National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21
st, is a time to celebrate, reflect and be thankful for the many relationships that Operation Lifesaver has with Indigenous communities across Canada.
In the past, OL has marked the day by sharing the rail safety message directly with Indigenous communities. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is preventing us from doing that this year. But we still want to take the opportunity to recognize this important day.
“We’re grateful that Operation Lifesaver was welcomed to so many Nations in the past year,” says Charlene Dishaw, Operation Lifesaver’s Western Regional and Indigenous Outreach Coordinator. “We extend a big thank you to those communities for their wisdom, outreach and dedication to safety."
Working together to prevent tragedies in Indigenous communities
Operation Lifesaver is committed to working with all communities to help keep their residents safe and avoid tragedies around the rails—and that includes Indigenous communities across the country.
“We’ve always supplied rail safety materials in both English and French, but we wanted to make sure that our safety message was also reaching Indigenous communities,” says Sarah Mayes, National Director of Operation Lifesaver Canada. “Translating our resources into Indigenous languages is just one of the ways we’re trying to do that.”
So far, we’ve translated our safety brochures, colouring and activity sheets for children, and virtual-reality videos into seven languages: Cree, Mohawk, Mi'kmaq, Ojibwe, Naskapi, Atikamekw, and Innu. We plan to provide these resources in more Indigenous languages in the future, so that we can reach more people.
Check out our
Indigenous resources, as well as a range of
other helpful material on our website. Share them with your friends and family—whether they speak English, French, Innu, Naskapi, Cree, Mohawk, Mi'kmaq, Ojibwe, or Atikamekw—and help us save lives.