Stanley C. Hunt says it’s hard to explain how he felt when he heard in May 2021 that about 200 potential burial sites had been discovered at the former Kamloops First Nations Residential School.
But the product of a B.C. artist’s grief is now on display at a museum in Gatineau, Kenya, not far from the government’s seat of government where Canada’s boarding school system transformed the lives of Indigenous children and families.
Mr. Hunt, a Kwagwu sculptor from Tsakusuis (Fort Rupert) on British Columbia’s Pacific coast, has transformed schools by designing and constructing rugged monuments carved with the faces of unsmiling young people. We have processed the harsh memories of 2021 that remind us of its destructive legacy.
“In fact, some of them are dead,” Hunt said. “With this, I wanted to tell the truth about a really dark time in our history that should never have happened.”
Officially announced on Monday
The monument’s public dedication will take place at the Canadian Museum of History at 6 p.m. on Monday, National Truth and Reconciliation Day to reflect on the legacy of boarding schools.
Schools, often run by the Catholic Church with federal support, were a tool for assimilating Indigenous peoples into settler societies, separating thousands of children from their families and depriving them of their culture. and separated from the language.
Dozens of reports from the time the school operated from 1880 to 1996, and beyond, highlight the harsh fate of children in the facility, including sexual and physical abuse, and in some cases, death. I’m doing it.
These findings were summarized in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, released in 2015, following years of testimony from survivors, community members, and families, among others.
Hunt’s parents were also in attendance. Boarding School in Alert Bay, British Columbiahe says, but Hunt is a survivor of the ’60s scoop.
He hopes his work (now permanently housed at the Gatineau Museum of Art, just across the Ottawa River from Parliament House) will help people heal.
The main part of the monument was carved from a giant red cedar trunk. Each child’s face is enclosed inside a square surrounded by orange trim.
A cross with an upside-down maple leaf and the acronyms “RCMP” and “NWMP” (North West Mounted Police) looms large in front.
Those symbols are flipped and reflected above your head police collusionthe church and the federal government in the residential school system, Hunt said.
“Some people may be offended by seeing a cross upside down, but I’m quite offended by the reason the cross is upside down,” he said.
A two meter high crow crouches on top of the monument. The lighting in the Four Seasons Salon (a dedicated space for the memorial) on the lower level of the museum casts the shadow of a crow on one wall.
High windows on the opposite wall of the salon overlook the Canadian Children’s Museum on the second floor.
Part of the crow’s beak is orange because, as Hunt explained, “He carries the seed of life. He will help find the children. He will touch their souls. I’m asking you to go home.”
Despite the museum setting, people are allowed and even encouraged to touch the monument, Hunt said. He noted that the elders who inspected the work during the long journey from B.C. to Gatineau felt compelled to do so.
“People actually reached out and hugged it and said to them: [stories] “About boarding school,” he said.
Its base was shaped so that a person could sit on it, said Caitlin McCormick, a curator at the museum.
“We are truly honored to have been chosen as a permanent home for Stan’s work,” she said.
Admission to the museum is free on Mondays. You can also watch the unveiling ceremony live. facebook and YouTube.
Support is available to anyone affected by their own experiences in residential schools, intergenerational trauma, or the latest reports.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line was established to provide support to survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour National Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.
