(Photo: Red Deer Polytechnic)

By rdnewsNOW staff

healing process

Honouring the Children 2.15 Mile Walk at Red Deer Polytechnic

Jun 25, 2021 | 5:58 PM

Earlier today, Indigenous community members, along with Red Deer Polytechnic students and employees, walked 2.15 miles on campus to commemorate the 215 Indigenous children whose remains were discovered at an Indian Residential School in Kamloops.

For Lloyd Desjarlais, Red Deer Polytechnic Director of Indigenous Initiatives, the walk was also a unified forum to help with the healing process from the recent tragic events.

“The importance of this walk was to honour and remember the 215 children who were found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, as well as those who have since been discovered and those who have yet to be found,” he says.

“By gathering together for this walk, we provided a safe and respectful space to help people in our post-secondary community who are affected by the findings.”

The idea for the 2.15-mile walk originated with fourth-year Red Deer Polytechnic Business student, Justice Soosay, who is an intergenerational survivor. Upon hearing about the discovery of the 215 children, she recognized that the ongoing impacts of the Indian Residential School system were coming together all at once: from her own family history, to the racism directed at Edmonton Oilers defenceman Ethan Bear, to the widespread grief and outrage from the Kamloops discovery.

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The walk, with the symbolic distance of 2.15 miles, allowed people to gather as allies, acknowledging the continuing need for change in Canada. Given the ongoing discoveries of Indigenous children’s remains at Residential School sites across Canada, truth continues to be discovered, and the essential need for ongoing truth and reconciliation is being highlighted across our nation.

As a post-secondary institution, Red Deer Polytechnic is committed to reconciliation and to creating an inclusive, culturally diverse campus for all people. Today’s walk provided an opportunity for those from the Polytechnic to demonstrate their commitment to these beliefs. By coming together, participants had the opportunity to remember the lives of all children who were lost, while also demonstrating support for all survivors and inter-generational survivors of the Residential School System.

(media release)