suʔkncuts prayers mural

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission provides the following definition of Reconciliation: 

“Reconciliation is about establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in this country. In order for that to happen, there has to be awareness of the past, an acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour. [1]” 

On May 21, 2012, Tk’emlu̓ps te Secwe̓pemc issued a press release confirming the remains of 215 children who had died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School under questionable circumstances. The deaths of these missing children were undocumented. This site is one of 130 residential schools in Canada, and one of 18 in British Columbia. The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969. For 79 years our Indigenous children from the Interior tribes were forcibly taken from families and sent to Residential Schools to “kill the Indian and save the person.” The government-sponsored church run system of removing children from their families was structured from the Davin Report, a report written by Nicholas Flood Davin (1840-1901), which was commissioned by John A. Macdonald. Davin, an Irish lawyer, journalist, and politician wrote the 1879 report based on U.S. tactics and policy of assimilating the Indians. This report included recommendations to remove Indigenous children from families, therefore breaking their connection to language and cultural influences and making it easier for the industrial schools to assimilate the Indigenous children into white society. The report made detailed recommendations around funding and the use of rationing foods to the families who would not comply with the forced removal of their children.  

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald (1815-1891) played a key role in the creation of the Residential Schools and legislative policies that would be used to control Indigenous peoples of Canada for generations to come.  

Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947), the Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs between 1913 and1932, was responsible for running the Residential School system. In 1920, Scott advocated for and passed an amendment to the Indian Act, making Residential School attendance mandatory for all Indigenous children under 15 years of age. This was physically enforced by the Royal Mounted Police alongside the Indian Agents. Children were forcibly removed from families and driven to these schools in the back of large cattle trucks. Elders here in Okanagan Indian Band can recount that ride clearly and said they were loaded up at the Head of Okanagan Lake and driven to Kamloops. As a result of the amendment, the force enrolment in these industrial schools rose to about 17,000 in all schools and more than 8,000 in Residential Schools by the end of his tenure. When Scott mandated school attendance in 1920, he stated, “I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone…Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill.” 

As this mural is created in a space that is near the Early Childhood Education classrooms, I felt that we must take opportunity to educate and bring awareness to those in these educator roles, so that we do not repeat the past. It is important for educators of all levels to have a baseline understanding and awareness of the atrocities our Indigenous children have faced. This attempt at assimilation has left deep scars in our communities that are still present today and directly impact the socio-economic fabric at all levels of Indigenous families, communities and Nations. The trauma experienced in these schools negatively influenced the family systems, the cultural systems, the language systems, and the identities of our children, which trickled down over generations and has entrenched behaviours linked to physical, mental, spiritual, and substance abuses, all of which has led to numerous physical, spiritual and mental health related issues within our communities. We, as third, fourth and fifth generation survivors of the attempted assimilation and genocide have been left to pick up and make sense of the pieces. This has a profound impact on our children and parents today, and thus when working with our children and parents, this intergenerational trauma should be understood as it is present in many different ways. This impacts how our children learn, engage, and survive in today’s education system. This impacts how our parents and grandparents view and interact with the present day education system.  

The orange flowers are a way to connect to the Orange Shirt Day, a day that was created to discuss and acknowledge to history of Canada and its impacts on the Indigenous Peoples of this land. It is to affirm that “Every Child Matters.” The orange flowers in the mural are a representation of those children who never made it home from those schools, it is a way to acknowledge and remember them so that their experience is not forgotten. It is a way to say we see you. We honour you. We will remember so that we do not repeat this again. They also represent, that our children have still grown into something beautiful despite the atrocities they faced. It’s a reminder that we must do better by all our Indigenous children to create safe, gentle and trauma informed spaces for them grow.  

The image of the boy is of our son suʔkncut estíkʷ Manuel. His first name which is syilx means “seeing of one’s self,” and his middle name which is secwepmec means “to suddenly spark.” He is of both the syilx (on his mother’s side and my side) and secwepmec (his mother’s side) peoples. He is a great great great great grandson of our syilx peoples' last syilxwa̓ lilmixm (High Chief) Johnny Salista (Chilheetza) on his sk̓ʷuy̓ (mother) Csetkwe’s side. His name suʔkncut, comes from his Great Grandfather Ned Louis, also a residential school survivor, and that name is hundreds of generations old. His name I was told from one of our Elders comes from a Chief who was responsible for the 18th century Fish Lake Accord peace treaty between the syilx and secwepmec people. I have used his likeness as a representation of our children who are here today picking back up our language and cultural practices. To show that we are still here, our culture is still here, and our language is still here. He is kneeling in a garden as a way to honour those residential school children. He is a representation of the future of our people, he is the grandson of a day school and residential school survivors, and a great grandson, great great grandson of residential school survivors. He is a 5th generation survivor. He is a representation of breaking cycles and being raised in a way that is loving, caring, patient and grounded in healthier ways of being.   

The lady with the child is a representation of a spirit or ancestor; she is that motherly spirit, that caring, lovingness, of our ancestors looking over those children who never made it home. She is also is looking on in a loving and protecting way to the young boy as a representation of the future of our peoples. The breaking of cycles.  

The nsyilxcen words on the mural “kʷu swiʔ nu̓mtxʔ” roughly translates to “we are beautiful”. This is a reminder to our children that they are beautiful, and it is a reminder to our residential school survivors that they are beautiful. It also serves to remind non-Indigenous peoples as well that our children are not “less than” in this society; they are beautiful. It is a reminder that cultural bias, racial bias, of our indigenous children should not be placed upon them.