As Canada Day celebrations are being replaced with commemorative ceremonies across the territory and the country, Indigenous leaders are calling on Canadians to reflect on the nationSA国际影视传媒檚 154 year history.

With recent discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential school sites, this year July 1 is taking a different tone.

Acknowledging the time it will take for Indigenous people to heal, Norman Yakeleya, Dene National Chief, proposes the day be renamed to Family Day to refocus celebrations on restoring that which was broken by decades of residential schools, the 60s scoop and efforts to separate families to SA国际影视传媒渢ake the Indian out of the child.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淲e want to reconcile with our own families and bring our people and our families back together again,SA国际影视传媒� Yakeleya said.

SA国际影视传媒淲e have been dealt not-a-good hand in this life, by Canada and we cannot celebrate that.SA国际影视传媒�

To walk the path of reconciliation, Yakeleya called on his own people to welcome change as well.

SA国际影视传媒淚f things are to change, we as Dene need to change. And that means we have to do it together as a family and put our family back together again.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檝e got to stop blaming the government and take responsibility for our life,SA国际影视传媒� he said, noting that forgiveness would not be an easy process since SA国际影视传媒渨e have every justifiable means to rationalize to blame and to point fingers.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淚f we want a good life, then we need to look at the things that would bring good into life,SA国际影视传媒� Yakeleya said.

He listed schooling, time on the land, SA国际影视传媒渓earning to talk about some of the deeper hurtSA国际影视传媒�, and SA国际影视传媒渂eing in a family where sobriety is the number one priority,SA国际影视传媒� as ways of moving towards healing.

While Yellowknife had originally planned to celebrate the countrySA国际影视传媒檚 anniversary with a parade, the City will now host a march up Franklin Avenue in recognition and honour of the children that died in residential schools. The march begins at 3 p.m. by the tennis courts across from the CBC building and will end at Somba KSA国际影视传媒檈 Park where residents can participate in a feeding the fire ceremony and listen to speeches and drumming in commemoration of residential school victims.

SA国际影视传媒淐anada is now being looked at under a microscope as to the true history of how it treated its treaty nation partners by the policies, by the attitudes and by the systemic racism that flows through their departments,SA国际影视传媒� Yakeleya said.

SA国际影视传媒淭he Aboriginals have always stated that this country is great,SA国际影视传媒� he said, but that SA国际影视传媒渨hen we (the Indigenous people) wanted to share, it didnSA国际影视传媒檛 mean that we wanted to be subject to racist policies.

Canada Day should be really changed back to Family Day because families were displaced, they were dispersed to residential schools, the 60s scoop, child welfare, the whole family was shattered. Canada cannot celebrate that.SA国际影视传媒�