Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

walk for 215 children

Walk held to honour residential school victims

Jun 4, 2021 | 8:58 PM

Close to 100 people gathered at Centre 2000 Friday evening to participate in a walk to honour the 215 children whose remains were confirmed to be buried at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia last month.

Those participating in the walk were asked to wear an orange shirt in support of the walk.

While on the walk there was Indigenous messaging where people were asked to lay candles to remember those who were lost, as well as place painted rocks on the trail, which is meant to represent strength.

Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

April Stallon, Grade 6 teacher, was one of the attendees of the walk on Friday, who says she attended the walk because she wanted to lead by example for her students and show her support for those who went through the residential schooling system.

“I want to show them (my students) just to go out and be a part. Maybe if you haven’t experienced it yourself, (it’s sometimes important) to feel vulnerable and support those who are going through this.”

She adds the last week and a bit has been a good opportunity to continue educating her students on the impact the residential schooling system has had in Canada.

“We talked about it, watched news clippings and had an open forum discussion on residential schools and the impacts of them. I then let some of my Indigenous students speak (about) residential schools and their family members (experiences).”

Stallon also felt it was important to note that as a teacher, she feels many Indigenous students would greatly benefit from being able to speak to a mental health professional about this topic.

“As teachers, we do the best we can, but we are not mental health professionals.”

She also wanted to stress the importance of teaching about Indigenous cultures and Canada’s history surrounding residential schools.

Another attendee, Muriel Laboucan, brought her children with her to the walk.

As someone who had family that attended residential schools, she felt it was important to show her support.

“My grandparents went to residential school, they went to day school. The stories they told us weren’t as bad as some of the stories that I’ve heard,” Laboucan said.

“I’ve been talking to my kids about the residential schools. We’ve watched movies like Indian Horrors. It’s something we want to teach our kids (about) and it’s something we are thankful that we don’t have to go through anymore.”

In an interview with EverythingGP earlier this week, organizer Lucia Lavigne hoped that this walk would be able to help grow the conversation around residential schools, especially with the younger generation.

“To facilitate this conversation, I think it’s okay to tell them about how some children didn’t get the chance to play, some children didn’t get the chance to move forward with their lives because of different government bodies, and just understanding that their voices are important and to move forward they need to understand our path so we can prevent anything like this from happening again in the future,” says Lavigne.

“And to also understand the trauma that may have happened in other people’s lives and to be welcoming towards everyone.”

Lavigne added she and her children will go back to the park Saturday morning and clean up the candles and anything else left behind on the trail from the walk.