A Chatham woman is organizing a vigil in Thamesville to honour the 215 Indigenous children that were found buried in an unmarked, undocumented burial site at a former residential school in B.C.
Mary-Kate McTavish is planning a memorial at the Tecumseh Monument in Thamesville on Friday.
McTavish said people are encouraged to bring whatever items they wish to honour the children with, including a pair of children's shoes, teddy bears or flowers.
According to McTavish, the memorial will be done in a drive-thru style in order to ensure that public health restrictions are being followed.
"Due to COVID-19 restrictions, how we'll have it set up is we are going to have volunteers at the site so that people can come to the memorial and drop things off," she explained. "So they will be in their cars, driving up and then the volunteers will be at the site and come to the window, take the things from them and place it at the memorial for them."
Tecumseh Monument (Photo via Google Maps)
McTavish said she wanted to provide a chance for Chatham-Kent residents to be able to grieve for the children, their families and anyone else who has been affected by residential schools.
Residential schools were government-sponsored facilities that operated in Canada between 1831 and 1996. The stated purpose of the schools was to educate and convert Indigenous youth as well as to assimilate them into Canadian society. However, students' culture was heavily scorned within the facilities and many students suffered abuse during their time at the facilities.
It's estimated 150,000 Indigenous children attended the 130 residential schools across Canada and that at least 6,000 youth died during their time at the schools.
In 2013, Orange Shirt Day was created and is held annually on September 30 to promote awareness in Canada about the Indian residential school system experience and the impact it had on the Indigenous communities, recognized as cultural genocide.
McTavish herself is of Indigenous descent. At a young age, her father was taken away from his mom and dad and all his siblings were separated and adopted out to different families. According to McTavish, her father was adopted into a Scottish family in Windsor and it wasn't until late in adulthood that he was able to be reconnected with his siblings.
She said she knows her personal experience is just one small story in part of a bigger picture.
"Because of that, we really have no connection to our Indigenous roots. It's been really painful for my dad to go through that... I feel like a part of myself is missing," she said. "As an Indigenous person, I grieve the loss of these children and what could have been for their families and the broken stories that are all around the world, all around Canada."
McTavish is a teacher and said she teaches her students about residential schools. During the memorial, she will also be handing out flyers with information about residential schools and how residents can educate themselves on the history of the schools and how their impact is still felt today.
"There is a lot of accounts and a lot of things that people don't tend to know about residential schools which is why not only are we paying respect to these children and these families but I'm also handing out resources so that people can get some basic facts about what residential schools were really about and how they can go about educating themselves," she explained. "I want to get our community to understand that this is not actually history as we like to say it is but actually it is still happening. We are having reoccurring trauma because of this."
In addition, everyone who attends will be given an orange ribbon.
The Tecumseh Monument is located on Longwoods Road near Base Line/Victoria Road. The memorial will take place from 9 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. Friday.
McTavish is also encouraging people to use the hashtag #ckhonours215 along with any posts or photos to help spread awareness in the community.