B.C. artist’s monument to honour residential school survivors makes cross-country journey

A monument designed by a B.C. artist to honour victims of Canada’s residential school system is making a cross-country journey.

The piece was featured at a ceremony at the Sherman Armoury in Richmond on Tuesday morning.

It began its journey in Port Hardy, making its way to Victoria en route to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. The RCMP, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Canadian Armed Forces are all involved in the move of the black and orange sculpture.

A monument designed by a B.C. artist meant to honour residential school victims which will be going on a cross-country journey from B.C. to Quebec. (CityNews Image)

Stanley Hunt, a member of the Kwakiutl First Nation on Vancouver Island, began designing the large piece last August and finished it in June of this year.

“What we’ve done here is we’ve created history. This is unprecedented in history, for something to have been made by West Coast artists and for it to be given all the support it’s been given,” he said.

Stanley Hunt, a member of the Kwakiutl First Nation on Vancouver Island speaking at a ceremony in Richmond on Sept. 5, 2023. (CityNews Image)

Hunt says the memorial aims to educate people in light of recent announcements of potential unmarked graves being found at the sites of former residential schools across the country, including as many as 215 at what used to be the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

“To bring awareness that this is an absolute fact in Canadian history. A very dark time in Canadian history. But we’re here to represent the children and let them know that they did live a short life,” he said.

The black on the sculpture, Hunt says, represents Canada’s dark history of the treatment of Indigenous peoples. He says the orange represents every child who was forced to attend residential schools. He adds there is a raven seen cradling the seed of life on the sculpture, meant to represent the quest to find the missing children.

A monument designed by a B.C. artist meant to honour residential school victims which will be going on a cross-country journey from B.C. to Quebec. (CityNews Image)

“We did this with the intention of giving our children a voice. We don’t know what these children could have become in their lifetimes. They weren’t given a chance,” he said.

The next stop for the monument is in Regina where it will stop at the RCMP Heritage Centre.