Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie, front left, leaves a small teddy bear by the cairn during Monday's gathering to remember the lives lost. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Commemorative event

Many join in walk to gravesite to honour children lost to residential schools

Jun 1, 2021 | 12:24 PM

Tiny moccasins and teddy bears adorned the cairn at Battleford Industrial School children’s graveyard Monday evening where people gathered to remember.

They honoured the over 70 children buried there, as well as the 215 children recently found buried at the Kamloops residential school site.

Grant Beaudry of Mosquito, Grizzly Bear’s Head, Lean Man (MGBHLM) Economic Development Corp., says just as people were starting to heal, this is a wound now reopened.

“The creator will give us the love and forgiveness to get through this if we all work together,” he said.

Volleyball Provincials

JPII wraps up the season with 4th place

11h ago

NOV. 27, 1885

'We never forget our people': First Nations commemorate eight men lost in Canada's largest mass hanging

16h ago

Local Soccer

BUFC have a successful weekend in Saskatoon

Nov 27, 2024

Participants took part in a silent walk to commemorate the many lives lost in residential schools across Canada.

Edna Moosomin-Baker carried a pair of tiny moccasins in memory of the children buried at the Battleford area site and at the former Kamloops Residential School recently discovered.

“Nobody knew about them for so many years; they are acknowledged now,” she said.

Edna Moosomin-Baker of MGBHLM, front left, and Elvin Nicotine, from Red Pheasant First Nation, front right, carry children’s moccasins during the silent walk. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

Battlefords Mayors Ames Leslie and David Gillan, as well as MLA Jeremy Cockrill also participated in the event.

Leslie said MGBHLM Chief Tanya Aguilar-Antiman said it best that these souls can now go home after being lost for many, many years.

“I’m joyous they get to go home, but it is also a sad time in our country, our province and our community,” he said. “I say prayers for each and every soul that was lost in residential school, and those who survived because they have to live it every single day. As a municipality, we have many wrongs to correct. We are here to hopefully tell the history in the proper way going forward. We will work and consult with our great leaders, like Chief Tanya and Mr. Beaudry, and many more to come, and make sure this story gets told and everybody hears it.”

–

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow