Over two dozen Residential School survivors were honoured at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School on Orange Shirt Day today.
Tk’emlúps Chief Roseanne Casimir says they were fortunate to have Ken Jensen in attendance today, who was instrumental in getting a commemorative plaque set up at the site.
“He was one of the former students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, and for him it was about him wanting to do something and give back to the community and about his reconciliation and his healing journey,” she said.
Jensen’s niece Jo-Anne Hales added that she was honoured that her uncle was able to get that plaque installed earlier this year.
“After all these years of pain and heartbreak to have the courage to take what money he had and put it towards this monument to honour not just his own healing journey but everyone else that he went to school with, including fellow family members and his friends,” she said. “It took many decades for him to talk to us about it, there are still things he doesn’t talk about today. So I’m proud to see how many people were affected by it today in a positive way.”
Casimir added that Orange Shirt Day is a day for Indigenous people to come together and continue their healing process.
“I would never call it closure,” she said. “I would definitely call it something as recognizing, acknowledging and remembering why we are here today, and the importance of you know making the progress and changing that history for our future generations, which are our children.”
Meanwhile, after spending years confirming the deaths and identities of children who died in residential schools, the names of 2,800 victims were revealed.
Researchers from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation say there were another 1,600 children who died in a Residential School but have not yet been identified.
The names are contained on a 50-metre long, blood-red cloth that is displayed at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.
– With files from Bill Cowen and the Canadian Press
