Students and teachers at St. Mary’s School honoured the 215 children buried at a former Kamloops Indian Residential School site earlier this month.
Lana Klemetski, the principal of the school, explains what they did.
“We wanted to make our students aware of current events in the country, and with all of the residential school history, it’s important to have truth and reconciliation,” she said. “One of the teachers came up with this idea to put 215 orange flags as a visible sign on our trees outside. All the students and staff participated, we had a teacher that said a prayer, and she laid tobacco as an offering.”
“We were praying for the victims every morning on morning announcements, and the classrooms did lots of artwork and projects, and they were hanging in the hallways. It was really important for all of our students to know and bring that awareness towards them.”
The tribute to the fallen children comes as many people and schools across Canada are honouring the children. Klemetski said that it’s important to remember the children and have discussions in classrooms about what happened.
“Within our curriculum, we want to address Canadian history but also the injustices within residential schools. A large part of that is to grow compassion and understanding for one another, and that could help build positive relationships for the future, so that’s part of our school goals as well.”
She said that since they put the flags out, they have heard students engaged in the topic.
“We’ve heard a few comments from students about a family member, or their aunt went to a residents school, or they know someone who went to a residential school. We’ve had some of those discussions, and kids are opening up and talking about that and how difficult it was for their family members to speak about it,” she said. “That brings it around to home. You can hear that someone else is feeling or having the same experience that another student is having, so it’s a nice way to share as well.”
She added that they feel kids can talk about issues if they are brought to life by adults around them, and they know it’s acceptable and it’s a positive thing to talk about.
