, as a witness, to say …You think these orange shirts are enough? No, they’re not,’ Stonefish said. ‘What we need is some land back. I am proud to stand here today because I have around me the young people speaking the language.’

‘If you take nothing else that you learn from today, you leave our children alone. You tried and tried to take our language and our culture, and you failed. This is an empty cradleboard.’”