A St. John's garden is being designed to honour survivors of residential schools

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Residential school survivor Emma Reelis is standing in a St. John's garden that is overgrown with weeds as she recounts the pain of what happened at schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. There was physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Children lost their languages and cultures.

"I can only speak for myself. I know there are a lot of people who don't like talking about residential schools but I want to talk about it because a lot of people were abused and never went home," said Reelis, an Inuk woman who for five years attended the Yale School in North West River, in central Labrador. 

"A lot of people had babies when they were in residential school because they were sexually abused… children having children."

Reelis accepts that some people choose not to speak about it but she urges those who can to do it.

"We're getting our story out and I think it should come out. It should be spoken about. It should be talked about so it won't happen again," she said. "I think that by us talking about it we can help other people who were abused in orphanages and foster care too."

The Residential School Memorial Garden will soon replace the ragged green space where Reelis is speaking to CBC. Its goals will be healing and education.

The garden is now being designed for First Light, an Indigenous organization that supports thousands of indigenous people in the St. John's area with cultural and recreational programs and services.

The memorial garden will be behind First Light's headquarters at 40 Quidi Vidi Rd., outside offices known as Caledonia Place. The building had once been St. Joseph's church.

The neglected green space has been reclaimed by urban plants that thrive in disturbed soil, including dandelions, maple saplings and hemlock.

That's going to change.

"It's going to be really, really beautiful. There will be Labrador trees, the kudlik lamp and the inukshuk. The First Nations talking circle and drumming," said Reelis.

The garden will mark the experiences of those who attended residential schools operated by either the International Grenfell Association or the Moravian Missionaries in the communities of St. Anthony, Cartwright, North West River, Nain and Makkovik.

Elders like Reelis have influenced the plans for the garden, which will be built by Mills and Wright Landscape Architecture Inc.