Halifax quilters to donate their creations to residential school survivors

A group of sewing enthusiasts in Halifax will be donating a handful of quilts to residential school survivors after spending National Day for Truth and Reconciliation working on them together.

Sally Gaal, the owner of Sew With Vision, said she closed her store on Saturday as a sign of respect.

Truth and Reconciliation Day is not a mandatory closing day for businesses in Nova Scotia.

"I wanted to acknowledge the day by closing the store and [by] having people in to sew quilts with us to make up for a tiny amount of the atrocities that the Canadian government has done through the decades," Gaal said Saturday.

"It's just an acknowledgement and a very small piece of reconciliation that us as quilters can do."

Gaal was joined by five other volunteers at her store Saturday, many wearing orange and all hard at work. 

Gaal had completed one quilt early in the day, and was hoping to have three quilt tops finished by the end of the day. 

She said she plans to get the tops quilted so the group can donate four completed quilts to Quilts for Survivors, an Ontario-based non-profit organization that started in 2021, after the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

The organization, which was started by Vanessa Genier of Missanabie Cree First Nation, collects quilts to be given to survivors of the Sixties Scoop and residential and day schools.

Genier said there are an estimated 40,000 survivors living in Canada, and it will require the entire nation to heal all of her people.

"I'm an avid quilter and I'm Indigenous, and giving a blanket and hides and furs has a long tradition in my culture," she said.

"And, being a quilter, I know the power that quilts have to bring healing and comfort, and so I'm using my gifts and my culture to bring healing to the nations of my people."

She said she appreciates the efforts of the quilters in Halifax.

"A lot of times we're thinking, 'What can I do? How can I help?' and this is a way that you can help. You can take your gift of quilting and use it to help others heal," she said.

Kathryn Grant, who has been sewing for 40 years, said she didn't know about the organization until she heard about the event at Gaal's shop.

She said she wanted to participate to honour National Truth and Reconciliation Day and as a way to give back.

"It's just so important and I feel that all the tragedies of the past, we owe them so much," Grant said.

"And … the ultimate goal is for us to be able to reconcile and be together as people should be."

Grant said true reconciliation has to happen in small ways, as well as big ways, and quilts are a good way of doing that.

"I remember a little rhyme … it says, 'if you sleep under a quilt, you sleep under a blanket of love,'" she said.

"And I think the love that we put into it as we make it and put it together, it just shows the people that we do care and we do want to do better."

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.