By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

national day for truth and reconciliation

Little Souls Journey Home ceremony planned for Friday in Red Deer

Sep 28, 2022 | 11:27 AM

A ceremonial event this Friday at Red Deer’s City Hall Park (1-3 p.m.) will continue the healing journey left behind by the tragedy that is the approximate 150,000 Indigenous children swept away to residential schools.

Little Souls Journey Home, organized by Shining Mountains Living Community Services, is happening in partnership with Urban Aboriginal Voices Society, Métis Nation of Alberta, and the Red Deer Native Friendship Society.

At the event, a 42-panel community-created blanket will be presented, and it will become a travelling piece, with many Indigenous organizations and others already expressing a desire to display it.

“The intent of the event is to welcome home those children who didn’t get to come home, as well as the ones who did, but were in suffering. The day is for truth and reconciliation, of course, and to that end, we’ve created this blanket to be unveiled to the community,” says Raye St. Denys, executive director at Shining Mountains.

“Indigenous families always made blankets for their children, nieces or nephews, and most of the kids who went to residential school, whether they came home or not, never got those blankets made. That’s why I thought this would be the project we should undertake.”

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The project is funded by Canadian Heritage, notes St. Denys.

Also happening during Friday’s ceremony is an acknowledgment of recent work done by Red Deer RCMP.

Officers gathered with Indigenous community leaders on Sept. 21 at the downtown detachment to hold a ceremony and listen to teachings in the name of reconciliation.

St. Denys believes the detachment’s members have a firm grasp of the RCMP’s harsh connection to residential schools, which includes assisting with the removal of children from their homes.

National apologies from the RCMP occurred in 2004 and 2014.

“It meant a lot what we did earlier this month. They invited us — our knowledge keepers, elders and others — to come to their office. It recognized truth and reconciliation, as well as the fall equinox. The pipe was passed, songs were sung, we did a round-dance and we shared food,” says St. Denys, who is Cree-Métis. “I was taught that if you’re willing to share food and drink with someone, you can’t fight with them afterward. There has to be peace; so either that day meant something to us all, or we were being hypocrites.”

As for Friday, she hopes many people will want to be a part of what’s happening.

“About 150,000 children were placed in those residential institutions. Only about half came home,” she says. “Those were First Nations children, Métis children and Inuit children. It’s important we remember this, and that all of our nations need to follow this hard path.”