The Adams Lake Indian Band will be hosting a walk from Kamloops to Chase this weekend, to honour survivors of residential schools and others impacted by those schools.

The event called “Walking Our Spirits Home” will go from Friday to Sunday.

Participants will start at Pioneer Park in Kamloops on Friday morning, and travel over the Red Bridge and down Athabasca Street and Silver Sage Road, crossing an underpass under Highway 5 and ending up at  the Kamloops Indian Residential School for opening ceremonies.

From there, the walk will go 25 kilometres up Shuswap Road, ending up about five km east of the Lafarge bridge.

Walkers will return on Saturday morning to the 25 km marker, and travel another 25 km up Shuswap Road, taking them almost to Chase by the end of the day. Participants will finish the final five km on Sunday morning, taking them to the ALIB graveyard. Closing ceremonies will then be held on Sunday afternoon at the ALIB gym.

The band says all COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed, and participants will be walking in groups of up to 10 people.

Drivers are also told to expect delays on the route where the procession is taking place, saying there will be signage and single-lane traffic control by RCMP.

Details on how to register to take part and a map of the walking route can be found here.

This event comes after preliminary findings last month from ground penetrating radar showed the unmarked graves of 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The graves are at least decades old, and suspected to be those of children who attended the residential school.