Sachigo Lake members to start memorial walk for Daniel Levac

Members of Sachigo Lake First Nation will begin a 1,000 kilometre walk from their community to Thunder Bay on Tuesday in memory of a high school student who was killed in the city last fall.

Daniel Levac, who was originally from Sachigo Lake, was fatally stabbed outside a movie theatre in October. He was in Thunder Bay attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations high school.

The walk is being spearheaded by Robert Barkman, a former staff member at the school.

"It means a lot to him,"said DFC principal Jonathan Kakegamic. "It's part of his healing journey too."

Staff and students from the high school will join the Sachigo Lake walkers as they get closer to Thunder Bay, Kakegamic added.

Fundraising for a student living centre

The trek is also designed to raise money for a proposed living centre for students attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school. 

The project was announced just over two years ago. At the time, it was estimated to cost about $15 million to build.

Having a residence for students from remote communities who are attending the high school remains an important initiative, Kakegamic said.

"We do need a residence for our students here at Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school," he said. "I'm really encouraged that it's coming from the grass-roots level, from the reserves that we are serving."

A similar walk in 2013 from Sachigo Lake to Thunder Bay raised $75,000 in donations.

Daniel Levac was the eighth First Nations student — the seventh from Dennis Franklin Cromarty school — to die in the city since 2000. There are no high schools is the small fly-in communities that send their students to the city for secondary education.