
It's Time to Go and Play Now: A poem
CBC
This First Person article was written by P.E.I. poet Cassidy Gallant. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
Cassidy Gallant is a Mi'kmaw woman and poet who grew up in Summerside, P.E.I. She is 20 years old, works at the Mi'kmaq Family Resource Centre and is a single mom.
Her great-grandmother was a survivor of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia — and now Gallant is writing poetry about the lasting harm of residential schools.
In May, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia revealed preliminary results from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School that detected the remains of more than 200 children could be buried at the site.
The revelation prompted First Nations across Canada to search the sites of former residential schools for unmarked graves. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimates 6,000 children died while attending the government-sanctioned schools designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children as part of a cultural genocide.
CBC asked Gallant if she would write a poem for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, a new national holiday.
Mi'kiju' is the Mi'kmaw word for grandmother, Metata is grandfather, and Tu's means daughter, Gallant says.

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