Volunteers at residential school memorial won’t leave until city commits to new monument
CTV
The volunteers who have been keeping a vigil over a memorial to children who died in residential schools say they have no plans to leave Robson Square until the city delivers a commitment to create a permanent monument.
The volunteers who have been keeping a vigil over a memorial to children who died in residential schools say they have no plans to leave Robson Square until the city delivers a commitment to create a permanent monument.
Haida artist Tamara Bell created the tribute in May of 2021, just after the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc announced the discovery of 215 possible unmarked children’s graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
“It was so important that I do something rather than just sit by myself and be so completely traumatized,” Bell told CTV News.
Bell went out and bought 215 pairs of tiny shoes and set them up on the steps on the south side of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The memorial quickly became a gathering place for people to share their grief.
“It has been an incredible space for healing. And we as Indigenous people in Vancouver, we don’t really have anywhere to go,” she said.
Bell has not had any formal involvement with the site since the first few days nearly two years ago – but she supports a group of volunteers that took over its maintenance.
