Calgary’s residential school memorial seeking permanent home – Calgary | 24CA News
To honour all of the residential faculty survivors and the hundreds of youngsters who by no means returned house, the City of Calgary is making a everlasting memorial.
The favoured areas for the brand new memorial are Fort Calgary, Olympic Plaza or metropolis corridor, which is the present location of the non permanent memorial.
The metropolis’s Indigenous Relations Office partnered with the IRS (Indian residential faculty survivors) Elders Advisory Group, IRS working group and native Indigenous neighborhood to ascertain a memorial that’s guided by the seven sacred teachings and by neighborhood ideas.
“This monument will provide a place for people to gather, pay respects, and ensure that the history and legacy of the schools are never forgotten,” mentioned Sherri Kellock, the Indigenous marketing consultant and co-lead of the IRS Memorial Project.
The metropolis says it requested the general public for ideas and targeted on gathering enter from Indigenous neighborhood members and Indigenous-serving neighborhood companies and organizations.
The City of Calgary says its on-line portal acquired 9,512 distinctive guests and 732 contributions. The Indigenous Relations Office additionally hosted in-person engagement periods attended by 185 members of Indigenous communities in and round Calgary.
Phase 1 of the venture was relationship constructing and analysis and began in summer season 2022. It concerned figuring out the situation of the memorial and design themes. The central themes that surfaced by means of the conferences had been therapeutic, ceremony, fact and acknowledgement.
The design parts most well-liked are conventional Indigenous design, accessibility and seating availability, incorporating objects from the non permanent memorial and the inclusion of nature and significant symbolism.
Phase 2 of the venture is predicted to start out later this yr. This stage of planning will contain finishing web site feasibility research, procurement, design, development and blessing of the bottom and development itself.
The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) is offered 24 hours a day for anybody experiencing ache or misery because of their residential faculty expertise.
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