Manitoba residential school survivors taking gift bundle to Kamloops, B.C.
Bundle includes ashes of sacred fire that burned for 4 days at Manitoba Legislative Building
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
A group of Manitoba residential school survivors is driving from Winnipeg to Kamloops, B.C., to deliver gifts in honour of the children buried near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The bundle includes the ashes of a sacred fire that burned from May 29 to June 2 on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building, after the discovery of a burial site that preliminary findings suggest contains the remains of 215 children.
"It's a really tragic event, but they also pulled us all together," said Vivian Ketchum, a grandmother and residential school survivor who is part of the group heading to B.C.
"It's pulling out my memories, really, very strongly and I'm trying to use that in a positive way by going on this trip and speaking out."
Chickadee Richard and Geraldine (Gramma) Shingoose are also with Ketchum. They left Winnipeg on Monday and plan to arrive in B.C. on July 5.
They plan to stop in Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, where what are believed to be 751 unmarked graves were found near the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School. The group from Manitoba will deliver some of the more than 3,000 paper cranes created by members of the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba.
Other items in the bundle include a Treaty 1 territory flag, a Métis sash, child and infant moccasins, a child's star blanket, an eagle feather, a child's orange T-shirt, a medicine bag and painted rocks.
Community members donated all of the items in the bundle.
The discovery of what are believed to be unmarked burial sites in Kamloops by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation shocked many Canadians and drew international attention to the former Indian residential school system in Canada.
Searches at several other former residential schools have uncovered hundreds more suspected burial sites, including in Brandon, Man.
With files from Meaghan Ketcheson and Cameron MacLean