Residential school vigil at Vancouver Art Gallery coming down

The residential school memorial at the Vancouver Art Gallery is coming down, but there’s controversy around how the work is being done.

The city announced last year that it had asked those behind the installation, dedicated to the Indigenous children who died in residential schools, to bring it “to a conclusion.” It noted at the time the local Host Nations were “not consulted and did not give formal permission” prior to the vigil being put up.

The residential school vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 19, 2023. (Angela Bower, CityNews Image)

Head vigil keeper Desiree Simeon says she’s been working with the city on a path forward for the memorial. However, she claims staff have become “threatening, aggressive, and oppressive,” accusing the city of being “culturally insensitive.”

“The vigil is being dismantled. I was okay with it but the city’s making it a bigger issue than it has to be. We were all okay with it being closed on the 21st when we negotiated for months for the date, but they changed the date to the 19th and the ceremony, they wanted a ceremony,” Simeon explained, adding the city also hired security guards to be at the site.

“Then they implemented fines and they implemented gates. When I asked what the gates were for, the security guard told me all they know is that the City of Vancouver hired them, that’s all they know.”

Fencing up around the residential school vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery as the memorial is removed on May 19, 2023. (Angela Bower, CityNews Image)

Michelle Bryant-Gravelle, senior director of Indigenous Services with City of Vancouver, says communications between staff and volunteers “have always been respectful and culturally appropriate.”

“Our first formal communications with the volunteers, which happened in January, we followed ever step that was suggested by the volunteers, including having a Haida Elder facilitate the meeting. We then implored a third party who is skilled in mediating and holding culturally safe spaces for another meeting that happened in March,” she explained.

“Our city staff … have always maintained respectful relations, sometimes, especially around this topic. It’s hard to hear that the space is coming to a close, especially when all of the grave sites surrounding residential schools have not been explored, and there are still children to be found, located, and identified.”

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Bryant-Gravelle says the city is working under the protocol of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh, adding the fencing is part of that, to ensure the process was “closed.”

But Simeon says nothing the city is doing is in line with protocol.

“They’ll disrespect me on every level. They disrespected me today, they disregarded everything I said,” she told CityNews.

“They’ve emphasized numerous times that they want protocol for everything that’s going on here, hence the three Host Nations being involved. So I called them out on protocol — it’s not protocol to actually make up your own date. May 28 is the date that they should have announced, but they refused that so they gave us May 21st — they took a whole week away.”

Simeon also says items have been removed from the steps. But Bryant-Gravelle refutes suggestions that the city was responsible.

“We had an agreed-upon plan with the volunteers to which the memorial was to be removed in a closed ceremony today, followed by a burning ceremony. Unfortunately, staff arrived this morning to begin work only to find the majority of the memorial items had already been removed overnight,” she told reporters Friday.

In an updated statement following the news conference, the city said it had since learned “the stuffed animals and shoes were taken by volunteers from the steps early this morning.”

FILE – Shoes on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery in honour of the children whose remains were found at a former residential school in Kamloops are pictured in May 2021. (CityNews Photo)

“Out of respect for the spiritual processes that have started well before today around bringing the memorial to a close in a good way this weekend, we ask that anyone who encounters these items to please not engage with them,” the statement continued.

When asked whether she knew where the items had gone, Simeon told CityNews, “who knows, I don’t know.”

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation previously told CityNews it supports the city’s request for the memorial to be taken down, saying in December that it was “time to create a permanent memorial reflective of MST Nations and our cultural protocols.”

According to the City of Vancouver, the memorial was “initiated by Haida artist Tamara Bell in May 2021.” It came after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc confirmed the remains of 215 children were found at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School.

Anyone who spots any of the items taken from the vigil site is asked to contact the city at media@vancouver.ca so they can be moved and prepared for the planned ceremony with Indigenous partners.