Orange Shirt Day Hike - September 30, 2022

For the last few weeks, I have been away on vacation in India and didn’t get time to do the weekly post. There is quite a backlog of trips to post, but this week, I will do a brief post on the Orange Shirt Day hike on Coquitlam Crunch.

Orange Shirt Day

September 30 is Orange Shirt Day, and since 2021, it is also recognized as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the children who never returned home, survivors of residential schools, and their families and communities.

I organized a hike with BC Mountaineering Club to increase awareness about this day and support the reconciliation process. Compared to last year, I chose an easier hike (Coquitlam Crunch) and got a better response. It was 15 of us, including me, Kavya and Kasturi.

Around 5 pm, the group got together at the Lansdowne Parking Lot of Coquitlam Crunch. We were all wearing Orange t-shirts. It was a mixed group with members from BCMC and a couple of people from Cummins – the company Kasturi and I work for.

At Cummins, I lead an Indigenous Relations project, and we have a team of 20 volunteers working on initiatives related to Indigenous communities. Specific to Orange Shirt Day, we worked with an Indigenous artist Carla Joseph to create an artwork. We then used this artwork to print 1000 t-shirts for our employees across Canada. Fullline Specialties, a minority vendor, coordinated all the logistics and printed the t-shirts through Thinkwerx, an Indigenous business based in Northern Alberta.

Orange Shirt Day T-shirt — Cummins – Orange T-shirt with artwork from Carla Joseph

A week later (October 5), at Cummins, we worked with an organization named Backpack Buddies to pack 1000 packs of breakfast items (apples, juice boxes, cereals, etc.). These packs go to kids across communities in BC, including Indigenous communities. I feel fortunate to work for an employer that supports these initiatives and is committed to making a difference in the community.

Territory Acknowledgement

Before starting the hike, I read the Territory (Land) Acknowledgement –

“We acknowledge that the Orange Shirt Day – Coquitlam Crunch Hike is taking place on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem First Nation). We thank the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm who continue to live on these lands and care for them, along with the waters and all that is above and below.”

Source: https://www.kwikwetlem.com/land-acknowledgement.htm

Since last year, I have shared the Territory Acknowledgement on each Canada-specific post. I start with the Native Land website to identify the Indigenous territories and then use websites like this to get the correct pronunciation for each Indigenous community.

Coquitlam Crunch Hike

Around 5:20 pm, we started our hike. First, we hiked up to Landsdowne Drive, crossed it and then got on the stairs to the East (right) side. There are about 450 steps with an elevation gain of 80 m, and it is my go-to place for a quick workout.

Higher up, we crossed the upper Lansdown Drive, David Ave, and Panorama Dr. It took us just under forty minutes to arrive at the top of Coquitlam Crunch. It was about 2.2 km with close to 250 m elevation gain.

After a 10-minute break, we hiked down and arrived at the parking lot around 6:45 pm. It was a short hike, but it was good to get together with a diverse group and increase awareness about Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

If you are in Canada, please learn about the Indigenous communities using some of the resources listed below and do your part to support reconciliation. Thank you!