Aamjiwnaang First Nation is unveiling a new monument to honour those who attended residential and day schools.
Chief Chris Plain said it will provide community members and visitors a place to learn and reflect.
"Last year there was a lot of heaviness throughout the community with the findings of the students who attended residential schools, and so community members were looking for something to show our support, to show our acknowledgement of those who went."
As part of the project, the First Nation is including plaques depicting the Seven Grandfather Teachings: Love, Respect, Bravery, Truth, Honesty, Humility and Wisdom.
Plain said following last year's revelations, Aamjiwnaang hosted an event on July 1 at a separate monument dedicated to the legacy of residential schools. During the event, an individual who attended approached the First Nation about wanting to contribute to a larger project.
"This idea came up and we grappled with it for a little while and then it just took off from there." said Plain. "The project will include all the names from our community members who attended inscribed in the work, and it's going to be a very, very beautiful monument and we're looking forward to the unveiling very soon."
Council later hired contractor Tom Klaasen to complete the work.
Plain said they were originally hoping for a June 21 unveiling but the monument is was not quite complete and that they'll be announcing a new date in the near future.
Plain said the piece will feature work from community artists and the handprints of residential school attendees.
"And they're going to be coloured orange and that will be significant of the resiliency that we're still here despite what our parents and great-grandparents went through."
The monument will be located in the park behind the Aamjiwnaang Community Centre.
"We're looking to commemorate the memorial for the residential school survivors but also to show our young people that resiliency that we have here in our community."
In June of 2021, ground-penetrating radar has discovered the bodies of 751 Indigenous people in unmarked graves outside a former residential school in Saskatchewan. The discovery came almost a month after 251 bodies were found in unmarked graves outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.