Miigwech. Charlotte, Reepa, the survivors here, the survivors across the land, Miigwech. Thank you.

We’re gathered here today on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation. Your Excellency the Governor General, colleagues, esteemed guests, on this day, both solemn and hopeful, allow me to begin by painting a picture that illustrates our journey.

At the beginning of my mandate as prime minister, I had an Indigenous painting installed outside the Cabinet room behind us in the West Block of Parliament. It’s called A Brief History of the Northwest Coast Design, by Luke Parnell, and it depicts a painful part of our shared history through 11 wooden panels, with images inspired by the design on the bentwood boxes and feast bowls of the Nisga’a and the Haida. The first few of… the first few of those panels burst with vibrant colours, and then with contact, those colours fade until the middle ones become smothered in white paint, a culture literally whitewashed. The final panels begin to resemble the original glory, with image – though marked by what has been endured – that are renewed and resurgent.

This painting captures the pain of suppression and assimilation, and the possibility of reconciliation and renewal. That possibility rests on truth. Truth is the foundation of justice, and the truth is, for more than a century, this country ran residential schools. Over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were taken from their families and their communities, torn from their languages, their cultures, and their identities.

Residential schools reflect the architecture of a policy of erasure. This is not a distant chapter, but a truth that endures.

Residential schools are a truth that survivors have carried with them when others would not. A truth recounted more than 6,500 times before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so we could no longer say that we did not know.

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we honour survivors and the children, the children who never returned home. We reflect on the devastating legacy of the residential school system. And we, as a government and as a people, we match remembrance with responsibility.

The responsibility to advance reconciliation. The responsibility to create conditions for renewal and recovery.

Canada’s new government is moving forward on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls for action. We’re advancing the calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. And we are implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.

(Applause)

I know we have a long way to go, but we are building together in health, in education, in economic opportunity, in housing. Upholding Indigenous rights and empowering Indigenous communities with security and prosperity.

Canada’s new government will also be a steadfast partner: by respecting self-determination, by recognizing that partnership begins with shared understanding, and by making equality and Indigenous participation a priority in the building of our country.

(Applause)

Thank you.

Because, while it’s vital that we build, it’s more important… it is vital how we build: with Indigenous leadership, Indigenous prosperity, Indigenous opportunity. These must be foundational from the start.

(Applause)

We pledge to build a future where survivors are honoured with remembrance, with justice, and with a stronger, fairer Canada.

A Canada made stronger by the resilience of Indigenous communities.

Reconciliation, as the Governor General, Her Excellency, reminded us, reconciliation is a generational task that must be lived and practised every day by every Canadian.

(Applause)

And it’s that point – that’s why I began with the painting – that’s why the pain of the repression and the possibility of renewal are the last images that I, as prime minister, and my ministers, see before we enter the Cabinet room to take some of the most important decisions in this country. It’s there so we remember what came before us. And so we are seized with the task ahead of us. We will not fail you.

Thank you very much. And long live Canada!