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Westgrove Students Support Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation Community


Our hearts and thoughts are with the families and community of Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation as we join them in the mourning of the loss of their children.

In support and response to the devastating news of the discovery of the mass grave of 215 children’s remains on the ground of the former Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Westgrove students participated in four days of a Moment of Silence and the Orange Shirt Day Honor song by Eagle Flight Singers.

Our students felt that Westgrove needed to do something as well to acknowledge and pay tribute to these young lives so they made Orange hearts which students and staff signed and tied 215 orange ribbons on our school’s front fence.

           

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1dd1Fc4H0I


 

Reflections from the School Social Worker on Kamloops Residential School Findings

 

It is with a heavy heart I watch the news and hear the stories of the residential school survivors.  As is true for all of us, the evil that can be bestowed upon innocent children is hard for me to grasp, especially at the hands of supposedly “religious” people following the teachings of who they believe to be their God.  Clearly the children were not viewed as children like their own, and religious fervor in an effort to convert or rehabilitate indigenous people, led to punitive means by which to do so.

 

I too, did not learn anything about residential schools until I was in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba.  It was there, in 1982, that I first learned of our colonization history and the impact upon our indigenous peoples.  I take comfort in knowing that now, Canada’s history, and this ugly shameful part of our past, is being taught to children at all age levels, in an age appropriate manner of course.   As is true for all of us with respect to our own personal trauma histories, if we don’t heal and reconcile with our past, we cannot be a new improved better version of ourselves and move on.  The same if true for each one of us  as we struggle to figure out what can we do, in our corner of the world, how can we participate in reconciliation. 

 

With those thoughts in mind, although I am very aware of my own ethnicity as a Caucasian person, I wish to offer my skills as a therapist, to meet with anyone who may need some emotional support at this time.  You can reach me by email, at nfriesen@pembinatrails.ca  I have an office at Westgrove School and Westdale School, for your convenience.

 

Neta Friesen (Pembina Trails Social Worker)

 

 

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