Tsleil-Waututh community holding pilgrimage walk to honour residential school survivors

Vancouver -

Members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation are marking Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with a pilgrimage walk to honour survivors of a local residential school.

Attendees are meeting at the Tsleil-Waututh reserve Thursday morning and walking about eight kilometres to North Vancouver's St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School – the former site of St. Paul's Indian Residential School, where more than 2,000 Indigenous children were institutionalized.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation said many community members will be walking the same path their relatives took daily while forced to attend the school.

"When we talk about those in Residential and Day Schools, some may think it goes way back in history, but it doesn't. It goes back to one generation in my family," Tsleil-Waututh Chief Jen Thomas said in a statement. "My dad went to St. Paul's Indian Residential School. I'm grateful he survived. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here today."

B.C.'s last residential school didn't close until 1984, and the last one in Canada didn't close until 1996 – just 25 years ago.

Last month, the Squamish, Musqeuam and Tsleil-Waututh nations announced a joint investigation into the St. Paul's school site seeking answers about the children who attended and never returned home. Public records indicate 12 students, who are currently unidentified, died at the school between 1904 and 1913, the nations said.

Some students who attended St. Paul's were later forced to leave the community and attend the Kamloops Indian Residential School, where hundreds of unmarked graves have been detected by ground-penetrating radar.

Among the attendees at Thursday's pilgrimage walk will be Elder Stan Thomas, a former student at St. Paul's. He said recent news about residential schools has brought back "a flood of memories" of his time there.

"Today, I feel the strength of the community as we took the journey here together to face this day with one heart and one mind," said Thomas.

"I am the youngest of eight children, and I was the last to go to the residential school out of my siblings. I was only six years old."

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation invited the public to line up along 3rd Street to create a wall of protection on the pilgrimage route, and along Cotton Road at Park and Tilford.

The nation said anyone who would like to make a donation to support the community and residential survivors can reach out the Tsleil-Waututh's website.

If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.