Participants gather the wooden markers with orange ribbons at the Don Ross Centre Hill to carry the commemorative display to Red Pheasant's urban reserve. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Truth and reconciliation

Strong support for Honouring Walk; Flag-Raising ceremony

Sep 29, 2021 | 4:34 PM

The City of North Battleford, Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Inc. (BATC), Red Pheasant Communications representatives, as well as many other supporters, came together Wednesday at the Don Ross Centre hill, as part of the Honouring Their Voices Walk.

The Town of Battleford, local residents as well as many Sakewew High School students also participated as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Day initiatives taking place in the community.

During the summer, the City of North Battleford installed 215 stakes with orange ribbons, as well as signs that read “remember,” “respect,” “reflect, and “reconcile,” at the base of the Don Ross Centre Hill, to commemorate the lives of the 215 children found buried at the site of a former residential school in the Kamloops, B.C., area, as well as all children lost to residential schools in Canada.

As the outdoor memorial had to be moved to clear the area for winter tobogganing activities, the partners decided it would be a good opportunity to relocate the display to the Red Pheasant Cree Nation urban reserve within North Battleford so it can be maintained.

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“We have such a great relationship with our First Nation partners. We want to continue the awareness,” North Battleford Mayor David Gillan said of the effort. “It’s everybody coming together to pay homage to this important [initiative].”

Those taking part in Wednesday’s event gathered all the stakes from the Indian Residential School Children’s memorial display and carried them in a public walk through North Battleford to Red Pheasant Cree Nation’s urban land, just off Territorial Drive in North Battleford, near Centex Gas Bar.

The BATC said the display will be set up there until a more permanent location is created.

BATC’s Alexis Christensen, who is also councillor with the Town of Battleford, said she appreciates seeing the municipalities and area First Nations working together for common goals.

“The City of North Battleford has asked us to help move the memorial to another location. In a few months time this hill will be a sliding hill for all the youth in our community. So we’re looking forward to the partnerships, and those continued relationships we build every day,” she said.

Flag-raising ceremony in Battleford

The Town of Battleford held a flag-raising ceremony for the Treaty 6 and Métis Nation flags earlier in the day Wednesday, also a historic moment to recognize National Truth and Reconciliation Day, which takes place Sept. 30.

The Town of Battleford, area First Nation representatives, as well as North Battleford Mayor David Gillan and Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill gather during a special flag-raising ceremony outside the Battlefords Town Hall on Wednesday. (Submitted photo/Alexis Christensen)

Representatives from the the Town of Battleford, area Indigenous communities, as well as North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, and Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, and some local school children also took part in the ceremony.

(Submitted photo/Town of Battleford)

Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie was glad to see the event was such a success.

“We had the Honour Song, and Indigenous veterans there on behalf of the Indigenous community to raise the flags,” Leslie said. “[These flags] will now permanently fly outside the Town of Battleford with all the other flags that we fly at town hall. It was very fitting, the timing. I think it is going to go a long way to send a message that the Town of Battleford is all about inclusion, recognizing the Indigenous communities and our shared history.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow