Memorial garden planned for NVIT campus

The Conayt Friendship Society has received funding to help build a memorial garden to honour the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

“In consultation with community elders, Chiefs, parents of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, it has been decided that a memorial serenity garden ill be developed on the grounds of the NVIT campus,” wrote Kelly L’Hirondelle, Conayt Executive Director.

Conayt received the funding for the project from Women and Gender Equality Canada. NVIT is also donating wood and labour to the project.

The City of Merritt will be donating five large boulders to the project following a unanimous vote last week.

“The garden will be developed in the centre of the NVIT parking lot where there is an open space with large pine trees and a wandering path. The top of the path will be the symbolic beginning of a stream. The stream will flow through the pine trees to an arbor at the bottom of the path,” added L’Hirondelle.