Image Credit: SD 73 supplied

By CFJC Today

Reconciliation

NorKam Secondary – home to a symbol of reconciliation

Apr 20, 2022 | 3:07 PM

KAMLOOPS – It sits just outside the main office at NorKam Senior Secondary School in Kamloops, acting as a place for students to gather and reflect.

The elaborate metal and wood bench is the work of Jim McCarthy, a Thompson Rivers University (TRU) welding instructor and is a symbol of reconciliation.

“It was an honour to build it,” said McCarthy. “Normally as trades people, we just build things and move on to the next thing, but I’m standing here looking at it and I’m actually in amazement myself.”

The bench was handed over to the school Apr. 6 and has been welcomed with a smudging ceremony, drumming and prayers.

“We have a very strong Indigenous community within the walls of NorKam Senior Secondary and we have often been referred to as the school of choice for Indigenous students to come work, learn, and play,” said NorKam principal, Jonathan Brady.

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McCarthy inspired the development of the bench following a brainstorming session with Wanda Fletcher, an English First Peoples 11/12 teacher at NorKam. He also collaborated with TRU carpentry instructors Tim Kasten and Tully Journeay. TRU School of Trades employee Arie Groenendyk installed the cedar boards and NorKam student Quentin Robinson built the planter. The project was supported by the Secwépemc First Nation.

Elder Evelyn Camille said, “I just want to give thanks and recognize this school and working together as one nation to keep us strong.”

The work of art includes a steel waterfall with a jumping salmon, a cedar planter as an eagle’s nest to pay homage to the medicine wheel, 17 custom-made feathers – one for each of the communities, a caterpillar to signify new life, as well as two roses as a remembrance of the lost children at the Indian Residential School.

“You can see from the bench that Jim is a master welder, an incredible creator, and beautifully artistic, but what you can’t see in the bench is that Jim is a gifted educator,” said Sheila Monkman, District Coordinator for Trades and Transitions.

McCarthy was recognized with a gift of a deer hide hand drum, the work of District Aboriginal Family Counsellor Peter Michel.