Indigenous calls to action remain unfulfilled by Canada

With the sacred roar of “Thunder Falls” providing the background accompaniment, students from across Niagara joined Indigenous leaders to mark the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Niagara Falls was a “very significant spiritual place for the Haudenosaunee,” said Josh Manitowabi, an assistant professor of Indigenous history at Brock University, referring to the people who make up the Six Nations Confederacy.

“It was home to the thunder birds. They say the thunder birds lived behind the falls at one time. It was known as Thunder Falls,” he said.

For the first time Tuesday morning, several hundred Niagara Catholic District School Board students — most wearing bright orange t-shirts — walked beside the thundering water from the power station, gathering at Oakes Garden Theat