Will we ever know the full extent of the stories behind each of the deaths of these children who were forcibly taken from their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters aunties and uncles and grandparents, from their language, their food, their villages, their places of safety and security. From home. And this happened for over 100 years. And we were silent or ignorant. We were complicit.
At the event I spoke with the key organizer, Cecelia Reekie who is an intergenerational survivor. I had the privilege of working with Cecelia for several years on the interchurch committee that has been organizing a Walk for Reconciliation with Residential School Survivors for the past six years. Cecelia is a courageous and tireless worker for justice in this area. It’s not that long ago that she met her own birth mother and First Nations birth father who was also a school survivor. After that reunion she was able to more fully connect with the person she is at heart, the place she comes from and the struggle of her people. You can hear her tell her story given at TEDx Langley a few years ago.
Cecilia said to me, that she feels like this discovery at the graveyard and the ones that will surely follow is the last chance for something to fundamentally change in Canadians, for Indigenous people to see justice done with regard to this genocide, with regard to land claims, and in relation to the many injustices that must be addressed. It was said with hope but also with some weariness. We cannot waste this moment in our history.