Hon. Michèle Audette: [Editor’s Note: Senator Audette spoke in Innu-aimun.]

I want to thank the Anishinaabe people for welcoming us every day. I also want to thank the people who come from various territories.

Today I rise with a historical reminder. For millennia, autumn was a time when we were already settled in, after a long portage around our territories.

It took a lot of strength and resilience, but for decades, autumn has been a very emotional time, a time to remember and to commemorate, a time of pain, but also of healing and hope. Let’s spare a thought for Joyce Echaquan, who passed away in horrendous and unacceptable circumstances on September 28.

Thank you, Carol and Diane, for reminding us that life must go on, but that we, your allies, both men and women, must walk beside you.

On September 30, for our mothers, our fathers, our uncles and those who also left us in horrific circumstances, reconciliation is about collective efforts, whether they be legislative, economic or other efforts, and reconciliation brings healing.

I want to tell all the people we are slowly finding thanks to technology, but especially thanks to the power of people’s words, that they really did exist.

For all those who have a hard time believing these big truths, I would invite you to come and live at my house for a month to awaken your five senses to a collective history and collective strength.

On October 4, we also remember our stolen sisters, our daughters. Because they were Indigenous women, they were targeted for centuries, not just in recent times, but for far too long.

We must also remember our sisters in spirit. Thank you for guiding us during the national inquiry and for reminding us that there are calls for justice that must be honoured. I’m sending my warmest regards to you in the land of the caribou, and I want you to know that there are many of us walking alongside you. Thank you very much.