100 Mile Elementary School kicked off a week of activities celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day with a blanket gifting ceremony.
Principal Crystal-Dawn Langton and Indigenous support worker Penny Reid invited Lisa De Paoli and other members of the 100 Mile chapter of Quilts for Survivors to the school on Monday, June 16, to gift quilts to members of the school community. Reid told the students that De Paoli and the other quilters have spent hundreds of hours and put a lot of love into the quilts.
"The quilts are given to survivors of residential schools, their families and people who had some trauma in their lives. There's probably not many of us that can't say we've had a bit of trauma in our lives," Reid said.
De Paoli thanked Reid for the invitation and told the students more about the program, noting this June marks the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Quilts for Survivors program. Originally started by Thunder Bay's Vanessa Génir in response to the impressions believed to be unmarked graves at many residential schools, the program has since grown from Génir's original goal of 18 quilts to a country-wide effort that has distributed over 7,000 quilts to residential school survivors and their families.
Three years ago, De Paoli, in partnership with Faith Andre the owner of Dancing Quilts, started the 100 Mile branch of Quilts for Survivors. Around a dozen local quilters get together once a month to sew the quilts and so far have given out 360 to Cariboo locals.
"This is our third-year anniversary in June, so we're very pleased to celebrate our anniversary with you and gift some of the quilts we've made," De Paoli said.
One of the first quilts gifted went to 100 Mile Elementary School vice-principal Debbie Dixon, who was visibly emotional to receive the quilt. As roughly a dozen of her students received their quilts, she told the rest of the school the significance of the moment.
"When you're gifted a blanket in our culture, it's a great honour because it signifies the accomplishments you've made in your time. To be so young like the students standing next to me, when you're gifted the blanket, you have to make sure you take care of these blankets," Dixon said. "You put them away, you keep them clean. It's not just receiving something like you'd go buy a T-Shirt. The intention behind it is to understand that you're being honoured."
Typically, Dixon said that blankets are gifted at a pivotal moment in a person's life, such as graduation or receiving a degree. She told the students that receiving the blanket meant the Creator had put that in their path and they would have to live up to the responsibility.
"It's not often you would see this happening, so keep that in your hearts that today you witnessed something very special," Dixon said.
She encouraged the students to thank Reid for her work organizing this event and the others taking place leading up to National Indigenous Peoples' Day. At Dixon's suggestion, De Paoli gifted Reid a blanket as well, who visibly teared up.
Following the ceremony, De Paoli said that when making the quilts, she and the other quilters want to reflect the healing comfort blankets have in many First Nations cultures. She especially wanted to recognize 100 Mile Elementary's indigenous children, leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day and noted Reid was very enthusiastic to help facilitate the event.
"It was like it was meant to be. It just happened at the perfect time and it was a day where I needed some good news and it just happened," Reid added.
De Paoli said the event was a great way to celebrate the local Quilts for Survivors anniversary as well as provide some healing and reconciliation. She noted that the trauma of the Residential School system has been passed down from generation to generation and these quilts are meant to help.
"If we can do some small thing to be able to give some healing and be a small part of reconciliation, then we are very pleased to provide quilts to children," De Paoli said.
Reid said the children were selected to receive the quilts after she reached out to their families to confirm it would be alright. All told, a dozen and a half students received the quilts which Reid described as a powerful moment, noting she was overwhelmed to receive one herself. Both Reid and De Paoli said they think the students felt a sense of pride to receive the recognition.
Before the ceremony, local Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation (TFN) elder Mike Archie spoke to the students about the importance of National Indigenous Peoples Day, held on Saturday, June 21 and blessed them with a drum song.
"In 2008, I was sitting in Vancouver. I was an elected official, but that day we stopped the meeting and saw on the big screen the prime minister of Canada (Stephen Harper) issuing an apology to Indigenous people across Canada," Archie said.
Harper would later go on to launch the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, whose recommendations ultimately led to former prime minister Justin Trudeau declaring June 21 as National Indigenous Peoples Day, amongst other changes such as the normalization of land acknowledgements. Archie said it is important to remember that the TFN and the broader Shuswap Nation they belong to, have made this region their home for generations. As of six years ago, he said there are around 15,000 members of Northern Shuswap bands living throughout the Cariboo.
In the TFN's culture, Archie said children are raised to be the future leaders of their community. He believes that by educating children, indigenous and non-Indigenous, about Indigenous culture and history, it will help further reconciliation for generations to come.
To that end, Reid helped organize several events at 100 Mile Elementary School ahead of Saturday. This included a powwow demonstration on Monday, several different Indigenous activities on Thursday, June 19 and plans to take several students to Eliza Archie Memorial School on Friday, June 20, to attend the Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nations' own community celebration starting at 10 a.m.
"I think it's important for everyone to be proud of where they've come from. This land that we're on belonged to (the First Nations) and we just need to be thankful for where we are," Reid said. "We're visitors, most of us, to this land and we just need to recognize history."
