The weight of this year’s walk was heavier than previous years in that the news story about the discovery of 215 child graves at the Kamloops Residential school had just broken the Friday morning. Our walk begins across the river from the Kwantlen nation on Friday evening. We start out our walk along River Road, and it is not lost on any of us that one of the prominent landmarks on the reserve is the often-photographed little white Church of the Holy Redeemer. Many of the Kwantlen elders who live in the shadow of the church, attended residential schools and their stories are heartbreaking to hear.
Our annual walk has always ended on the Sunday at the former residential school site and this time as we approached the school on the rise we were met by a circle of Indigenous Women who were holding a prayer vigil for the children of Kamloops Residential School who never returned home and for the children of St. Mary’s. The work of finding those graves has yet to begin. The women generously welcomed us into the circle, smudged each of us as they continued to tell their own stories and sing, pray and drum.
We walk as the united churches of Langley in the spirit of Reconciliation. It seems so inconsequential in light of these terrible discoveries. The road of reconciliation is long and lined with sorrow.