NVIT holds a ceremony to honour children found at Kamloops Residential School

The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology held a ceremony on Monday afternoon to honour the children found on the grounds of the Kamloops Residential School.

The event involved both the Merritt and Burnaby campuses, with hand drummers and prayers delivered to the small in-person crowd and large virtual group.

Coldwater Chief Lee Spahan shared some of his story from residential school with the group echoing a similar thought from Upper Nicola Chief Harvey McLeod.

“We thought with the pandemic that the world changed, we changed, but more changed in the last few days than the last year,” began Chief Spahan. “A whole new understanding, a lot of anger, a lot of hurt, all the emotions that one can relive, thinking about your childhood, your teen years, thinking about your family.”

“There is a lot of tears, but what happened at the Kamloops Residential School, those who have attended, we kind of knew something happened there. We knew, we didn’t talk about it. We were busy taking care of ourselves,” added Spahan.

Chief Spahan also spoke to reconciliation and the need to redefine that term following the discovery.

“The discussions that we’ve had with governments for the last two years around reconciliation, that just took a huge drop. Now we have to redefine what that means so that we as human beings can walk with new dignity, new pride, and really find love for each other, especially ourselves.”

“I ask that you take care of yourself, take care of each other,” asked Spahan of the crowd.

Lower Nicola Chief Stu Jackson questioned what could be found elsewhere around the province.

“The scary thing about it is, this is one place. But I think about (the other residential schools in the area), what are on those grounds,” questioned Chief Jackson. “People take about a forbidden space when I talked to residential school survivors. They were forbidden from being in certain spots. Why?”

“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to heal from this, by getting accountability, responsibility, and transparency and that could amount to reconciliation perhaps,” added Jackson.