Parliament Hill memorial to residential school children taken down
CBC
With winter weather approaching, hundreds of children's shoes that were placed on Parliament Hill following this summer's discovery of unmarked graves at several former residential schools were removed Friday.
The memorial spontaneously sprung up in front of Centre Block and around the Centennial Flame after the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced it had discovered the buried remains of an estimated 215 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
It was one of several memorials with shoes and children's toys that appeared across the country, after the discovery sparked a national reckoning involving Canada's historic and ongoing treatment of Indigenous people.
In Ottawa, the Parliament Hill memorial served as a compelling focal point for last month's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
A spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada told The Canadian Press the items were removed Friday after consulting with national Indigenous groups, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and the Cowessess First Nation, which also reported finding hundreds of unmarked graves at a former residential school in Saskatchewan.
Megan MacLean said they advised the removal of the memorial should be directed by the Algonquin Anishinabeg First Nation on whose traditional territory Parliament Hill sits.
Under the First Nation's guidance, sacred items will be entrusted to Algonquin Anishinabeg elders, MacLean said.
Others will be donated, kept for educational purposes or disposed of in accordance with City of Ottawa guidelines.
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