OTE Donates to Save The Evidence Campaign

Brantford / Six Nations, ON, August 3, 2021 – Original Traders Energy is dedicated to our First Nations communities as we continue to give back to organizations that will have a positive impact on our people and future generations. On August 3rd, 2021, Original Traders Energy made a donation of $5,000 to the Save the Evidence campaign. This generous donation will be put toward the fourth phase which is the Interpretation and Reopening of the site as the Woodland Cultural Centre has recently announced that the funding for phases one through three have been completed.

With the help of donations such as this one, the former Mohawk Institute Residential School will develop into an Interpreted Historic Site and Educational Resource. Upon completion the goal is to create a fully realized interpretive centre that will be the destination for information about the history of the Residential Schools in Canada, the experiences of Survivors of the schools and the impact that the Residential School system has had on our communities.

Upon donating to the Save the Evidence campaign, Original Traders Energy has also added orange “Every Child Matters” shirts to the back of the fuel trucks to encourage the awareness, education and impact that the Residential School system had on Indigenous People in Canada. This great idea came from one of our employees, Rob Lowe, who said, “After working on Six nations for almost 3 decades, I knew some of the issues native people would deal with every day, but didn’t really understand why, until 215 children were discovered in unmarked graves at a former Residential School, so I began my research. What I found was sickening, and unthinkable.

One day was I was walking out to our of trucks I stopped and looked at the back of one of our trailers, and I realize we had room to draw awareness to what happened to not just the 215 children, but every child that was taken from their families, and stripped of their language and so much more.

I called the owner Scott Hill, and suggested, that as an Indigenous company we should recognize and support the living and deceased members of all native communities with an orange shirt on the back of our trailers to bring awareness, and show support.” Thanks to our staff here at OTE and the Woodland Cultural Centre’s team, we were able to make this idea a reality and bring more awareness to surrounding communities.

For more information on the Save the Evidence campaign please visit https://woodlandculturalcentre.ca/donate/