Rally for pride
June 26th 2021, 3pm
We the Sunshine Coast Pride Dance Committee are deeply saddened and horrified by the June 24 announcement of preliminary findings of more than 750 unmarked graves near a former residential school at Cowessess First Nation Saskatchewan, on top of the 215 unmarked graves discovered near a former residential school at Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C.
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We stand in solidarity with our Indigenous friends, neighbours, family and home communities who are grappling with these crushing discoveries, even as we acknowledge these truths have always already been known and voiced by elders and others.
June is both National Indigenous History Month and Pride Month. In the words of Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet Audre Lorde, “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
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In the spirit of solidarity, the Pride Dance Committee will be using the June 26 Pride Rally to show our support for the broader Indigenous community and those in the LGBTQ2S+ community who identify as Indigenous, and to stand in struggle and defiance against the deep-seated colonial attitudes and institutions that continue wreaking havoc on Indigenous lives.
We encourage all those participating in the rally and spectators to wear orange in solidarity with shíshálh, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Tla'amin Nations, and all Inuit, Métis and First Nations impacted by the residential 'school' system.
We will continue to seek ways of pushing back against these colonial powers in our daily lives and to stand proudly for inclusion, acceptance and love. We will gather and hold strength for those most in need.
Residential School Survivors and their families can seek emotional and cultural support by calling the 24-hour National Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.
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Launching from Halfmoon Bay Elementary School Parking Lot
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Decorate your car and yourself and join us for a car rally from Halfmoon Bay to Gibsons in celebration of queer visibility. We hope to see your support cheering safely from the sides of the route. Dress Up! Cheer! Wave your flags!
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EVENT TO FOLLOW PUBLIC HEALTH ORDERS AND GUIDELINES AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
The Sunshine Coast Pride Dance Committee is grateful to organize and celebrate on the unceded, ancestral and traditional lands of shíshálh, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Tla'amin Nations.
We acknowledge we have to work together to heal.
Be Safe & Follow the Rules of the Road!
A special Thanks to Mariann at the London Drugs PhotoLab in Gibsons for all her efforts working with the Sunshine Coast Pride Dance Committee to make decorative magnets to be used on our vehicles during the Rally
