Hundreds show up to vigil for residential school victims

Looking out the front doors of the legislative building Monday evening, you would have seen a huge crowd of people, most of them wearing orange.

They gathered for a vigil to honour and remember the 215 children found in an unmarked grave at a former residential school site in B.C. last week.

Those who attended the vigil watched dancers and listened to drumming and speakers, and at one point many joined in on a round dance themselves.

Behind the crowd, on the front steps of the legislative building, stood a huge shrine made up of children’s shoes, stuffed animals, a few balloons and messages drawn in chalk.

Prairie Crowe didn’t think the vigil or the memorial on the steps would get that big. She’s the one who started the shoes on Saturday.

“I had cried on and off throughout day. It was hard. And then I saw people putting shoes in Sault Ste. Marie and Victoria, and then I was like, ‘There’s nothing for Regina. I have a bag of shoes to donate. Let’s go put them down at the Leg.’ I told my daughter, ‘Let’s go put them down right now,’ ” said Crowe.

She and her daughter put down the first eight pairs and she posted it to social media. She said she just wanted to get 215, one for each of the children found in B.C., but by Monday evening she estimated there were about 600 pairs.

“I did it as a way to express my own feelings. I felt like I had to do something, I wanted to do something,” said Crowe.  She said the shoes are meant to hold the place and represent the space of children.

Crowe said it felt amazing to see the shoes and the response from the community. She started to call it beautiful but then said beautiful is the wrong word.

“It’s beautiful but it’s like everyone has that grief I feel, like they needed to express or wanted to remember these babies and honour these children,” explained Crowe. “It’s overwhelming, it’s amazing. But I know that so many people are affected by residential schools, so it’s not a surprise.”

Crowe’s family for three generations back were residential school survivors. She said her mother had holes in her eardrums from being hit in the head by nuns.
“It just really hurts and I’m happy my own kids didn’t have to go through that, that we didn’t have to do that,’ said Crowe.

Most of the shoes will end up being donated to the North Central Family Centre and Carmichael Outreach in Regina, according to Crowe. But on Monday she was planning to take some of them to the residential school sites in Lebret and outside of Regina.