(Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

Le Estcwicwéy̓

Tk’emlups te Secwépemc plans day-long event to mark first year since confirmation of unmarked graves

May 18, 2022 | 11:48 AM

TK’EMLUPS — Monday, May 23 marks the one-year anniversary of the confirmation of unmarked graves on the ground of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The confirmation was made public four days later. In honour of Le Estcwicwéy̓, the band will be holding a day long cultural ceremony at the Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc Pow Wow Arbor.

The memorial day begins with a sunrise service at 5:00 am and will be followed by several Secwe´pemc cultural performances including pipe carriers, hand drumming, and jingle dress dancing.

“This is our cultural tradition and protocol. To after the year of sharing and the loss and going through the emotions of grief and loss. And now we are going to be honouring the ancestral children, the missing, the 215. We are going to be sharing that will all that want to come,” said Ku̓kpi7 Rosanne Casmir.

Cultural and mental health supports will be available during the event, which is expected to run until 7:00 pm.

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Casimir was asked how the confirmation 12 months ago has altered reconciliation here in the region and across Canada.

“It was not only our community coming together and communities that had been impacted by the residential school here. But, the fact that the residential school impacted so many non-indigenous people as well. It was the children, it was children that brought us together and that we mourn together and we grieve together,” she said.