This September 30, I am back in Winnipeg, the city where my life in Canada began in 2004. I came here as a student, and Winnipeg gave me my first Canadian home, my first Canadian classrooms, and my Canadian family. I lived here for ten years. Then came Halifax, in Mi’kma’ki, and for the past ten years Kamloops, on Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc territory within Secwepemcúl’ecw. I stand again on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples and the homeland of the Red River Métis, wearing my orange shirt beside letters painted with flowers, birds and a baby wrapped in a cradleboard. Every child matters.
What I have learned from coast to coast to coast
In each of these places, I have met Indigenous people: students in my classes, Elders who shared teachings, colleagues, friends and neighbours. I am grateful for their presence in my life. They have taught me what resilience looks like. It is the desire to learn, and the determination to keep language, culture and identity alive despite generations of policies designed to take them away. It is choosing to share knowledge with newcomers like me, even when so much was taken.
In my 2025 reflection, I wrote that Indigenous peoples welcomed Ukrainians to these lands more than a century ago, and they welcome newcomers still (Kondrashov, 2025). That truth stays with me every September 30.
Why we reflect
I teach my students that learning the Indigenous history of the land is critical, because people in power have often worked to erase that history. That work of erasure has not stopped. Residential school denialism, which minimizes and distorts the evidence rather than denying the schools outright, is growing, and a new book from University of Manitoba Press confronts it directly (Carleton & Sinclair, 2026). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s own essential history remains the best starting point for anyone new to this learning (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2016).
For social workers, reflection must include our own profession. The Canadian Association of Social Workers (2019) acknowledged its role in supporting residential schools and the child welfare approach that led to the Sixties Scoop, and apologized. The first five Calls to Action speak to child welfare (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015). This is our work to carry.
Reflection also means gratitude, and gratitude means action: remembering, and supporting Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world in protecting what the United Nations (2015) 2030 Agenda calls the five Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Indigenous nations cared for this land for generations to come long before any global agenda named these goals, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2007) affirms their right to keep doing so.
Heart languages
This morning I read about the Leq’áleq’el Video Series at the University of the Fraser Valley, where faculty tell their own journeys toward reconciliation in their home and heart languages (Surtees & Joe, 2026). The authors observed that storytellers moved away from institutional language and spoke from somewhere deeper. That resonated with me. My heart language is Ukrainian, and in it I say Кожна дитина важлива (Kozhna dytyna vazhlyva, “every child matters”). The words carry the children of residential schools, and they carry Ukrainian children taken from their homes during Russia’s war. Every child, in every country, at every point in history, matters (Kondrashov, 2024).
When I teach, I also draw on the Five R’s of Indigenizing learning: respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility and relationships (Tessaro et al., 2018). They are a good compass for this day and for every other.
The journey so far
I have written about September 30 for many years. In 2020, I connected Orange Shirt Day with the day of Sophia (Wisdom) and her daughters Vira (Faith), Nadiia (Hope) and Liubov (Love), as it was kept in the church calendar I grew up with (Kondrashov, 2020). In 2021 and 2022, my posts grew into lists of events, educational resources and Indigenous businesses to support (Kondrashov, 2021, 2022). In 2024, I asked how the message that every child matters could shape national days in other countries (Kondrashov, 2024). Last year, I wrote about coming home to Winnipeg after twenty years of building community (Kondrashov, 2025).
Thank you
September 30 is also the birthday of my Canadian Mama, whose care has been part of every day I have spent in Canada. Многая літа (Mnohaia lita, “many years,” the blessing we sing for birthdays)! I am grateful to the caregivers who stay with Mama in Kamloops so that I can be here today.
Thank you, Manitoba, for being my first home. Thank you to Indigenous peoples, for your presence and your teachings. And to my students at TRU, Dalhousie, Laurier and the University of Manitoba, and to everyone reading: keep learning, keep sharing and keep reflecting. I do it every day, on every territory I am on.
Resources to keep learning
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation: https://nctr.ca/publications-and-reports/reports/#trc-reports and https://www.youtube.com/c/NationalCentreforTruthandReconciliation
- Orange Shirt Society: https://orangeshirtday.org/
- The Indigenous Foundation: https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/what-is-the-national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation
- CASW Reconciliation Hub: https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/resources/casw-reconciliation-hub
- CASWE-ACFTS commitment to change: https://caswe-acfts.ca/about-us/our-commitment-to-change/
- OASW resources for social workers: https://www.oasw.org/EN/The-Social/Truth-and-reconciliation-resources-for-social-workers.aspx
- Podcasts: Media Indigena, Walking in Relation, and the University of Manitoba’s In Session episode with Dr. Blair Stonechild
References
Canadian Association of Social Workers. (2019). Statement of apology and commitment to reconciliation. https://www.casw-acts.ca/files/attachements/Statement_of_Apology_and_Reconciliation_FINAL_2021.pdf
Carleton, S., & Sinclair, N. J. (Eds.). (2026). Truth before reconciliation: Confronting residential school denialism. University of Manitoba Press.
Kondrashov, O. (2020, October 1). Orange shirt, faith, hope, love, wisdom and more about September 30 day. krasun.ca. https://krasun.ca/2020/10/01/orange-shirt-faith-hope-love-wisdom-and-more-about-september-30-day/
Kondrashov, O. (2021, September 25). National Day for Truth and Reconciliation events and educational resources. krasun.ca. https://krasun.ca/2021/09/25/national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-events-and-educational-resources%e2%80%af/
Kondrashov, O. (2022, September 29). 2022 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Events, educational and business resources. krasun.ca. https://krasun.ca/2022/09/29/2022-national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-events-educational-and-business-resources/
Kondrashov, O. (2024, September 30). Personal reflections on Orange Shirt Day and global truth and reconciliation. krasun.ca. https://krasun.ca/2024/09/30/personal-reflections-on-orange-shirt-day-and-global-truth-and-reconciliation/
Kondrashov, O. (2025, September 30). Coming home: A story of truth, reconciliation, and twenty years of building community. krasun.ca. https://krasun.ca/2025/09/30/coming-home-a-story-of-truth-reconciliation-and-twenty-years-of-building-community/
Surtees, V., & Joe, L. (2026, September 30). Internationalizing Truth and Reconciliation through multilingual storytelling. University Affairs. https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/internationalizing-truth-and-reconciliation-through-multilingual-storytelling/
Tessaro, D., Restoule, J.-P., Gaviria, P., Flessa, J., Lindeman, C., & Scully-Stewart, C. (2018). The five R’s for Indigenizing online learning: A case study of the First Nations Schools’ Principals Course. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 40(1), 125–[end page]. https://doi.org/10.14288/cjne.v40i1.196606
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to action. https://nctr.ca/publications-and-reports/reports/#trc-reports
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2016). A knock on the door: The essential history of residential schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. University of Manitoba Press.
United Nations. (2007). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
United Nations General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1). https://documents.un.org/Doc/Undoc/Gen/N15/291/89/Pdf/N1529189.pdf
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