THUNDER BAY – Students at Pope John Paul II School on Monday paid tribute to those who attended residential schools in generations past.
Many of the students donned orange shirts and listened to diversity messages in a broad range of languages, to mark Children’s Day at the site of the former St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School, where next spring a plaque will be unveiled to acknowledge a dark chapter in the country’s past.
Principal Don Grant said it was a chance to gather together in an intimate setting and teach the Grade 7 and Grade 8 students about the residential school era to make sure they understand what many of the region’s Indigenous people have gone through – and continue to go through today.
“We were able to explain the realities of the past. It had a lot of meaning for us here today. As we saw during the presentation the diversity of our school – not only Aboriginal students – but students from all cultures and backgrounds came together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope,” Grant said.
“That was our goal today and I think that was achieved.”
Thirteen-year-old Skyler Kwandibens was one of the speakers and said it’s important to keep the past in sight.
“I spoke about how we can remember what happened and to move on in a healthy way,” he said.
Grant said it was a fitting day to hold the ceremony in the south-side school’s gymnasium.
“It really highlights the importance of well-being for all of our students,” he said.
Students were also introduced to The Stranger, a video created as part of former Tragically Hip front-man Gord Downie’s The Secret Path project, detailing the life and death of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack, who died trying to escape a residential school in Kenora in the late 1960s, attempting to walk more than 600 kilometres to Ogoki Post.
Downie died earlier this year at 53.
“It showed (them) the harsh realities that existed. For some of our younger students, who weren’t aware of those unfortunate scenarios, it’s important to be able to get the facts straight, as our own government has through truth and reconciliation, decided to move forward through positive ways as we can, but to understand what has happened in the past,” Grant said.
The stone monument was unveiled earlier in 2017.
