Oliver, B.C. students paint tipi in honour of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Global News
Students from Oliver Elementary, Tuk El Nuit, and Sen’Pok’Chin were given the to leave an orange handprint on the canvas.
Over 100 students from Oliver and Osoyoos, B.C., were invited to paint a tipi in honour of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Wednesday’s event was a part of the We Will Recover Society’s Unbroken Together initiative, an opportunity for the community to come together on a path to recovery, resistance and reconciliation.
“The trauma that the Indigenous children and families suffered was horrible and those impacts are still very obvious today and we need to work with our Indigenous community and support one another,” said We Will Recover Society executive director Lori Vrebosch.
“What this tipi represents, is what we can achieve when we work together and raise awareness and actual truth and reconciliation.”
On Wednesday students from Oliver Elementary, Tuk El Nuit, and Sen’Pok’Chin were given the opportunity to leave an orange handprint on the tipi canvas
The public was also invited to participate in the painting however organizers say it was important for them to first involve local students.
“Our goal is 500 hands because we believe that Oliver and Osoyoos and this community care deeply about recovery and reconciliation,” said Vrebosch.
“The significance and having the children paint is that the orange hand represents the children who were taken into residential schools through the awful history that Canada has and how we treated our Indigenous people.”