Organizers of a march at the White Bear First Nations on Wednesday were overwhelmed as community members of all ages came out to show support and to honor the 215 children whose remains were discovered near a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.
The walk was organized by Tanya Littlechief, Dorothy Joyea, and Kem Joyea. Littlechief explained that she was approached by Dorothy and Kem Joyea, who are elders in the White Bear community, about doing something in memory of the children. They quickly organized a prayer walk that would include smudging, and end in a feast within the arbour at the Powwow Grounds. The walk started at Sam鈥檚 Gas and Grocery and lasted about an hour.
Those who participated in the walk were encouraged to wear their orange shirts, and members from the White Bear First Nations community wore their ribbon skirts to show support as well. Besides this, many others carried signs with them during the walk.
There were also those who paid tribute to the children by running. Shanelle Littlechief and Savannah Standingready ran ahead of the prayer walk, in spite of the warm weather, with an orange flag. They ran to represent the children, and to honor those who could never run themselves.
In the end, there was an overwhelming turnout, with approximately 100 people who came to show their support.
Tanya Littlechief explained what they wanted people to take from their prayer walk. She emphasized that she鈥檇 like to see children in schools taught about the history of what her people went through鈥攈istory that has been neglected. However, in general, she stated that their hope is to spread awareness to everyone.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want anybody to feel bad and we know a lot do. What we want is an awareness for people to start understanding the history of what our people went through and the people before us went through.鈥�
She explained that she hopes this walk and the awareness of First Nations history will cause people to have more compassion and understanding for the survivors who are still dealing with the trauma of their experiences in residential schools. She further stated, 鈥淪eeing what they saw on the news [about the 215 children whose remains were found] really impacted them鈥here鈥檚 still a lot more healing to do.鈥�
Tanya Littlechief also expressed her appreciation for the survivors and the way that they鈥檝e told their stories. They have helped the community to move forward despite everything.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e strong ones. They鈥檙e resilient鈥hey鈥檝e come a long way to make sure that we鈥檙e able to raise our kids the way our ancestors did a long time ago鈥hings are going to get better. And with working with the other surrounding communities, and them acknowledging the fact that this really happened, I think we鈥檒l have a better relationship with one another.鈥�
