- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

True to their word, the young adults of the Saugeen Abinoojinh Zagaswe’idiiwini youth council in Saugeen First Nation replaced the orange solidarity ribbons on the Zgaa-biig-ni-gaan Bridge over the Saugeen River on Saturday evening.

“This is personal for us,” the members of the youth council said, as they went about their work. “We are all third generation residential school survivors.”

The Saugeen youth expressed their concern about the sudden removal of the solidarity ribbons, and say they informed the municipality of Saugeen Shores of their intention to replace the ribbons themselves if the municipality did not respond by Saturday evening.  With the support of friends and relatives who helped them make the large orange bows, they completed the full length of well-trafficked bridge at the northern end of Southampton.

The Saugeen Abinoojinh Zagaswe’idiiwini youth council believe this topic should be present consistently in all our surrounding areas, especially those considered treaty land. They want communities surrounding Saugeen First Nations to know that this is not simply a trend that has disappeared with the next news cycle.

Most of the orange ribbons placed by the City of Owen Sound were also removed shortly after Canada Day.

The bridge in Southampton was named Zgaa-biig-ni-gaan which means ‘we are connected’ or more precisely, ‘from one end to the other, we are connected’, at a large community celebration on National Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2018.