Spirits of Indigenous children won't be freed until VAG memorial comes down: City

The memorial outside the Vancouver Art Gallery to Indigenous children who died at residential schools will be taken down before its second anniversary in late May, the City of Vancouver said on Friday.

Ancient teachings of the three local First Nations — xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tseil-waututh) — say “as long as the memorial remains, the spirits of the children will remain tethered to the items placed on the steps and cannot move on,” it said.

The city repeated an earlier admission that it erred in allowing the memorial to be erected without consulting the local First Nations because it didn’t follow their protocols about such memorials being temporary.

“The city should have acted sooner to bring the memorial to a close once it was aware that the local Nations were not consulted,” it said in an unsigned statement.

The memorial was installed in May 2021 by a Haida artist, Tamara Bell, a few days after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation said ground-penetrating radar had detected 215 possible unmarked graves at the site of a residential school in Kamloops. The Vancouver memorial includes 215 pairs of shoes, one for each unmarked grave.

Bell’s cousin, Desiree Simeon, a Haida woman who has lived in Vancouver for 50 years and works on the Downtown Eastside, took over the maintenance of the memorial three days later, and she and about 20 others have been sitting vigil since.

Some of the original pairs of shoes have been replaced after they were degraded by the weather and their numbers have grown to about 1,000, according to Simeon, who leads a 24-7 vigil of the site. Added to the memorial over the past two years are stuffed toys, banners saying Every Child Matters and Genocide, a fire pit where the guardians can burn wood, conduct ceremonial smudges and hold vigil. The area has been fenced off and there’s a tipi for overnight volunteers, a covered meeting tent, a donations/T-shirt table and a portable toilet.

The city and representatives from each of the three local nations sent letters to the artist
in November, saying the memorial was put up without their knowledge or input, it doesn’t follow their memorial protocols and it has to come down.

They said they haven’t received a written response but that private negotiations are continuing.

“The city of Vancouver remains committed to bringing the temporary residential school memorial on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery to an imminent close in a culturally respectful way” before May 28, it said.

It said it is supported by the local three nations and has invited the artist and the volunteers to a meeting to discuss next steps. The statement said it would be a private meeting to allow a “culturally sensitive and meaningful conversation” and that the city would provide a public update “in due course.”

The statement acknowledged the memorial was “initially installed in response to the profound need for grieving and healing spaces for residential school survivors and Indigenous Peoples.

The city also said it will continue to work with the three local Nations and Urban Indigenous communities to create a permanent memorial and other interim spaces until then.

1. 'Sense of urgency' exists for removal of residential schools memorial at Vancouver Art Gallery

2. Feds give Kamloops nation $12.5 million for healing centre

3. 17 suspected grave sites detected near Alberni residential school: Chief

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