Some of the walkers taking part in last year's event. (Honouring Our Ancestors Little Pine Delmas Walk 2022/Facebook)

By Angela Brown

"Honouring our Ancestors"

Delmas Walk to honour residential school students and survivors planned for July 28

Jul 17, 2023 | 4:00 PM

The third annual “Honouring Our Ancestors” Delmas Walk will take place July 28 this year.

Participants will journey from Little Pine First Nation to the former site of the Thunderchild (St. Henri/Delmas) Residential School in the Delmas area. The school was in operation from 1901 to 1948, when it was burnt down and never rebuilt.

Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Inc. has been leading a project for a radar ground search for graves at the former residential school site that started in 2021.

Families and community members of former students from Thunderchild Residential School will take part in the upcoming walk. The event to honour survivors and former students will start at 7:30 a.m., with breakfast and an opening ceremony at Little Pine Hall. The 37.2 km walk will begin at Little Pine at 8:30 a.m. A lunch rest spot will be available at The Little Pine Cultural Grounds, near Poundmaker First Nation, off Highway 674. The walk will be followed by a drum reception, and an honouring event and supper at Delmas Community Hall starting at around 4:30 p.m., running to about 7 p.m.

More information about the walk is available on the Facebook Page: Delmas Walk: “Honouring Our Ancestors.”

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Sonia Pete, one of the event coordinators and a Little Pine member, believes the annual walk is an important event for the community.

“We made a commitment back in 2021 to do this for four years,” she said. “We’re in our third year, and it just keeps getting better and better every year. I feel like [we’re] creating awareness, and walking to honour all [residential school] students that not only attended the St. Henri Thunderchild Residential School, [but] all survivors and the ones that didn’t make it home. It’s dear to my heart that we’re doing this.”

Pete added her grandfather and his brother were students of the residential school in Delmas. That’s why she first became involved in this project when it started three years ago.

She mentioned last year many community members from Little Pine as well as Poundmaker took part.

“This year, we’ve invited all Nations, pretty much all the bands around the Delmas-North Battleford area,” Pete said. “We’ve sent invites to all neighbouring First Nations in hopes that they will join us, because we all have some connection within our communities to either Delmas or some residential school that operated within Saskatchewan. So, it will be good to see more folks out.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow