Memorial honouring 215 Indigenous children to stay on Saskatoon church steps
Ceremonies outside a Saskatoon church marked the end of the four day memorial, honouring the lives of 215 children found buried at the Kamloops Residential School.
The hundreds of shoes will continue to stay on the steps of St. Paul Co-Cathedral as a reminder of the mistreatment Indigenous children faced.
Paydahbin Aby started the memorial as a place for people to pay tribute and mourn the lives lost in residential schools.
“People needed a place to gather and grieve together,” Aby said.
She said the memorial also marks a place for conversation about residential schools and the “heinous” treatment of Indigenous people.
“They're not even schools, they were prisons for our children,” Aby told CTV News.
She’s calling for the government, Catholic churches and Pope Francis to acknowledge it as genocide.
Chenoa McArthur attended the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School. It was the last one in Canada to close in 1998, though by that time it was First Nations-operated and known as White Calf Collegiate.
“A lot of people think it’s ancient history and to just get over it ... It’s not ancient history,” McArthur said.
The Saskatoon memorial has grown over the past days, with hundreds of children’s shoes and stuffed animals covering the church steps.
Bishop Mark Hagemoen of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon said he said he acknowledges and honours the tribute, in a statement issued Sunday.
“Our culture is strong, we're not going anywhere. This is in our DNA. We're the grandchildren of the ones they couldn't disappear,” McArthur said.
Parts of the memorial will move to a sacred fire set up by the South Saskatchewan River, set to burn for four days.
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419. Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.